Eva's journal

My hand sewn effigy stays have been finished for almost a month, but now I have actually gotten around to taking some pictures. There will be more of them later on my web site, as well as a description of how I made it, the mistakes I made etc. But for now, here are two pictures:




As you can see it fits perfectly now.
That is good. What is not so good is that most of my 16th century clothes are now too big. Including the Anthonis Mor dress. For that dress it's just so little that it is solved just by wearing the green kirtle I made for it instead of this corset, but other dresses are really too big.

But a good thing is that I now can get into a very pretty dress I made in 2002, from light green brocade with metal threads and which I have only worn once. I will have to remake the bodice however since it is 8 cm too wide at the waist. It does fit over the bust, but the square neckline is a little too small; I can see that now that I know more about 16th century dress than I did when I made it. But if I find the energy to remake it, it really is a very pretty dress. I'm not sure about the trim I used, but most of it will have to be taken away anyway if I'm remaking the bodice.

Because I have decided to be totally and absolutely crazy with this project I've decided to make the lacing cord with tablets. You can make round cords from tablet weaving if you always put the weft in from the same side, thus wrapping the cord while weaving. This is an old technique and there are several examples found in the excavations from medieval London. I will use the thickest of my vegetable dyed silk for warp and a thinner silk for weft. The colours are muted, so it won't be a stunningly beautiful cord, but at least a both functional and period correct one.
I'm using just 3 tablets (4 holes in each) and I'm still afraid it may be to thick for the lacing holes, but one never knows before trying.

I just tried on the finished hand sewn effigy corset. I fit, but it was obvious that it was too long. The splits for tabs started two inches below my natural waist and even if they liked long torsos in the latter 16th century that was too long.
So I took a pair of scissors and cut through the fabric, seams, binding and reeds. Now I need to take away what's left of the chamois binding, secure the boning channels and bind it again.

I'm going to try and take half the boning out. The reed are about double the thickness of the split cane myladyswardrobe used in her stays, so even if I'm a lot fatter I probably don't need double reeds in every channel. I will keep them in a few of the front channels, but otherwise they will be pulled out. Not too easy since some of the boning channels are narrow, but I'm sure it can be done.

The holes are sewn, the pieces are whipstitched together and I'm busy boning it. Inspired by liadethornegge actually counting her boning channels I counted mine: 30 on the back and 25 on each front, of varying length of course.

Both front pieces are now sewn, and I've made 10 lacing holes. But since there are only 2 cm between them and I have a long torso there is a great many left to do. According to the Elizabethan costuming page the original had holes 5/8" apart, which is 1,6 cm, but I couldn't make out if it was between the centre of the holes or between the sewn edges of the hole, so I decided to go for 2 cm as a compromise.

As you may recall my sewing resolution for this year was to only sew fun stuff, things I wanted to do, no matter if I need them or have somewhere to wear them. So there was 18th and 19th century and some modern clothing. And then some stuff I will have to do, like 16th c clothes for my husband and new clothes for the kids. But, as I said, I don't need more pre-1600 garb.
Well, in this resolution lies of course the right to change ones mind. So I have started on my hand sewn effigy corset. I want to make more 16th century clothes and then I really need a corset that fits me well and that I like. I'm making it the sixe of my green kirtle, that I wear under my Anthonis Mor dress. It was made two years ago, when I was the smallest I've been for many years and it isn't likely that I will get much smaller. Yes, I may loose more weight, in fact I hope so, but there is very little fat on my rib cage, so I will not get much smaller there. And since the desired shape is conical the size of the waist and bust can't change much either. It will be small now, but wearable, and it will hopefully fit me better later. Since it's the same size as the green kirtle I can wear it when I wear a red petticoat with my Mor dress too, like the woman entering the room to the left in this picture.