Why bother visiting museums for corset patterns?

My passion is to record what actual historical garments are like. It is not enough to look at a portrait and just ‘come up’ with a way of recreating it: it is so much better to understand how a historical corset was actually constructed. The portrait painter was not a costume maker, and when we work just from paintings (or from simplified modern patterns) it can mean we are moving away from the reality of the garment.

In my book I have reproduced patterns of corsets that I find interesting, for you to do with as you like. As a costume maker, I wanted more real references, and it was soon easy to see why this was useful. The book was criticized by some for having too many corded corsets, but when I looked at historical corsets, I found cording everywhere. When I started making costumes in the theater in 1972, we had drawers full of whalebone, but I never remember seeing a corded, or even partially corded corset. By going back to the real garments, we get closer to the truth.

 

Things to keep in mind

I have been allowed to take patterns from corsets in Museum collections in Hereford, Colchester, St. Fagan’s, Leicestershire Museum Services and the Museum of Fashion in Bath. However, I can only speak from my personal experience: while this is a method that works for me, it's not the only method for reproducing the patterns of antique corsets. (It is also a very time-consuming exercise, and quite tiring!)

When taking a pattern from a museum garment, one can aim for accuracy but never be certain that you have achieved it. Being aware of the grain of the fabric in the piece is essential to making a pattern, but you must also understand that time and "moulding to the body" will have twisted the shape of some of the pieces.

Before attempting this method for the first time, I suggest that you have a trial at home first with a corset or small garment to see if you can follow the instructions.

 

Making an Appointment

Contact the museum and find out their access availability. Sometimes you will need to book a long time in advance, up to six months at some museums.

Facilities you will need: space for the garment to be laid out and enough space to spread out your drafting paper. Good light is desirable, but not always achievable, and remember to dress warmly because costume stores are often very cold.

You will not be allowed to touch the garment – at all! It will usually be laid out for you and then if you need to turn it over, the museum staff member will usually do this for you.

Equipment you will need to bring:

• Camera, with the ‘Flash’ switched off
• Graph paper: I prefer 1’’ squared paper. I am old and grew up with inches, I think in inches, and most UK corsets measure in inches
• A 12’’ ruler, I prefer plastic and non-transparent
• Pencils: no pens at all
  
• Eraser
• Pencil sharpener: one of those enclosed ones that catches all of your shavings
• Fabric measuring tape
• Protractor
• Flexicurve (optional, but may be useful)
  
• Magnifying glass
• Notebook
• You will need refreshments - the concentration makes you hungry and thirsty! But you will not be allowed to have them with you in the same room as the artifacts.
  

 

At the Museum

Once you are settled in, note down the museum's accession number (each artifact will have a unique identifying number), and any provenance of the garment. I often photograph the label.

Then photograph the corset, including any details such as eyelets, and any details that you may not have time to draw during a pattern taking session.

Then I note down the fabric type, how many stitches to the inch, the number of stitches if the eyelet is whipped, noting down anything that strikes me as unusual.

 

Patterning the Corset

After the photographs have been taken, I set to patterning the corset, usually starting with the CF (centre front) panel.

1. Hold your ruler above - not touching - the corset, and measure the length of the CF. If you're lucky this could be a straight line – you can check this by looking at the weave of the fabric. (In these photographs I have placed the ruler on my corset, as I didn't have enough hands to do the action and take the photograph!)

2. Measure at every inch, perpendicular from the CF line (again, holding the ruler above the corset) and mark the measurements on the graph paper with a dot.

3. Join the dots, and if there are any irregularities, double check.

When drafting a curve I may take a measurement every ¼’’. Sometimes I may hold a flexi curve above the shaped bit to echo the curve. I sometimes use a protractor to check angles.

It is always a good idea to use the axis lines on the graph paper as your grain.
Note: If you are ever using any of my patterns, this isn't always the case, so watch out for the grain line! (The publishers wanted my patterns to fit on two pages and avoid the ‘Gulley’ in the middle, so I had to move them to fit.)

 

Marking the Details and Making a Key

Once you have drawn one panel, mark the bones, eyelets, flossing, and so on, all in a fine clean pencil line. If it becomes like a map drawing, you may need to create a ‘key’ to identify which line indicates stitching and which line is a bone.

The only balance points that would appear on this original pattern would be those that indicate when one panel falls short of the next panel.

After one panel is noted, move onto the next panel, after making sure you have a correct grain.

When you have plotted out all of the panels mark them with TOP at the top and number them. I usually work from CF=1, SF=2 working around to the CB. You only need to take the pattern from one half of the garment.

Corsets are usually symmetrical, but at the CB, the eyelet placement is usually different on the two sides. This is where your camera and notebook are helpful.

 

Double Check the Details

While in the museum, holding my measuring tape over the corset, I compare the length of the seams on my plotted pattern to double check that they are the same length as the original corset. If there are differences, I then refer back to the corset and re-draw.

I mentioned how tiring all of this is – you wait and see! The first corset you do is exhausting. I never leave a corset thinking I will finish it the next day, as I have found I need to re-check everything which takes almost as long as starting it all over again!

 

Making the Toile

So, having made my pencil drawn pattern I go home.

I trace over this pattern with tracing paper, and cut the tracing paper out to use as a pattern, but without seam allowances.

I then lay it on calico, cut it out with 5/8’’ (1.5cm) seam allowances (having pencil drawn all of my seam lines) and machine it together with a long stitch. This toile is usually correct, but it may give me a few queries, which I solve by referring to my pattern. At this stage, I'm making the toile in the same size as the original.

When I am happy with the shape of the toile, I mark balance marks onto the toile, which I then transfer carefully to the original pattern.

 

Fitting and sizing

Today we buy our bras by measurements on the labels, but I can create a toile that measures 32’’ over the bust points and that corset may fit a women with a large frame and small breast and also a women with a small frame and large breasts.

Before 1850 there was little mass production of garments. Most were commissioned and there was usually a fitting stage, so most corsets are very individual. In my profession I work with lots of women, all of whom are used to me saying "Could you just try this on?"

I also look at pictures from the time the corset was worn, to see how it was worn. With a toile, a person and references it is amazing what you can realise and learn. Often cartoons of the period tell you more about how garments were actually worn than fashion plates.

I do not make the corset fit a figure, I find someone who fits the corset and through that learn about the corset. For my own curiosity I then try to find a woman whom it might fit. This is the Doll’s corset from Hereford Museum c.1900, made up to double the original measurements, and it does (as I thought) make up to fit a small woman.

Once you have your pattern and your toile, you can decide how you want to alter it to fit a person. Being able to do this comes with experience, and I think one needs to make a few mistakes in order to learn. Being a good corset maker means that you problem solve, you think ahead, you consider different options and eventually you build up a repertoire of experience that helps you make logical decisions.

Good luck!

 

 

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