Well, that got out of hand

Continuing my theme of "let's make late-period garb that doesn't suck to wear in hot weather, outdoors!" (what, you didn't know that was a theme?), I've been working on a new gown from this lovely, light, airy, summer-weight wool, in a pale smokey purple.

But it's kind of a problematic color: too pale to be interesting to a renaissance eye, so it needs *something* to add interest.  Some contrasting-but-coordinating bands on the skirt perhaps.

Okay, nice, but a little matchy-matchy interior decoratorish.  Well, it's a place to start, why don't I go to the fabric store and see what I can find in terms of accessories.

A hat! Of course I'll make a hat, and I'll need feathers to trim it.

Yes, lovely.  Not something they would have done (bleach a perfectly good peacock feather? Never!) but very pretty and matches the color well.

Ooh, even better!  Yes, this is good.  And I have fabrics to match!

But do you see that shot of green?  WAIT.  I HAVE JUST THE THING!

YES!  THE EMERALD/FUCHSIA IRIDESCENT SILK IS AWESOME...for my simple, washed-out gown.



Charcoal.  Charcoal guards on a palest purple gown will be just fine.

I do think I'm on to something, with the plumage and the silks.  Just not for *this* project.

Corset Variations part 2

Right, so I had these place mats, see...

I traced my pattern onto them (I'm not going to go into how I drafted my pattern. It's enough to say that it's more or less a mashup of the Effigy corset and my own usual pattern.)

Because I was afraid the material would fall apart when cut, I sewed down the bias binding before cutting it out.

Turns out, I was right to worry.  

I added a fabric panel for the front, where the boning angle changes in the effigy corset, partly so I would have two fewer seams to bind, and partly so I'd have something to insert eyelets into.  I wasn't sure how the place mat/eyelet thing was going to work, otherwise.

The pieces, all bound save the top edges.  Notice that the center back panel is longer than the sides it's going to match up with.  I changed my mind about the width of the back panel at the last minute, so where it was going to slope down to meet the fronts, it didn't any longer.  The height of the front panels was limited by the width of the mat.  I had already shortened the front point by a few inches, there wasn't anything I could do but trim the back panel after the fact. 

I cut a triangle of the mat (after stitching around the edges, of course) to slip into the fabric front pieces.   I'd thought about sewing boning channels as usual, but that seemed like too much work.  I did insert straws into the center front binding to give the front edge some structure. (not shown in this photo)

Top stitching to keep things from shifting.

The front and back panels were butted together and stitched flat with what I think of as a baseball stitch.  

I added the back extension and straps and finished binding the edges.
Because there wasn't much holding this thing together *but* the binding, I made it a little wider than I normally would.  This was probably a mistake, I always forget how much easier narrow binding is, especially around curves.  I also used the binding doubled, to protect myself from the ends of the straws, but that resulted in a bulkier binding than I maybe would have preferred.

It fits okay.  It actually seems a little roomy, I think I'd be better off overlapping the bound edges instead of butting them together.  Not a big deal, I can change that.

Thoughts:
First things first:  This is *NOT* a period method of corset construction.  There is no evidence (that I'm aware of) that this was ever done. Please don't even say this is something they "could" have done. I mostly did this because it amused me.  It *might* have been quicker than making stays properly, but I'm not sure about that.  With all of the adjustments required by the width of the place mats, and the awkwardness of binding edges that were actively falling apart on me, I'm not sure this actually saved time.  This *might* be a cooler corset for hot events, but I suspect any advantage will be counteracted by the layers over it, unless I'm very careful.  And it might not even be a successful corset: I'm still not sure it won't just fall apart on me after a day of wear.

The straws at the waist are already starting to crease, after being worn for just long enough to take some photos, and not being particularly tight.  This does not bode well.

But ultimately, I am amused.

Variations on corset boning

There aren't many extant corsets from the 16th Century, but one of the surviving fragments uses very fine reeds, like broom straw, as boning.  Consequently, many reenactors have made corsets using broom straw, usually to good effect.

But I've got this idea.

See, I picked up this set of place mats to use for felt-making; they were at the thrift store and cheaper and larger than sushi mats.  Upon closer examination, they seem to be woven with a cotton warp and a broom straw weft.  Now, when I make a renaissance corset, I usually angle the boning channels to follow the contours of the corset, which usually results in a roughly fan-shaped arrangement, from the bottom edge to the top.  But if you look at the effigy corset, the boning channels are parallel within their panels.

So.  I'm going to take my place mats, cut them in the shapes of my corset panels, bind the edges, and have....an extremely breathable, summer-weight, boning-only corset? 

Seems worth a shot.

And now that I've said it, I'll actually do it.

Right?