MyFaireLady

Well, not THE Effigy Corset, just my own interpretation of it. I decided somewhere between making the French Farthingale and starting on the Ditchley Portrait Dress to make a suitable corset to help create a proper silhouette under the late-period clothes I was aiming to make.

In looking at other costumer’s versions of the Effigy Corset, I decided I would be better off starting from a pattern rather than drafting my own. I thought it would be quicker and less work. Well–I lucked out in that a friend gifted me a copy of the Tudor Tailor’s pattern for three corset styles: the one on QEI’s effigy, the one that Pfaltzgrafin Dorothea Sabine von Neuberg was buried in plus one they created from looking at the portrait of Elizabeth Vernon à sa toilette.

But that’s where my luck ended. I’m not a perfect size anything, so I had to do quite a bit of adjusting so that it may well have been quicker to just go ahead and draft the thing from scratch. Hmm….no, I take that back. I think that even with all the fiddling I did, drafting the straps by myself on myself would have been tricky enough, so I guess it’s good that I used a ready-made pattern and made adjustments.

So that’s what I did and here are the results. Click on the thumbnails to see the BIG picture!

Here you see the basic pattern pieces (except that I forgot to take pictures of the straps. You’ll see those later). Note that I made mine with two openings, front and back. It makes it easier to dress myself and it also allows for weight fluctuations.

And here you see the pieces with boning channels (I used heavy-duty duct ties) laid out in blue chalk. There are three layers: the fashion layer (silk), a cotton backing for the silk in a light cotton, and a cotton canvas. I would have liked to use linen, but I didn’t have any. Maybe for v 2.0 sometime in the future.

So here is what all the pieces look like stitched together and the boning channels stitched down. The edges at the seams are serged as are the straps and armscye (yea, I cheated–why don’t I feel bad about that?) but the tabs were left raw since they will be encased by some bias tape. Note that the edges that will receive the eyelet holes are folded over onto themselves for added strength and rigidity.

After the pattern pieces got stitched together, it was time to add some decoration! I cut some strips of the same fabric that will be used to bind the edges and placed those between the bones along the center back and center front.

I decided to add some machine embroidery to the tape to both pretty it up a bit and to help with eyelet placement. I marked out where I wanted the holes to end up and just adjusted the embroidery pattern as needed. I had intended to use a nifty gadget I bought that makes sewn eyelets on my machine so that I could avoid using metal grommets. However, being that the bones needed to be in their channels and the edges finished before I could make the eyelet holes, I couldn’t figure out a way to pivot the fabric while on my machine in order to use said nifty gadget. Waaaaaah! So I used metal grommets, which fortunately match the fabric somewhat so that they’re not so glaring. Again, I’ll try to work around that for v 2.0 …when I get to it…if I do…

So this is what the almost-finished corset looks like. Not too bad, except– remember the fiddling I did to the pattern so that it would fit me? Well, I apparently didn’t fiddle enough. I had an opportunity to wear the corset at a gig and it fit TERRIBLY. It kept riding UP. To fix it I had to either lower the decolette or cut the tabs about 1.5 inches higher so that the whole thing would sit lower. It seemed to fit at home but with all the moving around, it just wouldn’t stay where I thought it would. It’s possible that the straps are also affecting the fit. Once I finish the Ditchley gown, there will be a lot of weight on my hips, so that will possibly make a difference, I don’t know.

Back to the drawing board…out came the seam ripper and off came the binding at the tabs. I decided it made more sense to redo the tabs rather than the top. And just to be sure, I cut them a bit higher than I would have, figuring it won’t hurt and it might help.

And this is the finished product! See how much higher the tabs are cut now? I put it on and it seems to fit well, but it felt ok before, too, so I may just have to put on the whole kit & caboodle and wear it for a few hours to tell for sure.

So there you have it! I still have to add some lacing to the back which will help attach the French Farthingale to the corset to further help distribute the weight of the skirts. But not now. Now to bed. G’nite, all!

UPDATE! 4-20-08: So I had the opportunity to wear this corset under my garb at a benefit 5-course period feast I was asked to host as QEI last night. The feast was held to raise funds to benefit a local food pantry. So anyway, I wore the corset for about 5 hours in all. At first, I thought I would continue to have trouble with the thing riding up, but the corset seemed to settle in as the evening continued. One thing I did not like, though, was that the straps kept wanting to show on the sides. I’ll need to see what I can do about that, since they don’t show when I’m doing fittings at home. I think it will be solved by moving the point of attachment out a bit more or by just doing away with them altogether. SACRILEGE! I know, but what else can I do? I’ll tell you more as it happens.