Nora Waugh`s Pattern & Illustration

This is the dress I have chosen from Nora Waugh`s The Cut of Women`s Clothes 1600-1930 (1968 Faber and Faber) It resembles the dress I saw at the study trip to Hampshire Museum Center best. A very similar dress can be seen in Janet Arnold`s Patterns of Fashion 2. (1964 Macmillans Publishers ldt) This particular dress is also described in Costume in Detail 1730 - 1930  p. 237-239 by Nancy Bradfield (Eric Dobby Publishers) I intend to use these two descriptions as reference when working with The Afternoon Dress 1878.

The inspiration

I liked the thought of cutting a dress like this on a stand because it seems a challenge to create a slim and eastetic waistline without a seam in the waist

It is noticeable how the bodyshape of the stand differs from the shape of the dress, as the stand fits the dress by the shoulders.

First and Second Plan.

09.03 - 19.03

Final fittings and shooting

The Perfect day

Week 1       21.03. - 25.03

Mon: Tutorial with Dexter

Tue: Pop

Wedn: Tutorial with GC

Write learning agreement and work plan. -hand in.

Gather research

Set up blog.

Week 2      28.03. - 01.04.

Start cutting afternoon dress 1878 Nora Waugh

Tue; Pop

Thurs; year group meeting.

Fri:  Year group meeting / `Little Black dress`

exhibition in Portsmouth.

Week 3     04.04 - 08.04

Tues: Finnish afternoon dress 1878 Nora Waugh /Pop

Wednes: year group meeting.

Take measurement, make basic block for Corsets

Draft corset patterns

Fri: sew toil

Week 4     11.04 - 15.04

Mon: Sew toil

Start essay

Week 5     18.04 - 22.04

Thurs: Finish essay

Week 6     25.04 - 29.04

Tues. first fittings/pop

Week 7     02.05 - 06.05

Make toils for 2. Fit.

Thurs: 2. fitting

Week 8     09.05 - 13.05

Mon: Hand in essay

Cut jacket from Janet Arnold

Week 9    16.05

hand in

Second plan 17^th of May

39 working days before 1^st of August

18 working days after 1^st August.

Left to do

1)    Princess dress: check pattern, and mark it. Photo, diagram and text for hand in file.

Estimate: 1 day

2)    1890 Corset:  clean copy of pattern and mark it. Finish toil, dye and trimming. Photo diagram and text for hand in file.

Estimate 4 days

3)    1917 Corset: basic block + first patterndraft. Make toil 1^st (2^nd) fitting.

Clean marked pattern + diagram in file.

Estimate 8 days

4)    Bodice on stand:  cut and finish pattern. Clean marked pattern in file.

Estimate 10 days

5)    Blog: clean up all post drafts to make it accessible and understandable.

Planning

Reflection

Evaluation

Estimate 5 days.   

Tight lacing

I have bought myself a book for the summer holyday. The Corset, A Culturel History. by Valerie Steele.
Just skimming it I found out that there are women today who wear tight laced corsets everyday in order to get as small a waist line as possible. (That must be considered as body-modification a long the line with scaring and `growing´ horns and beyound my comprehension).

http://www.cathiejung.com/Galleries.htm 

But the interesting thing with this, is that the actual health damage from extreem tight lacing can be recorded and compared with doctors journals from the Victorian time, and perhaps corsets were not as deadly as presumed.

Quick Corset Timeline 1800-1900

Notes based on Nora Waugh`s : Corsets and Crinonlines

·         1800 The natural (slim) figure was in favour. The illusion of breasts sitting high and round by them self.  The predecessor of today`s tight elastic tube to create a slimmer figure was attempted with knitting. Or light corsets for those with less youth or fortune. A kind of bra engineered of two pieces of fabric crossing in front and supporting the breast was sometimes build in to the dresses.

·         1810 The corset returns. Curved lines and high waist. Lightly boned shoulder straps and four main pieces. Gussets are inserted for bust and hips.

·         1820 waist becomes longer and more defined and more pieces are added .

1828 metal eyelet invented.

·         1835 `a basque shaped piece fitting the hips`  (Waugh.N. p.79)    -assuming Waugh doesn’t mean a freedom fighter from the Northen Spain the Macmillans English Dictionary only explains a `Basque` to be a tight fitted piece of underwear. (I need to find this word somewhere else)

           The corset gets shorter over the hips as the skirt also gets fuller.

·         1840 shoulder straps disappear. 1848 sewing machine invented.

·         1850 Most corsets are still home made. Instructions are found in ladies magazines. The corset is now short with a narrow waist.  There are two main styles of cutting continued: many long pieced or gussets and basques

·         1860 The crinoline is at its widest and the main purpose of the corset is to create a narrow waist and can there for be very short over the hips. The method of steam moulding starched fabric started

·         1870 Crinoline is replaced by the bustle or tournure the corset is seen more under the dress and the homemade corset is no longer sufficient because the stomach and hips can be seen. The industry takes over. Advertisements for corsets in magazines instead of instructions on how to make them. (Cuirass? Must look up that word in another dictionary)  1873 the spoonbusk is introduced. The corset becomes heavier with more boning and cording.

·         1880 the corset is now a object of fashion and a lot of attention goes into the design and finishing. Suspenders appear, but is not mounted on the corset until 1900 instead they are tied round the waist with a separate band.

·         1890 The silhouette is less rounded and longer. The line of the bust is more rigid and the dip in to the waist disappears.

·         1900 spoonbusk goes out of fashion, but the S-curve gets at is most extreme.         
 ·         1910 The silhouette is becoming long and slim and the corset holds the hips in tight

Imitation is the finest flattery, these styles, which formerly only found a place among the very best corsets in France and England, are now being reproduced in all the cheapest makes. No fashionable woman need  a tight lace; she is required to present an unbroken line form the décolletage to the knee; and this prevents any undue drawing in of the waist line, but the adoption is by no means  universal. Many fashionable dressmakers still keep to the old style and the curve at the waist line.  (p.110)

  

Corset Reference pictures

This is a very beautiful corset with a sharp waist emphasized with the lines from the cording and gussets.  It is also a petit corset with a waistline of 53 cm. The upper hem is:  86 cm and the lower hem is: 89 cm The side seam is only 14 cm below waist and 17,7 cm above. The side seam sits in the side on the hip but is pushed to the back from the waist and up, as it runs almost parallel with CB. The corset has 16 bones in total and a very rigid busk .

A thought on research

Most the books I have looked at so far about corsets describe beautiful and interesting corsets, this being; the extreme and constricting corset.  These can only have been for ladies who didn’t have to move anyway; not work. This has been the few at the top of society and not `most women`

If a woman should be able to put on the corset herself, which the front opening is there for, there is a natural limit to how tight she can lace the corset beforehand and if she is doing any labor there must also have been a limit to the number of bones in the corset.

Within the upper class there must also have been women who opposed to the extreme constriction of the body in the name of fashion and recognition. I only assume this from the thought that not all women today who can afford botox, breast implants and fat suctions under throws them self these comprehensive beauty treatments.  Including women who lives in the branch of society where facelifts and `boob jobs` are common.

It could be interesting to research common corsets. 

German Ersatz Austerity Corset 1917

In its own right this corset is very beautiful. It is made of substitute paper based fabric that was developed in Germany before WW I due scarceness of wool and cotton, and the lace has a wonderful sense of `make do and mend` and gives a good picture of the importance for women not only to wear corsets but also pretty once if possible.

During World War I woman were encouraged to be nationalistic minded consumers and not purchase foreign goods, particularly French goods. Indeed, corsets from Paris were described as` un-German and dangerous` they also suggested that French corsetry made German woman sick. It was unpatriotic to think of French fashion when one could be aiding the cause of war.   J.Salen (2008)

Princess dress.

The Princess dress was first introduced in the 1840`s but did not become popular until the 1870`s. (19th cent. Fashion in Detail Lucy Johnston. V&A)

The dress shows the hips with a closer fit (unlike previous full skirts with volume from etiter crionolines or petticoats) This gives a slender hour-glass figure and a longer silhouette than the dresses with volume starting just under the waist.