Entry for Foundations Revealeds competition: The peacock corset

This is the UK dress diary for my entry for Foundations Revealeds competition 2013: Ornamentation. The corset was produced in december 2010, but as it fits the ornamentation category so well, i decided to give it a go.

The technical specifications:

• single layer coutil
• 7 mm spiral steel boning at all seams
• 7 mm spring steel at center back closure.
• Thais silk fashion layer
• 151 peacock feathers
• 26 metal eyelets
• satin band

Construction:
I used an old self-drafted pattern, with a discrete overbust shape, and no reduction at the waist, as it was to be used for new year eve dinner, and I'd like some comfort while wearing it. Using the pattern as a guide, I planned the position of the peacockfeathers. The feathers were placed, so the eyes of each feather was shown to its best advantage.

 The pattern used for the corset.

Each feather was then cut, so the eye and a little rim of brow flowy featherparts were kept. Each feather was then sewn on to the olivegreen thai silk, -a leftover from my wedding gown. In order to keep and overview of the project, each feathers position was marked with a pin. Each feather was then sewn on with approximately 5-7 stitches around the stem of the feather.

A feather sewn on to the silk. discrete stitches have been used around the stem to secure the feather.

After having sewn on most of the feathers I realised, that the placement pattern was not good. All though all feathers were displayed as well as possible, it never created a whole. It was a corset, with peacock feathers on, not a peacock corset.

 The original placement of the feathers did not work as a whole.

So I removed all exept the lowest line of feathers, and fiddled with the next layer, until I had a design I liked. After that, it was a simple question of stitching feather on. I used different sizes of feathers depending on the diameter of the corset where I was working. The big and medium feathers were used on the hip and chest, while the small feathers were used at the waist.

 

 The two lowest lines of feathers, with an overlap that shows of the feathers, while still creating a whole.

As the stomach and back area was getting done, I had to decide on the placement of the feathers on the chest, as they had to line up in a nice way, in order to expose as few ugly stems as possible. In order to keep an overview, I regularly mounted the silk/featherlayer on mu dress form, to assess how everything was working together.

I decided on changing the directions of the feathers gradually, so they pointed away from the center of the chest. Thus, the last stems wound be covered with only three well placed feathers.

 

The almost covered fashionlayer. The feather eyes are almost covered by the brown fluffy part of the surrounding feathers. 

After the feathers were all sewn on the fashion layer, it was time to finish the structural layer. All seams were ironed open, and covered with a tube for the 7 mm spiral boning.  At the back metal eyelets were placed with more eyelets towards the waist.

 

Finally the fashionlayer were sewn together with the structural layer, all done by hand. At the back the fashionlayer overlaps the eyelets, so the satin band is kept away from the feathers, and stress them as little as possible.

After assembling everything I trimmed the feathers lightly, in order to make the corset less fluffy and show off the eyes of the feathers.I tried to trim the feathers as discretely as possible.

And the peacock corset was done! 

New Years Eve Dress 2012/2013

This is the new years eve dress for 2012/2013! Finish a whole 24 hours before it is to be used...
This year the dress consists of a black corset decorated with lace and rhinestones, together with a chiffon skirt. As a new feature for me, the back is covered with a modesty panel.

The corset consists of a single layer of black coutil, with a 2 cm band functions as a waistband, and self-fabric bands for the wires. The wires themself are made from 7 mm spiral steel boning and simple 7 mm spring steel boning. The edges are finished with a simple black cotton biastape. The coutil was cut back when I made the green underbust, but have been packed away while we moved in 2012.

In order to decorate the corset, I used two different types of lace; a burgundy lace, and burgundy and gold lace, found in City Sycenter at Valby, that had loads of stuff on reduced prices, as they were closing. Normally the golden/burgundy lace is 900 dkk (160 $) pr meter, but I found a bucket full of leftovers, for 50 dkk (9 $) a piece. And yes, I did almost empty said bucket.
As a final touch, I gued on 175 preciosa rhinestones i two golden colors. Most people know swarowski, but apparently preciosa should be just as good. I found my rhinestones on rhinstene.dk.

In order to create a whole outfit, I made a simple skirt using 4 meters of 140 cm wide black chiffon. It was cut into four pieces, and sewn together forming a large tube. It was then attached to a 3 cm wide black elastic, and the edges finished with a rolled hem.

Finally I tried something new, that I have wanted to try for some time now: A modesty panel.
When closing a corset, the skin is pushed towards the back, and often forms an unsightly meatfold. As this is a rather unflattering sight, it is often covered with a modesty panel. In its simplest form a modesty panel is a piece of fabric covering the back, but it can be made more sofisticated:
On Electra corsetrys homepage I say a version, that does not wrinkle or fold in any direction. The panel was held in shape with wires both vertical and horisontical. The panel was futhermore held in place, by a band, where the lacing goes through. I have always avoided modestypanels because the twist and turn, but this design was so good I had to try it out for myself. As it happens, they are quite easy to sew.

The decoration is heavily influenced by Sparklewren bespoke corsetry. Her use of lace and rhinestones are extremely elegant, and the quality of her corsets very high. Lucky for me, she is a writer at Foundations Revealed, and she have covered most of the basic techniques for this corset.
The new years eve dress is thus very much a product of my main inspirations from 2012, and required all the skills I learned this year. Very fitting for a NYE dress, don't you think?

Hvide ærmer til den ternede kjole

En interessant ting fra viktoriatiden er, at de altid brugte aftagelige kraver og falske ærmer eller ærmekanter for at skåne tøjet. Fænomenet fandtes hos både mænd og kvinder, hvor aftagelige dele både mindskede sliddet på tøjet, og gjorde det nemmere at vaske de dele der blev snavsede hurtigst.


Til min kjole skal jeg bruge en krave og et sæt underærmer til de brede pagodeærmer. Jessie Ratledge har samlet en række billeder af originale ærmer og kraver her. Min hovedinspiration er fra tre kilder:  Det øverste billede er fra bogen 'Fashion and Costumes from Godey's Lady's Book Including 8 Plates in Full Color' af Stella Blum: "Sleeves of a delicate imported muslin; with plainer insertion it could be worn for mourning (9/54).

Nr 2 kilde er fra the Met i New York, der heldigvis har en hel del ting lagt online. Linket fandt jeg via Jessie Ratledges Pinterest nævnt ovenfor.

  

Endelig har jeg fra bogen 'Patterns of fashion 2' af Janet Arnold fundet et mønster på hvordan jeg kunne lave mine egne ærmer:

Samlet blev resultatet dette, et simpelt ærme med 3 folder og blonde langs manchet-kanten. Der er nævnt flere forskellige måder at holde ærmerne oppe: En tidlig version af elastik (ala skåneærmer!), syning fast til foeret af ærmet og på billedet fra the Met ovenfor kan man se snører der sandsynligvis har været brugt til at binde ærmerne fast over albuen.

Jeg har i første omgang valgt at sy ærmerne fast i foeret på yder-ærmet, da det var mindst tidskrævende. Men planen er, at korte ærmerne ned og sætte elastik i dem. Det er drøn sejt at der var elastik i vikotriatiden!

 

Den runde krinoline

Som nævnt tidligere, har jeg lavet mig en rund krinoline, der skal gå under den ternede kjole. Det er meget fint, men desværre viste det sig, at krinolinen ikke fungerer ordenligt: Den giver en forkert silhouet!

Her ses krinolinen og petticoaten i den version den startede ud med. Som sådan en meget rund silhouet, men med både petticoat og kjolestof ud over (det har jeg desværre ikke et billede af), blev silhouetten meget høj med næsten lodrette sider.

Efter lidt grublen blev de to øverste stivere indsnævret, så radius på dem blev henholdsvis  28 og 38 cm. Et være puslearbejde, hvor hvert lodrette bånd skulle pilles af og genplaceres på de indsnævrede stålringe.
Det håbede jeg så løste problemet, men så let skulle det ikke være!
Her ses krinolinen, petticoaten og med kjolestoffet over. Og det er tydeligt at der stadig var et problem! Overkanten var nu rettet pænt til som jeg ville have den, men den nederste del af siderne gik nærmest indad.
Meget problematisk.

Det endelige forsøg blev modeleret med petticoaten og yderkjolen hen over: Nederste stiver forblev uændret, så blev øverste stiver sat i med nåle, og silhouetten testet med petticoat og yderskørt ud over. Så kom næste stiver i, osv.
.

 Det færdige resultat er præcis det jeg vil have. Omend yderskørtet stadig skal lægges op...

Den ternede kjole

Så er der ved at være styr på overdelen, hvor jeg har fået fikset de sidste ting:

• Belægning på front og halsudskæring
• Lækre matchende knaphuller 
• 14 matchende knapper
• Underkanten, der er lagt på med matchende skråbånd.

Alt i alt er jeg rigtig glad for resultatet:

 Overdelen set indefra. Her kan man se både belægningen på fronten og kraven, samt skråbåndet nederst på overdelen.

 Detaljen med at bruge skråbånd til at lægge op med er tidskorrekt for perioden. De kræver en del håndsyning, men processen er hyggelig og resultatet giver en fed mavefornemmelse! Egentlig burde jeg også sætte et taljebånd i, og sætte stivere i hver lodret syning, men der har jeg ikke gjort ved nogen af mine viktorianske kjoler. Det er desværre en uvane, men pt sidder overdelen så pænt, at der ikke er nogen grund til at bruge tiden og materialerne på det.

Lidt billeder fra processen:

Skråbåndet på nederste kant er syet fast med symaskine på den ene kant, foldet og derefter syet fast i hånden. På den måde kan jeg sørge for kun at sy igennem det inderste lag stof i overdelen, så syningen ikke er synlig udefra. Smart!

 Knaphuller er syet med min nye symaskine, der har flere forskellige knaphulsmodeller at vælge fra. Her har jeg valgt at bruge en model der runder i begge ender.

Den ternede kjole -overdelen

Her er så begyndelsen til overdelen på den ternede kjole.

Mønsteret er TV440 Pagoda bodice fra Truly Victorian, som jeg også baserede den brune promenadekjole på. Denne gang har jeg dog holdt mig helt til mønsteret, og de eneste modifikationer er derfor dem, der søger for at mønsteret passer specifikt min krop.

Truly victorians TV440 Pagoda bodice

 Overdelen består af en ternet bomuld i hvid, mørkegrå og dueblå, som er foret med en ensfarvet dueblå bomuld, der matcher. Man kan se den dueblå farve på indersiden af ærmerne. PT mangler overdelen at få lagt en belægning hele vejen rundt i kraven, foran og i forneden, at få lavet knaphuller og isyet knapper.

I Stofogstil i Roskilde fandt jeg nogle simple metalknapper beregnet til at blive overtrukket med stof, og dem er planen at bruge hele vejen ned foran. Endelig skal jeg sy en aftagelig hvid krave, der får en smule blonde på, og nogle aftagelige hvide inderærmer, så jeg ikke viser mine bare arme inde under de her løse ærmer.

Den ternede kjole -en start

Så fik jeg endelig taget et par billeder af mit næste projekt. 

Jeg er gået igang med en 1860'er kjole, som kan bruges om dagen. Med den kommer jeg til at have en indendørskjole, en promenadekjole og en balkjole. Så burde jeg kunne klare det meste til viktoriansk reenactment!

Her er de første skitser fra min elskede skitsebog. Bogen går tilbage til 2009, og indeholder stort set alle mine skitser af kjoler jeg drømmer om at lave. Nogle ting er realistiske, andre helt hen i vejret.Hvad der dog er meget almindeligt, er at der sammen med en designskitse er beregninger og konstruktionstegninger, som for mig er en stor del af skitsestadiet. Rent udseende giver ikke mening for mig, jeg skal have en ide om hvordan jeg kommer der til. Nederst på skitse-siden her, kan I se skitserne til den cirkulære krinoline der skal være under skørtet, sammen med skitser af petticoaten.

Projektet her startede allerede i foråret, og jeg nåede derfor faktisk at færdiggøre både krinoline og petticoat, som I kan se nedenfor.
Petticoaten afviger fra den oprindelige skitse i, at den har en ekstra bræmme for oven, der er 2xomkredsen af krinolinen, ligesom den nederste bræmme. Dette skjuler stiverne i krinolinen bedre, og giver en blødere silouet.

 

Jeg glæder mig til, at huset er tættere på færdigindrettet. Så kan jeg få tid til at sy skørtet, og alle de andre ting, der hører til projektet: skærf med sløjfe og blonder, kyse med blomster, parasol med flæser... Til det moderne øre lyder de ting her forfærdelige, men på sådan en kjole her, passer de virkelig ind!