1920s Underpinnings Take 2: French Corset

Once again I've been studying 1920s corsets.

1920

1924

I felt a need to upgrade my 1920s shapewear that I wrote about in this post.  As noted in that post I noted that the corselette was not right for my shape so I moved on to plan B.  My 1922 catalog shows pages and pages of corsets, which look like a hybrid between an Edwardian corset and a modern girdle so I looked for extants to study the details and I discovered French corsets that were more like a girdle .  Let's look at some extants.

All of these corsets are made from coutil and contain both back lacing and a hook and eye front side closure.  The first one has the lacing and closure both in the front.  They all appear to have fairly wide boning.  The last example has narrower boning along the grommets in the back.  All of them also have at least one elastic insert.  The second example also looks like it extends above the waist. I also noticed that they seem to have wider boning in single rows instead of double rows of 1/4 inch boning as my Edwardian corset has.

I figured it would be pretty straightforward to reproduce one of these.  I started out using the Rilla Corset pattern from Scroop patterns due to the simple lines it has.  Another plus with this pattern is that it has 2 sizing categories--one with a greater waist to hip ratio and one without.  I figured it would be easier for me to get the shape right for my body.  The object here is for more compression at the hips, control of my little tummy and little compression on my waist.  I looked at the measurements and made a couple of adjustments on the paper pattern and drew in the lines for the bottom hem and lowering the top to be about 2 inches above the waist.  I decided to use the last corset example above for my model.

After tracing the pieces onto pattern fitting cloth, it occurred to me that the front side seam was not in a good place for a closure so I pinned the front/front side pieces together and redrew the seam line--the example on the left being the original and the one on the right being the new pieces.  I added a boning line to the right of the new seam line.

I cut out the pieces in a heavy poplin for fitting and it was pretty close.  I needed to take in the seam allowance a tiny bit at the bottom 4 inches or so on the sides and back.  I had enough coutil left from my corselette if I cut this cross grain but it was really close given the scraps I had left!

There's enough for the back facing but I decided to save this for the front under lap at the closure and to use plain white coutil for the back facings.  Other materials needed:  1/2 inch German faux whalebone boning, 3/4 inch boning chanel, small hook and eye tape, 1/2 inch cotton twill tape, size 00 grommets and lacing.

Next steps: stitch seams, press hems, apply back facings, stitch boning channels by the grommet area, cover seams with boning channel tape.   I also cut the elastic insert.  I didn't photograph these steps.  Here is the corset with the boning channel tape pinned over the seam lines and the elastic insert pinned in.

Inside of corset with tape and elastic pinned in place.

Outside of corset with boning tape and elastic insert pinned in place:

Next steps:  Insert grommets, finish front closure, finish bottom hem.  The idea here is to leave the top hem open to be able to insert the boning.  I need to be able to try the corset on to determine how long the front boning pieces need to be in order to be able to sit comfortably.

Grommets set:

Seams, boning channels, bottom hem taped and sewn and front closure completed. Boning along both sides of lacing in place:

Next step:  try on and mark the length of front boning, put boning in, hem the top and make the suspenders.  After marking how long the boning should be, I had to stitch a line in each boning channel since most of them run the full length of each seam.

I used 3/4 inch satin bra strap elastic for the suspenders with vintage style sliders and grips.  I also decided to go with six suspenders which I prefer to four.

It probably would've been better to sew these on before binding the bottom hem but I simply didn't think of it!

Here is the finished corset closed and open

Front:

Back:

Here it is open

Inside:

Outside:

I'm very pleased with the way this turned out.  It fit perfectly and having it extend a bit above the waist eliminates muffin top.  This was the piece I needed. 

I'm sure glad to get this one finished!

Here it is over my envelope chemise.

1760s-70s Mantelet based on Garsault

As fall weather approaches and events line up, it became apparent that I needed an appropriate outer garment for warmth to be worn with my upper sort 18th century wardrobe.  I had made a black silk velvet short cloak trimmed with fur for my mid century-1760s garments so I decided to go with a mantelet.  Let's have a look at some:

1747

1750s

no date but looks to be 1760s to me

1772

1775-76

1778

1780s

I liked the fact that this shape seems to be popular through several decades. I noted that the hood size changes to accommodate the changes in hairstyles.   Since time was of the essence, I decided to go stash diving and I was not disappointed.  I found some stuff that I had put aside for a different style of winter garment.  I had about 5 yards of light weight yellow woolen that my friend Barbara had given me at least 15 years ago along with 5 yards of yellow shot taffeta with matching ribbon and white fur trim!  The colors aren't so true in the photo as the wool and the taffeta are almost exactly the same shade.

My original plan, when I bought the silk and fur trim, was to make a plisse like that in this image based on the instructions in Garsault. I had originally planned to make it wool lined in silk.  I decided to look at that once again as I remembered that there was also a pattern for a mantelet.  I also looked at the scale mantelet patterns in Fitting and Proper and Costume Close up.  I liked the pattern shape in Garsault best for this project.  I also wanted this garment to had added warmth so I decided to use the wool for interlining between two layers of silk since I had enough silk.  I would've liked to line it in white but didn't have enough on hand so self fabric lining is fine.

This website had the translation of the original text, clarification of measurements, pattern diagrams and annotation which was very helpful.  I printed it out and noted the measurements on the drawings.

My next quandary was whether or not to attempt to manually draw the pattern full size based on the measurements.  I've done this before with gridded patterns and it takes forever.  This one wasn't gridded and it seemed like a pain so I decided to let technology work for me.

First--the measurements were given in centimeters from point b at the top to point c at the bottom of the diagram so I cropped the picture so that point b was at the top edge and point c at the bottom edge--basically eliminating any border.

Using photoshop elements (I would expect most photo editing software has these functions), I used the Resize image function and chose to resize the height of the image to 90 cm which is the measurement given for the full size pattern.

I saved the image as a pdf file and opened it in Acrobat Reader.

I selected print, chose poster and tile size 100% which automatically tiled the layout in my print dialog box as shown. 

I followed the same procedures above for the hood piece.

Added step--I took a screen shot of the tiled layout so I would know how to arrange the individual pages.

I taped all my pages together--Acrobat did allow for a little overlap which you can see on the pages.

I traced the pattern with pattern tracing cloth on the fold so I could fit the full size pattern.  Note the different dotted lines on the pattern.  The upper one is the short version on the original pattern.  It was too short and the longer view was too long.  I played around with the pattern by pinning it at various lengths to get the hip length that I wanted.  I also played around with the neck pleats using the original pattern as a guide.  I ended up with  five 1/2 inch deep pleats spaced about an inch apart on each side of the center back.   I marked these pleats on my pattern.

I cut my pieces out --2 of each for the silk (outer and lining) and 1 of each for the wool for interlining.  First I basted the wool to the wrong side of the silk then I marked pleats at the neck edge of the mantelet using the pattern as my guide  

Pleats were pinned then stitched in place.

Checking the length/fit so far:

I stitched the lower back seam of the hood and did the cartridge pleats in the opening at the top and checked the neckline pleats.  I had marked the same pleats as those on the body neck.  The original instructions do not indicate that the neck is pleated.  Not pleating it brought the hood way to far to the front.  I decided to go ahead and pleat the hood lower edge.  The hood was stitched to the body and the seam was pressed open.

The hem around the edge of the mantelet was pressed under (about 1/2 inch)

Fur trim was pinned to the wrong side.  This particular fur trim is like a little tube with cotton tape.  The tape will be concealed in the seam between the outer fabric and the lining.

Trim pinned in place:

The outer edge of the mantelet was whip stitched in place over the fur trim.

The hood lining was constructed as the outer hood was and stitched to the inside of the mantelet--whipstitched to the fur trim around the edge and the neck seam allowance stitched to the seam allowance of the mantelet.

Body lining was pleated at the neck, hem was turned in, pinned in place and whip stitched around the perimeter. Note:  when stitching anything to fur, always pull the fur "nap" out of the way so the thread doesn't catch it.  Frequently check and pull any fur out of any stitches it gets caught in.

Ribbon was stitched to the fronts at the neck seam.

Note: The original instructions said to stitch ribbon inside at the neck seam to create a channel for your ribbon tie.  I was delighted to note that construction in the period image of the blue mantelet in the beginning section of this post.

Final test fit:

I'm very happy with this project.  It was pretty quick and I know that I will get a lot of use out of it since both my silk day gowns are typically accessorized with yellow.  I have leftover fabric and trim and will make a matching muff cover to go with it.  I was also delighted to figure out how to resize and print using technology.  Here is the mantelet being worn--you can see which one I am!  

If you would like a quick little project, a mantelet makes a fun and practical one!