Foundations Revealed 5 Senses Competition - dress diary part 4

Meantime, I had a burlesque event to go to, so I decided to wear the paper version. It looked great with tailored pants and I felt pretty snappy, until my inherently introverted nature kicked in and I took it off (and not even a photo to show for it!). What it made me realise though, was that actually, this corset was really good in its own right, and the fact that it was made in paper meant it fitted the brief perfectly: it was unexpected to feel paper instead of fabric, it sounded different due to the stiffness, and of course it looked different, as the paper had caught the feed dog while sewing, scratching the print and creating a slightly distressed texture.

I still wanted to make the fabric version, and when the material arrived I was so excited! It was perfectly to scale (I had included a 5cm square to check in blue), and the colours and resolution were lovely. Due to the width of the cotton sateen, I was able to get two full prints in one length, it didn't even use a metre of fabric, and if I make a mistake sewing it up, I have a spare! I am also really interested to see if the corset will be slightly bigger given that fabric will give.

Ta Daaaaaa!

A comparison between the paper corset and printed fabric. There is a slight colour difference, but I put that down to different printers.

But. On December 31^st I had a hysterectomy, which means that I have had to rest, and have now had the longest break from sewing that I have had in years. Meanwhile, the fabric is sitting on my sewing table patiently waiting to be born.

My machines sitting forlorn....

I can, however, sit at a computer for short periods of time, so I have been working on making a digital pattern for sale, fully graded with different cup sizes:

C Cup 

B Cup

So my big question is, will I be fit enough to sew it before the completion closes? Or do I submit the paper version, which isn’t as polished in terms of its construction as a fabric one would be, but on the other hand, perhaps it fits the brief better?

Foundations Revealed 5 Senses Competition - dress diary part 3

Being me, I got a bit excited as I was sewing it up, so decided to do it all properly, using boning channels and waist tape, a steel busk and eyelets, and spiral boning. I bound the edges with cotton bias and tried it on. Woop! It was great! Very firm, due to the inflexible nature of paper, but the shape over the bust was lovely, and in spite of the materials, was pretty comfortable! I was really happy with the shape the figures created over the bust and the way the waist is accentuated. 

Check out the pattern matching on the seams! That bottom and leg are perfect! Not bad for a material as inflexible as paper :) 

I am super happy with the shape over the bust.

My original vision was to get the fabric printed at Spoonflower, and after a lot of trial and error, I managed to upload the file. Due to the masking of so many versions of the painting, the file was enormous, and it took me a while to work out how to reduce it enough without loosing resolution. I chose the cotton sateen fabric because it is strong, and has a nice sheen. My plan was to back it with a lightweight iron-on woven interfacing, and line the corset with coutil.

Ready for printing - I hope!

When I committed to my layout, I was so nervous, hoping I had got the resolution right and the scale! Then I had to wait the 5 weeks for it to arrive, knowing that if it was wrong, it was too late to redo!

Foundations Revealed 5 Senses Competition - dress diary part 2

First I had to find an image. I Google searched ‘5 senses painting’ and after playing with a few, Austrian painter Hans Makart’s “Die Fünf Sinne”, or “The Five Senses” caught my imagination. The oil painting, completed in 1879, consists of five panels depicting the 5 senses. The women are voluptuous and sensual, exactly how I see corsetry. I like the moody, fleshy colours, and I knew that when sewn together, they would loose the obvious visual of naked bodies and would transform into patterns and shapes altered by the minds eye. In addition, the fact that the painting was created in panels lent itself to the panels in corsets.

Hans Makart “The Five Senses” 

The painting is in the public domain as it’s copyright has expired, and I felt that along with editing, I could legitimately use the image.  I have played with using paintings on corsets, making the design in Illustrator, filling each shape with images, and to test the pattern matching, printing them on paper half scale and sewing them up to fit on my half scale mannequin (below). This time though, I decided to try it full scale.

Testing Half scale pattern matching and images. I made these half scale mannequins as they are really hard to buy in Australia and super expensive to import.

I am facilitated by kitsch religious imagery, and I love the colours.

The shape of the corset was really important. I wanted it to have drama, and reflect the feminine curves of Eve as represented in the painting. With this in mind (and also on the advice of Foundations Revealed suggesting defining a ‘house style’), I have started curving the bottom edges of my corsets, and it worked really well with the images.

Developing my house style: the curved hemline. C cup corset.

This corset is layered with vintage doilies, lace and the embroidery form a disintegrated silk shawl. I also worked back into the layers with embroidery thread. This is also trailing the B cup.

I have found over bust corsets more challenging to fit, so I push myself in the areas that I want to conquer. Even though the corset is covered in naked women, I didn’t want to the garment itself to be seen as ‘rude’ or smutty. The cups fully cover the bust and like flying buttresses, swoop up elongating the body and mirroring the long forms of the figures. The pattern is a variation of my most successful pattern that I worked on for 6 months. I scanned the original pattern into Illustrator, and made the changes digitally. I toiled the shapes in calico until I was happy, then imported the painting and used masks to make each panel. It was quite tricky getting the pattern matching working as there is so much detail and the panel shapes are quite curvy.

Initial design stage.

I printed the pieces onto regular paper, and was faced with the thought that if I was going to try it on, it would need to be stronger. I had a roll of Visofix, so it seemed logical to bond the paper to calico, which was very easy to do (except that the iron removed some of the printing ink, so needed to use a pressing cloth!).

images: printed paper then bonding

Printed on paper.

Bonding to calico and cutting out ready to sew!

Foundations Revealed 5 Senses Competition - dress diary part 1

I have always loved corsets, and ever since I was a teenager I have been fascinated by underwear construction. I have dabbled in corset construction, but my focus was always on comfort, so often I avoided boning altogether. So, it could be argued, not really corset making at all! 

A 'corset' made of flowers for a florist exhibition. I used water balloons on the ends of the stems to keep the flowers alive!

I spent many years making wedding dresses, and while corset structures featured, they were still lightweight, and it was some time before I learnt about using fishbone instead of Rigilene. Even then, I was still focusing on comfort – the damage from too many Rigilene induced injuries clouding my perspective!

An early version of building corset structures into a dress using Rigilene. Unfortunately, Rigilene bends out of shape and doesn't have the necessary support.

Then a few years ago, after I was given a lovely modern corset, my interest in their construction was renewed, and I started looking into proper construction materials. I fell in love with spiral boning; it was aesthetic and comfortable. As a pattern maker, I prefer to make my own patterns, but in order to understand the fit, I bought several patterns hoping to understand the negative ease and shaping. I was never happy with the results, I struggled with the spiral tipping, and as a busy life took over, I let it go again.

This is a corset I machine embroidered, which helped support the structure.

Then last year it hit me again, only this time, with a force, and I decided to conquer my understanding of corsets. Being somewhat obsessive, and also loving paraphernalia, I equipped myself with a playground of materials and tools and was able to really immerse myself in the process and not worry about having to stop to buy supplies.

Building my tool collection!

And so it began: I was happy with my results, learning from each one, and tweaking the patterns and construction. I experimented with different body shapes. I listened to what women wanted from their corsets, and applied it to each progressive pattern. Having good tools on hand meant I achieved a quality of finish that was professional and polished.

I joined Foundations Revealed early last year, and was determined to enter the competition. My preference is for the Victorian silhouette, so the 5 Senses theme was the logical entry for me. In my research, I really liked the modern take on corsets, particularly the use of digitally printed fabrics, and the pattern matching challenges that were then presented. I love working on Illustrator, and have been exploring pattern making on this program as a cheap CAD alternative to more expensive pattern making software. So I knew early on how I would like to approach the design.