Introduction

For this SDP project I have decided to work with both flat cutting and cutting on a stand, and specificly I will work with: 

A 1878 afternoon dress from: Nora Waugh`s The cut of Women`s Clothe 1600-1930

A 1861-63 bodice from: Janet Arnold`s Patterns of Fashion 2

A 1890 and a 1917 corset from: Jill Salen`s Corsets.  

Cutting on stand: I would like to further the skills of cutting on stand from the introduction in the Defining practice unit

I want to gain confidence in cutting in order to expand the variation of projects/garments that I can take on independently from idea to final garment. 

Corsets: I would like to gain experience with different cuts and periods, in order to get a better understanding of the different cut`s and the effect on silhouettes. 

Fitting the corsets on a model; I would like to gain more experience and confidence in the fitting; both the situation and the actual fitting of the garment, to be able make the model relaxed and confident in my skills, and to get all the information needed from the fitting.

I  will aim to hand in four clear and professional patterns which I hope a maker can work from independently, backed with a diagram and photos of either a toil or the original reference. 

I expect the work to be very exiting with a good mix of challenge  with new things and a furtering of skills I previously have been introduced to. I look forward to work with both the three dimentional element of calico on the stand, the rulers and millimeters on the table, and the fittings on the models

1861-63 Bodice

This is the Bodice from Patterns of Fashion 1 by Janet Arnold which I intend to cut on a stand.

Before Calico

I didn’t have the right corset to work as understructure so I padded up the stand to resemble the very short type of corset that Nora Waugh describes in `Corset and Crinolines` for the 1860´s

- Padding up.

It would of course have been preferable to have the right corset, but for the purpose of this project, -learning how to cut on a stand, and further an understanding of the 19^th century´s silhouettes, I thought that doing a bit of practice on this necessary prep-work and try to copy a particular shape was a good idea.

 

First cut 

The cut of this jacket was less complicated than I expected. Only the little tail was difficult to work out and will have to be altered when I take the pattern of and make a whole jacket toil.

I made the same mistake again and trimmed too much into the armhole. The bodices of this time had very wide shoulders. -the shoulder seems is 20 cm.

Reference pictures

I am confused about a difference in the illustration and the diagram

The Illustration shows CF to buttoned up all the way down and the pattern leaves a 4” opening. See the research Label, Title: Janet Arnold for the pictures.

First Toil

The neckline needs a little pinch (about 5 mm) in order to sit nicely and not flap open. -don`t know if I should let it stay in, it will be hidden under all the trimmings or try to work it in the pattern. If the neck line had been round it could have been held tight by a narrow cotton tape maybe this could also work with this neckline.

The back seem needed adjusting, the side piece wasn`t lying smooth.

The tail which I could get to work in first attempt was easier to work with when the pieces were sewn up. I still don’t understand how it has worked in the original. If this short box pleat - which it in a way is, is suppose to spread like it does in the illustration of the back view it has an excess of fabric CB in the waist, and if I make it lay folded in like it is in the wonderfully detailed illustration looking inside of the bodice, the tail will not spread out. hmm.....

I have decided to make it spread.

Sleeve.

Drawing up the sleeve was very quick. Just counting out inches from Janet Arnold`s diagram, and adjusting the head of the sleeve to the measurement of my armhole.

I am doing something wrong with the armhole because the original dress has an armhole of 44 cm and this dress is smaller size than the one I am cutting which has an armhole of 40 cm, but I but if I make `my` armhole bigger I think it looks wrong. I extended the width of the shoulder about 5 mm this brought it closer to the reference but it didn`t alter the armhole measurement.

Last toil

The under sleeve is made by the pattern given in the book (17" x 13") but it lacks some of the volume in the illustration, which looks like it is made up by almost double the width.For the pattern I will add 10 cm 

The toil doesn’t have bones. it should have had, as the final bodice will have a bone by each of the four darts in the front, and one CB. This might be more important if the fitting was on a real person.

The upper body of the stand is much longer than the lady who would have worn this dress.

The original dress is 10,5" from shoulder point in neckline to the top point of the darts and this dress is 11,5. I think this is why the curve and length of the ribbon and pleats are so different between the two

I couldn`t get the tail to look like the illustrated. It is not as soft and lush, that could have something to do with, too little fabric build in to it and also the nature of calico. The shape CB should be a little more rounded and I can adjust that when I put the pattern on paper.

The text describes the pleats on the tail to be 3/4" but in the illustration it is drawn as it is a least as wide as the pleats around neckline which is 1" Though I would guess Janet Arnold`s measuring is more accurate than her drawing is liked the wider version better and made the pleated ribbon 1" wide.

Janet Arnold writes very thorough sewing and detail instructions width this pattern. But if I should make this dress for someone and accuracy was important I would like to see the original dress with my own eyes.

What do you mean Janet?

In the pattern diagram CF is only buttoned down to the waist and doesn`t show how is closed below. In the illustration the bodice is buttoned all the way down to the point.

 

a Corset from 1917

 

`CORSETS` Jill salen  p. 90

This is a relatively simple corset and not difficult to draw up. I measured all parts in the reference pictures, added up for waist, hip, and under bust measure, and compared with my models measurements. I only had to enlarge the model a little and for ease sake I decided to add 10% to all horizontal measures. I chose to keep the exact length of the original because I wanted see that in real, and I expected it to be simple to add length after fitting if needed.

I learned that for a corset like this it is a waste of time to draw a basic block. I only needed waist, hip and under bust line in the square of a basic block.
I was generally less impressed with this reference as with the 1890 corset. There were details with the length of seams and the placement of the waist band. For no reason the back piece is drawn out of line with the other pieces. Nothing that confuses the understanding of the pattern, it just seems sloppy.
And something I did not understand was the curve in the seam next to CB.

The text describes the bone at CB to be 1.25 cm when they in the diagram are only 1 cm

When sewing the toil I learned that there is a limit to the depth of a curve if it should make up a fell seem, and this corset has bones that are 17,5 mm wide. I only had steel that is 15 mm wide and the SA in this seam could not stretch to make a fell seem without snipping in to it. That makes this particular seem implausible.  ? ?

When first putting it on I placed it too high, so it had to be undone and pulled down but all the pictures show that the corset is still placed about 2 cm too high in this fitting. I don’t think it will matter very much due to the waist in the corset is long and in a way undefined, but I noted at the fitting to make the corset 5 cm longer but I will leave that at 3 cm.

       It is interesting to note that with both this and the first corset I see things in the photos after the fitting that I should have seen doing the fitting! 

 Seeing the bones pointing out makes it clearer why all the bones in the original are rounded so very neatly.

 .

Comparing with the reference

First Fitting

After seeing the corset on Franciesca I am puzzled about how much wider the original corset is around the ribcage than the waist. I didn’t expect this corset to be very tight lace for the reason that one can`t lace in hips the same way as a waist. But it looks like the original has been laced rather tightly since the ribs are much wider than the waist. My corset was too wide around the ribcage, this could have something to do with the fact that I placed the corset too high.

I pinned away about 9 cm all round. I decided only to take away 7 cm in the pattern. I added two cm in CB, and I believe that when the corset is placed rightly and pulled in to make CB meet, the corset will fit Franciesca well.