This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your questions, letters and advice for next month's column.
Suzannah asks:
Where do you guys get those magnificent corset body forms from?
Do you mean the dress forms? In many cases they're normal dress mannequins, although modern dress forms can be limited for corsetry because modern forms have modern waists - ie not exactly nipped in!
Alternatively, some people spend a fortune to buy the few remaining real antique Victorian dress forms, which have beautifully nipped-in waists but are tiny - you can make samples for them that look fabulous, but corsets for real people will just fall off them.
The secret is to lace your corsets up on a big pillow (or even two) - the pillow moulds into the shape of the corset and you get a perfect fit. Alternatively, sometimes I'll put a corset with the right waist size on a normal dress form and pad out the bust and hips with scraps of fabric. People have even been known to buy foam or polystyrene-based modern dress forms and butcher or pad them to shape. I'd look for those either on Ebay (there are sellers of new mannequins and tailors' dummies who use Ebay exclusively) or, since you're in the UK, Morplan is another good bet.
Laurie inquires
Hey, where did all the brown go? I found the brown site to be very inspiring, this new site design is so plain and white...
Hi Laurie,
Cathy and I picked out the original brown site design for Foundations Revealed back in the spring. Right before we launched the site, a template came out that would allow readers to view the site on their handheld phones, something the old design didn't allow. This new feature, combined with the many complaints we recieved about how hard the site was to read, caused us to make the quick change to the new, brighter, template.
I'm continuing to make changes and add decorative elements to the site as I have time, so I'd love feedback on how people like the new look. If you're curious, the new flourishes come from an 1884 typeface and book ornamentation catalog, New Specimen Book, from Palmer and Ray, San Francisco.
Natalie wonders:
I really want to make a victorian overbust valentine corset - I think thats what it is called, overbust with a "sweetheart" type neckline, and the hourglass shape. It is pretty much exactly the corset pictured with your review of Jill Salen's book "Corsets: Historical Patterns and techniques". I was wondering if you know of any resource online where I can find a similar pattern, or one I can alter to look similar.
Would just extending the existing top of your corset drafting pattern work? (The one in the master class on the Wardrobe Unlock'd site)
Hi Natalie,
Yes, you can use the corset drafting tutorial on YWU to draft that corset. It goes up to the nipple line presently, and by extending upwards a little, you can achieve the shape you want. However, the piece will go straight up, so you'll find at the fitting stage that you'll want to take a little out at the seam(s) over the bust to make the corset curve in towards the body above the nipple line.
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I know they might not strictly be "necessary", but I just absolutely love them! A bit like corsets, I guess :-D
I do pad out my larger regular dressform when displaying bigger corsets though. But really, you can't beat photographing the item on a real curvy human body!
I have to say that the wonderfully helpful staff at the Fashion Museum in Bath actually directed me to Proportion London (and a few other alternatives) when I emailed them to enquire about display methods. It was incredibly good of them to answer my rather cheeky enquiry!
http://www.ebizdisplays.com/blfedrfoapsi.html
with proportions of 34 21 38 (awesome!) for only $99 !!!!!!!
Total bargain. I am just waiting for a british company to catch on and start manufacturing or stocking these too....
grab them while you can you lucky US folks