I needed to make a straight-front corset to go with Janet Arnold's 1901 Ribbon Dress for my sister's wedding. I did it minus patters and mocking up on check fabric (to keep the grain though out). Basically I worked from the much earlier laughing moon pattern sheet (didn't have the pattern w/ me) and "Corsets and Crinolines". If you look at the partner pieces and drawing... the first thing you really notices is that the straight front corsets have real HIPS! The hip area is not just an extension of smoothing the waist, it's flaring out to embrace a "newly discovered" sexy part of the woman. <G>
My pieces ended up staying fairly similar on top except for sucking in the bust lines a bit in front, and releasing out the back. In the bottom... that's where the magic happens. I took in as much as I could at the waist area and release in the hip area... release to the sides and back in a fairly even manner. It worked. That part of the body is fleshy and you can move it around w/ just a little containment and not tight-lacing. In my final... the waist area were really thin strips, the hip pieces are giant. By the time the pattern was done, I could see why some of the commercial manufactures went to separate hip pieces, but I had enough interlining I felt safe. If I remember correctly, the biggest back hip pieces had a 1:4 ration. Oh, while making it... I did a bit of temp boning and front and back to keep those lines cleaner while testing the last couple of mock ups. I topped this off with a ruffled corset cover to help fill out the top of the "S". My sister's hips didn't need the pad. (And to help keep the hip line clean, I used waist bands about 2"- 4". The underskirt was a typical gathered layered skirt with a rope kick panel at the bottom and the outer layer was exactly from Hunissette's circular ruff petticoat These layers all add together to give that shape illusion... and w/o needing to tight lace the corset. -Cat- _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
