First Costuming Disaster

I've always been a little unconventional and back then (the early middle ages) being a goth was about the only unconventional subculture to be in. I didn't particularly love black, or red, or purple but since there was no such thing as a pastel goth I had to make do. Now I'm all grown up I can legitimately wear costumes and not give a hoot what anyone else thinks about. Hence I am now turning my eccentric side to my first love of fashion the 18th century. I mean who doesn't love frilly dresses and satin shoes and wild excess? 

So at the risk of boring the pants off you. I'll just get on with it and explain my first costume disaster, the corset mockup. Well after reading costuming net sites for about 6 and half years I got the jist that any costume starts with underwear. So off I went in search of a corset pattern. My woefully inadequate sewing skills did not allow me to contemplate making my own at that stage. And you'll be thankful I didn't attempt it either. 

Yes, yes corsets back in the 18th century were not called corsets. They were called stays, which just goes to prove one thing. I suck as a historical costumer. If you follow my blog for any period of time my ability to suck in a historical sense will become apparent. At the risk of riling the pure historians out there I will continue to call my "stays" a corset, through pure laziness and nothing else. 

So due research led me to believe that the only decent corset pattern out there for the 18th century was the one by JP Ryan. It was drafted from actual surviving corsets and a lot of other people had used it. Please note that the latter fact was the bigger driving force behind my decision to purchase. So I did. And I kept it in it's pristine packet in my bedroom for the next 2 years.

March 2009 - yes I finally got the courage to unzip the ziplock bag containing the holy grail of corset patterns and start this project. 

I had some super historic hot pink twill in my sewing box, a spool of hot pink cotton and a pattern. Despite the fact that everything I had ever sewn had been horribly disfigured and unwearable I wrongly assumed I'd just bang this one up in a weekend. Well I wasn't entirely wrong because I did get the mockup done in two days. And doesn't it just look it too.

There are several things I learned from my mockup...

1. I liked the idea of a corset in hot pink twill, pity then that I could not buy anymore of it when making my proper one. 
2. A straight tubular corset will never fit an hourglass figure and look like anything except a sausage shoved into a toilet roll.
3. Cable ties (the black things sticking out of the mockup) are just as good as steel when it comes to this style of corset.
4. I would have to learn how to do alterations if I was going to make myself one of these.
5. OMG! My nipples would spill out of this thing in an instant.