Bespoke corsetry & vintage style couture clothing

Friends!  I have managed to achieve my first aim of the new year which was to launch my new website by the new moon this month!

Here it is

click on pic to go to site

I'm very happy with how it's turned out and extremely proud of my work.  I know that doesn't sound awfully modest, but I really have worked very hard to get to this point, and with the amazing help of a couple of individuals to whom I shall be forever grateful, I've managed to shape my idea of a future career into something concrete, worthwhile and deeply fullfilling.  So I am very very pleased.

I'd love if you popped over for a visit and report back with your thoughts?  

A little rant

This week on my Sew Curvy Facebook page, I wrote a 'status update' which I thought may be of interest to readers here too.  So I have expanded upon it a little and added a video to demonstrate the problem.

The corset on the left is by Electra Designs, the one on the right is a cheap chinese rip off.  See what corsetiere Alexis Black had to say about it on her Facebook page by clicking here.

Corset design and image theft is a big problem in the independent corsetiers world.  Individuals are constantly finding that their hard work has been ripped off and copied by unscrupulous Chinese factories, and to add insult to injury the images which they have worked hard to create and probably paid a lot of money for, are used to promote these knock-off's at ridiculous prices.

From time to time, these big companies from China offer me wholesale corsets at knock down prices. USD5.00 each to be precise. Yes $5 for a corset.

This means that the manufacturing cost of these corsets is under $2.50 which works out at about GBP2.00 and €1.50. 

If that's how much it costs to manufacture a corset in China, can you then imagine the cost of the raw material - the busk, the bones, the fabric, eyelets and the lacing plus any embellishments? Perhaps we're talking $1.50? Which leaves less than $1 per corset for the people working in the factory!

These corsets retail in the West under brands such as "Corsets UK" and other similar sites,  for between £30-100 (€40-120/$50-150).  That's a heck of a mark up!

As I said, often the designs are copied from hard working independent corsetiers. The resulting fake product is not only cheap and nasty - literally, but the fit is ...well there isn't a fit. 

Corset busks from Germany

German steel is the best steel in the world, closely followed by British steel.  Most professionals use German steel busks in their corsets.  If you consider that one German steel busk fastner is more expensive wholesale than the cost of a whole corset made in China, you can easily see the reason why it's best to either make your own corset with quality supplies, or buy a bespoke or rtw corset from a reputable and independent corsetiere.  Infact, the cost of making a quality corset can quickly add up to £50+ for the raw materials depending on fabrics used.  The money you pay for a bespoke corset is made up of this cost plus the extreme care, attention, and time lavished on each piece by it's maker.  A plain corset can take 20 and more hours to make.

Once, I had a corset for sale in a shop where I happened to be working when a couple took an interest in the peice.  They saw the price tag of £200 and dropped it with a nervous giggle and a look which said "whoever made that is having a laugh".  I didn't say anything but I was aflame with indignation!  If I was paid just £10 an hour for the length of time it took me to make the corset - not including the cost of materials, it would have cost much more!  When you think that a good hairdresser is paid up to £50-60 an hour for their work, then please tell me why an equally skilled artisan is worth less per hour just becuase their work involves a needle and thread?

In corsetry, and other sewing related artistry,  you really do get what you pay for so here's a little film from Lulu and Lush to demonstrate what I mean.

And to all ladies who sew - we must never underestimate or undervalue our skill and the care and patience it takes to produce beautiful things with it.

Corsetry for Beginners

Finally, a year after the first corsetry course I did last year at Darn it and Stitch in Oxford, I have organised another 2 day workshop for corsetry beginners.

This time it's in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, and you can read all the gory details over at my website

Sew Curvy Corsetry.

Corset progress

I've been ensconsed with a wedding corset.  Got to finish it by the end of the week as I'm going off to Italy next week for a few days.

 The bride to be has given me gold dupion to work with, and I couldn't help being a bit 'traditional' by using a blue lining ..

The fabric cuttings looked so gorgeous all piled together on the 'cutting room floor' that I couldn't resist taking a quick pic.

There are just over 40 pieces to sew together - the outer layer of dupion silk, the strength layer which is 100% cotton coutil, and the lining.  There are 6 panels on each side, and two straps.  The dupion silk is flatlined to the coutil and treated as one layer for assembly.

My favourite part is watching the shape happen as I sew, and I feel quite narcissistic staring at my lovely top stitching! In my younger day, though I always had ambition to sew,  I never ever imagined that I would be able to make a lovely straight line like this, and so they do give me much pleasure!

The fabric is absolutely gorgeous in real life, I can't get a photo to do it justice.  But it's coming together rather well.  Hopefully I'll be able to post a pic of the finished item before I go off to Italy next week.

Hello!

First of all a huge Hello to all my new followers!  Thanks for sticking around.  I havent been very good at blogging lately, just while I get used to my new routine and finishing my book off.  I do hope to post more regularly, as I have lots of personal as well as professional projects in the pipeline.  

One thing i'd like to do before summer is out, is make a couple of new outfits for my holidays coming up -  fingers crossed that Old Father Time, allows it .. oh and just incase you're wondering, I do have a couple of updates on 'my future wardrobe' (eyes left) ..

a block i'm working on for me .. subject of a future post on petite sizing
where due to height, the back is shorter than average but the bust is larger than average!!

The other thing which I have been pretty consumed with ofcourse,  is my bride for whom I am making a corset.  It's an underwear corset which she would like to wear in the future as outer wear.  ie: She's wearing it under her wedding dress, but rather than have it too plain and underwear-like, she is having it made from a lovely gold silk which can be embellished further at a later date - after the wedding.  To cut down on bulk it will be a single layer with loose cotton lining so that it will be light and comfortable next to her skin.  We had a third and final toile fitting yesterday so I am good to go with the real thing, and my bride has kindly given me permission to post here, so expect an update or two on her corset production.

a corset toile
same pattern and size,  different style options on each side.

Wedding corsetry has therefore been topmost in my mind of late, and in those of other corsetiers, it being the season, and I was going to do a little post about it, but one of my online corsetmaking friends has beaten me to it and frankly, her post is better than mine ever would have been!

as waif-like as she was, Audrey's gowns often included a corsolette foundation

Glasgow based Alison of Crikey Aphrodite!,  has written a very concise article on her blog, which covers everything you need to know about bridal corsetry,  whether you're thinking of wearing a corset under your dress for some extra structure or whether you're going for that 1950's super cinched look 'a'la Audrey Hepburn in the film Funny Face.  

Click here to see:  Corsets for Brides.

Famous Last Words ...

I think I mentioned recently that i've been making a corset for my friend Ms E.  Its been taking a while because I discovered upon fitting her first corset toile, that she is asymmetrical!  I'm quite pleased about this because sooner or later I was going to get a client with this characteristic, and so it's nice for me to work on it with a friend first.

Her left (as you look) shoulder drops down and left hip goes up - I am not sure which causes which but the whole scenario causes the corset to be squint as you can see - it leans to the left..

This means that while the left side fits perfectly at the top under the arm, it is too tight at the bottom around the hip but on the right side, it fits beautifully all over - except at the front where both sides are too big at the front bust.  This is because I added ease to the bust to account for "squish" .. It was unnecessary.

When you put a grid on the picture you can see the problem clearly.

The orange lines are where the current seam lines are.

I should point out that when I wear this corset (we are the same size), it is perfectly straight on me.. This pattern is drafted from scratch and I know it's straight!

Here I have drawn how the corset should LOOK.

The purple lines are drawn agaist the grid, and are in the 'correct' place for the eye.  They are not symetrical  but they LOOK symmetrical to the eye.

Here are all the lines together ...

Green is the shape  i'm aiming for

Orange is where the current seam lines are

Purple is where seam lines would look right

My plan was to let the left side out where it was too tight and take the right side in where it is too loose in the hope that it might straighten out.  It worked to a point BUT it meant that the corset, still a bit squint, looked odd, in that the seams on one side were in a different position to the seams on the other side.  However, it did fit well and looked alot straighter (notwithstanding that waist discrepancy that has now appeared).

The next step was to draw in 'eye correct' seams on the left, then chop the corset up along those fake seam lines on the kooky side, and chop the right side along it's true seamlines, and use all of those separate pieces to make a pattern for a new toile.

Here are the peices all laid out - there are 14.

And the resulting pattern which is also 14 pieces because none of the pieces match.  Infact, it's quite scary to look at, but corsetry is all about maths in some ways, so I had faith that this very wonky looking pattern would work in the way I had determined.

Here you can clearly see the difference between pattern pieces.  The 'wonky' pattern pieces are laid on top of the paper pattern for the 'correct side' pieces.

It worked!! Here is the new toile where the seams more or less match.

BUT

(and there is a big but)

You can see that the corset LOOKS more symmetrical, and Ms E infact looks much more symmetrical  - but...

Houston, there is still a problem.  

And the problem is, that for this toile, I used a very thick Cotton Duck fabric - artists canvas.  I have found that it is unstable when used on it's own like this - even though I pre-shrunk it with steam.  I was very pleased with the shape of Ms E's new corset toile, but look at the baggy boobs!!  In this pic, she is wearing a bra.  The corset is designed for no bra .. when she takes her bra off, I fear that her boobage will slip into the void around her rib cage never to be seen again in that corset! 

I couldn't imagine why this bagginess had appeared, and so I measured each of my pattern peices against each of the corset pieces at 4 consecutive points - the bust line, the underbust line, the waist line and the hip line.  That's allorralorra measuring!

There was a FOUR INCH discrepancy ... FOUR INCHES!! For heavens sake!!  The pattern is completely correct, but the corset is 4 inches bigger.  After much consternating, cross measuring, head scratching and hand wringing, I braved  telling my corsetmaking friends over at Live Journal with the fear that they might laugh at me, but instead  received a couple of lovely and very heartening responses the upshot of which said:  Different fabrics act in different ways (well we all know this to be true), but it seems that Duck Canvas has a nasty habit of stretching when in use ... 

So...

It's back to the drawing board for me where I will have to cut one more 'final' toile but this time in corset coutil (as per the black one i'd been working with previously).  It's more expensive, but what cost floppy cavities in your corset?!!  For further reading on the perils of working with canvas, read this Cautionary Tale.

New Books

I've recently treated myself to 2 corsetty books ... and as both have been mentioned in a number of corset related 'places' on the interweb, I thought i'd write about my take on each ...

The first, and my favourite, is the V&A Museum's "Underwear Fashion in Detail".  All I can say is this.. I bought it during a trip to the V&A in London - the book is only available there at the moment - and when I saw it, I couldn't put it down, far less leave it there!!  I don't want to embarrass myself describing bodily functions,  but .. my heart was pounding with every page I turned!  

It is a BIG book, and so inside, the pictures are big.  A good start!

Written by Eleri Lynn, a fashion curator at the V&A Museum,  the book is not dedicated to corsets alone, but I would say that probably 75% is to do with corsetry in some form or another, be it bra's, girdles, corsets, bodices, bustiers, garters, etc.,

It looks at the evolution of underwear dating from the 16th century, right up to the present including pieces by famous designers through the ages, there are nighties, dressing gowns, slips, socks, stockings and pants included aswell - something for everyone!  And for the corsetmakers out there who consternate over their every stitch,  there is even a Mr Pearl "rush job" which shows what happens when a corset is made in a hurry - even by the best in the business!  

There are more  pictures than writing - each peice is described in detail, with diagrams and one or more photos - some of which are shot very close, giving incredible detail - it's almost like looking at the things up close and in person!

Overall, this book is an Inspiration.  I just love it... every time I look in there, my mind is overwhelmed with ideas.  From my own perspective of one who makes corsets, It's an absolute  MUST HAVE

The other book is less pleasing - from the same perspective as before  that is.  It is the new book by Velda Lauder, Corsets:  A Modern Girls Guide..

I guess it's been written to catch the wave of interest in everything burlesque, and if you are a modern girl who knows nothing about corsets, but wants to find out, then this is definitely the book for you.

It is right up to the minute - including details from London Fashion Week which has only just finished -  hence the long delay between it's apparent availability and eventual delivery.  

It is TINY - handbag size - which I was surprised about but this means that the book is not "comfortable", and the pictures are smaller than I like.   I know this might sound shallow but, size definitely matters here and this book just isn't big enough.    

The pictures, unsurprisingly, are mostly of the author's own corsets. This isn't such a bad thing because she does make lovely corsets with a focus on modern, not historical, but there is no detailed information on the famous and elusive "uber curve".  Although the book also covers historical aspects of corsetry, along with  'modern' corsetry against backdrops of high fashion, couture, burlesque, and fetish, the book doesn't tell me anything I didn't know already as somebody who has been obsessed with corsets for a number of years.

In saying that I am dissapointed with this book,  I am not decrying the author's talent or her eye for a good design, or indeed her ability  - I have been laced into one of her corsets by the woman herself, and I can tell you, that whatever her uber curve is, it works!  Velda Lauder corsets are extremely light, extremely strong, and surprisingly sparsley boned for the 'control' they give and this is why they are a constant source of fascination and inspiration for me.

BUT, in my own humble opinion,  this is not a "Must Have"  book. It doesn't do anything better or more interestingly, that Valerie Steele's "The Corset: A Cultural History" .  However,  for beginners on the path to corset obsession, then it is a pretty book to have and  less 'academic' than others.

Catching up

Lovely readers, thank you SO MUCH for all your lovely comments on the last post.  I see some of you have even come out of hiding, and your blogs have been discovered and bookmarked!  Thankyou!

I know I have been a very bad blogger of late - there is just so little time in the day for everything! Especially as this time of year there is also so much preserving, processing and potting of the produce I have been growing all year.  BTW, for those of you with a like mind, have you seen The Jam Jar Shop . com online?  Marvelous place!! bulk jam jars.  I have recycled as much as possible but there has been so much harvest - and I have been in a foraging frenzy too - I have had to buy 2 lots of jars on top!  Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas this year!

Also, I realise I have neglected the seed swap which I initiated back in July.  To be honest, the response was very small! There were six of you.  You know who you are!  I am happy to facilitate the swap still, but fear that as only one person has reminded me about it, that the rest of you have been just as busy as I have been!  Do let me know.

For the next few weeks, as well as starting to write my book, I have a corsetry workshop in Oxford to facilitiate and two corset commissions to be getting on with.  

One is with an Artist friend of mine, we are doing a swap, I am making her a corset and she is painting my shoes - she is brilliant at shoes amongst other things - have a look HERE.  

The other commission is not so much a "commission" as I asked if I could make my friend a corset to learn some things with.  So it is a "learning corset" and what a challenge!  Here is a picture of the first fitting.  As you can see, this is going to be what is known as an "asymetrical" corset, meaning that the sides are not going to be symetrical because she isn't.  Not being rude.  Nobody is perfectly symetrical, but some are less so than others!

More on this in my next post!

Also on the table, a male corset using this fabulous fabric which is an Italian designed (British made) cashmere/wool suiting fabric with a polyester paisley suiting lining.

Better get on with it!