Cotton knitting vs wool knitting: a comparative study

[quote=“clare”]Thin wooden slats from bamboo blinds also work well as boning. I made a vaguely elizabethan jumper for re-enactment stuff several years ago and these worked fine.
For support having a fair bit of boning at the front would be a good idea.
Aiwe- I’ll bring mine along to Sword and Shield training on Sunday for you to have a look at if you are there.[/quote]

Yes, I’ll be there. I’ll be happy to look at your jumper, as I’m seriously thinking of making one (even bought some eyes and hooks today :smiley: ).

The other question that I’m really wondering about - how to sit while wearing the jumper? I have a denim jacket that fits fery tightly, I used it to make patterns for some clothes before and will be doing it again. However, when I fully zip it on the front and sit like this - it’s not that easy :confused: And the fabric actually bends around my body, but still it’s all very tight. So, I’m now thinking of how would it be to sit in jumper which fits the body even more tightly than that jacket, but at the same time does nt bend around :open_mouth:

Since you’ve been wering jumper before, I will probably be asking you tomorrow on how exactly you move in it (and breath too! :unamused: )

hugs

The corset must be shaped so that there is just enough room for you to sit very upright in a chair, no slouching on the sofa in one of these things! In fact, I tried driving in mine the other day and thought I was going to suffocate after a while. So I guess I’ll be dressing on site! Breathing is strictly an upper-chest thing! Hence all the “heaving bosoms” etc in old romance novels. Probably also why they used to faint a lot.

Not sure how to describe the front shape, it’s lowest in the middle and then curves up over where your thighs will be when you sit down. Your denim jacket is probably straight across the bottom?

If it’s a real solid, tight corset you’re planning to make (rather than just for show) make sure you have a few days to practice in it (did I say that previously? can’t remember). They take some getting used to! I’ve worn mine for 5 hours a day so far and I’m fairly glad to take it off. Don’t know how I"m gonna manage 12, or 20! :open_mouth:

The ladies in costume will be STANDING a lot at Ravenholme, I think. :stuck_out_tongue: Possibly we won’t be eating much either! lol Of course, you don’t have to lace it really tight. 'Tis only a game.

elizabethancostume.net/custompat/index.html

neat site, i’ve added that to my bookmark list! For the Ravenholme game tho, a Victorian era corset is shaped down over the hips… umm… i mean it goes in and then back out again, which the Elizabethan ones didn’t.

Lovely Clare has let me borrow her jumper, I’m making pattern of it. And will need to get those little bamboo bones. I’m gonna look in Spotlight, they migh have something suitable and on suitable price.

They are all placed differently, I mean - each part of jumper has bones with different angle, particularly adjusted to fit the body the best way.
I felt surprisingly comfortable in that jumper, and even breath became easier - probably because it made me extremely straight (I think I’ve never been so straight before). I think now that the straight bearing which is also much said about in those old romance novels is a result of wearing corset as well.

This is why it makes no sense when mothers tell their little daughters to hold the back straight to look good as those past ages ladies - it is just impossible unless you wear a corset. You have to remember to hold it like that all the time, but it would not help anyway, you will bend even not noticing it.

Heaving bosoms and faints - definitely yes. And I think it depends a lot on how toght the lacing is.
Hmm, that could be maybe use for roleplaying, though I have no idea what advantage a faint can give. I’ll think of it later :unamused:

Hooks and eyes on front and lacing on the back should be a convenient option.

Yeah - I found that with my tight-laced brown dress, my back aches for a bit and then the constant reminder to tuck my tummy in and stand straight puts everything into alignment and I feel a lot better.

omg I tried to put mine on by myself today… I kind of managed it but it took me 40 minutes!!! rofl, that won’t do. Gonna have to practice some more. :open_mouth: or go with Plan B and ask someone to help!

You can buy plastic boning encased in fabric at Spotlight, I believe. You’ll have to ask someone there where they hide it though. It’s a bit bendy, but if the fabric you’re using isn’t stretchy it works well.

I’m a bit worried that mine comes up too high at the back. It kind of catches my shoulderblades, which isn’t comfy. Don’t feel confident to alter it tho. Might have to spend some money and get a professional to look at it.

I just must share this link here:

http://www.timeless-trends.com/

Funny, I found it in adverts in my LJ. They are really helpful sometimes, those adverts :laughing:

By the way, if someone wonders: I managed to successfully make my jumper before Ravenholme game, and I spent the whole weekend in it.

I saw that there too!

I just clicked that link and my school filter blocked it as “Pornography” :slight_smile:

:open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:
No, there is nothing like that there. It mostly has pictures of corsets and information on them, and well, couple of girls wearing them.
You probably have a very strickt filter :confused:

Would a front-lacing corset be much different from a back-lacing one?
I am looking at making an elizabethan style one myself, and would prefer to be able to get in and out of it myself, which is why I’ve made all my fitted dresses so far front-lacing.

Er, herewith a provisional answer as I don’t actually have a lot of experience with the things:

Some corsets and stays have busks down the front, strips of wood to keep everything smooth, and front-lacing would interfere with that.

If there’s an irregularity in the fit, so it pulls apart more in one area than another, it would be more noticeable from the front. People, er, look there more.

The set of stays I am making lace in the front and back - I figured that’d give me a bit more flexibility. Haven’t finished them enough to try on, though.

If your laces are long enough, you CAN lace a back lacing corset by yourself. I have 8 meters of ribbon, and I dressed myself both days at Ravenholme. It does take some time and a mirror to make sure you aren’t tangling the laces at the back while you’re pulling on them tho. I took a big mirror to the last game and it will be present at the next one too! Front lacing is easier! Also, if your corset is an undergarment it doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect, your dress will hide any slightly irregular lacing. :slight_smile:

Well, y’know, in the periods that Ravenholme has been set in so far, if you’re a single woman wandering about with neither female companion nor maid, then you’re clearly no better than you should be, and people would expect a certain degree of rumpling in your clothes.

Er, in the interests of historical accuracy, like.

I have bamboo things on the very front, and they do not interfere with lacing. There is one flat stick on the fery edge, then goes the row of lacing eyelets, and then the rest of flat sticks. I can get myself into the corset in 3 minutes and with no troubles.

err… what exactly kind of woman you mean by this description, Steph? :blush:

Aiwe, how long did it take you to make your corset? Was it difficult?

Hmm… two or three evenings, after work :laughing:
And this is not a joke.
Not difficult as I had Clare’s corset there which she kindly allowed me to borrow :unamused: .
Basically, what I did was copying the pattern on my fabric while making some changes (like moving lacing from back to front), cutting three layers of the whole thing (two cotton ones and one of same fabric as my Ravenholme dress), joining them, sewing in the edge boning, then doing the lacing eyelets, and after that just sewing in all the boning. And trimming the edges. of course.
In fact, it was not as difficult and time-consuming as I expected. But I didn’t try to make it somehow authentic, I only looked at how comfortable it is and how to make it quick as it was the week before the game.

Whereas I’m still dicking around with getting the bias-binding around a whole bunch of tabs. :cry:

Er, a busk is heavier than the standard boning, or so I have read.

Ouch. I remember the pain that the tabs and bias binding inflicted on me.
I have a few Elizabethan corsets floating around somewhere, as well as a faux-victorian, and they do get easier, the more you make.