The Battle of Unrealistic Expectations

It is Thursday and this is the most prepared I've been for a show in ages, probably ever. This is my 14th year of Christmas holiday shows; some I was just a vendor, many I organised and ran. This one I am just selling my own wares. Of course I had unreasonable expectations about what I could accomplish for this show; given that it was the only one I am doing this season. Given these unrealistic expectations, I am still okay with not crossing every item off my ridiculous list.

Today I finally finished one of the set of 7 corsets that will comprise the first line of corsets that I have been working on for a year and a half. This one was cut out a year ago, and I have been trying to work on it and her sisters in between other obligations that I have been desperately trying (or avoiding) to end their obligation that hangs over me like a dark cloud. It has been such a slow process that I have wondered if I could ever finish just one. And today I did. The others will follow sooner or later; they are all in various stages of started but not done. I need to remember that I chose corsetry because it is intricate, has a lot of steps and pieces, and is difficult and complicated. They are like paintings. I can tweak and fuss over them, but I need to be careful not to overwork them. Knowing when something is finished is an art unto itself.

I keep telling myself that this will be my last craft show. I don't know if this is really true, I say it every year. My business is evolving in this slow change that I have no idea where it will end up. I know I am not quitting. These things I have started will be finished in their own time, and me trying to push it won't make it happen any faster. When I started with the corsets, I wanted to make museum pieces. They are slow and fussy, and require thousands of tiny stitches.

So if you are around Portland this weekend, come see me at Crafty Wonderland. I will be there with all my finished pretty things.

1911 Corset Sew Along: The Finished Corset

I broke five needles flossing this corset, but it is finished. Well, almost finished. There are garters to attach to this. Garter that I had the worst time finding one piece of hardware for. But now that I have it, I am on the fence as to whether to use it or whether I want to add garters at all! Generally this type of corset doesn't have removable garters. In the sew along we were given instructions for covered garters; which I was all set to make, but now I am not so sure. Since this corset is so clean lined, I hesitate to add such a foofy thing. Plain garters are period correct too. What do you think?

Otherwise this corset is done. I decided to lace it with silver ribbon; why not? It is a little impractical, but it does the job (it holds everything in snug and sound). I invited my friend Shana over for tea, and she was kind enough to take a couple of snapshots of me in my corset in my messy turret..

I want to thank Jo at Bridges on the Body for hosting this Sew Along! It was super fun, and a bit of an escape from what I normally do. If you like to sew, this is a fun project, and all of the instructions are here in bite sized pieces. It was really fun to see what everyone else made; check them out in our flickr pool.

I haven't thought about an outfit to go over this for a Titanic reenactment. Any suggestions?

1911 Corset Sew Along Final Fitting

Once I put the whole corset together, it is time to lace it up and try it on to see if I need to trim or cut off the the top and bottom edges. By the time of the Edwardian era, corsets had become longer in their lines, and had more of a focus on smoothing lines and the S curve rather than the hourglass waist. The top of this particular style of corset rises over the chest line without covering the whole bust. The bottom covers the hips. The boning ends at the top of the hip so you can sit down.

I am pretty satisfied with the lines and the fit of this corset! The top softly hits at the bottom of the bust giving a little bit of lift. The bottom curves over the hips with a bit of a curve upward in the front and the back. The flat steel boning curves nicely along my body without stabbing anywhere, and clears the chair when I sit down. As a matter of fact, it is surprisingly comfortable. The one thing with this corset as opposed to my more victorian styled corsets, is that the long line makes it more difficult to lace up by myself. I can see why one would need a lady's maid to help get dressed and undressed.

I bound the top and bottom with plain navy satin. Traditionally, you might have lace trim at the top. I decided to forgo the lace since I like clean lines, and the stripes are busy enough already.

The last part is the flossing. This the embroidery at each end of the boning to keep it from moving around in its casing. The victorians had some very elaborate flossing, but most of the corsets in the edwardian era were more plain and simple. I used this corset as the inspiration for my flossing design. I bought both silver and navy embroidery floss to see which looked best.

Navy won out. The silver looked bad (too bad to bother taking a photo).

This corset has both 1/4" and 1/2" flat steel boning in it. I made X's over the 1/2" bones.

Next: DONE.

1911 Corset Project

I came across this blog when I was doing research for my new corset line. I have been reading it here and there. I hadn't checked it in a while, but came across this sew along last week. And because it is in nice bite sized pieces, I decided it would be fun to do. The 1911 corset is to go along with the centennial of the Titanic this year. When I mentioned that to a friend, he asked if there would be any re-enactments. Not sure that is something that I would really like to re-enact, but to each their own I suppose. I am not sure if I will make an outfit to match, though that might be fun too..

I had a bit of a time choosing the fabric, because the period specific ones are kind of boring for my tastes, but I found some really lovely Italian cotton stripe that will be somewhat true to the time, but I am more interested in something that I would wear v. something period correct. It will make for a double layer rather than the single layer that the piece calls for, but every corset I have made has at least three layers, so no big deal.

So often, I am asked what my favourite fashion era is. I like to say RIGHT NOW, because I can pick and choose elements from all my favourite eras. I am not into the whole mish-mash thing, but fashion and personal style are pretty fluid; with things blending together rather than stark lines being drawn between each decade. Each era draws on the past and interprets it in their own fashion. There are those purists out there, but have you watched a period drama from before now that doesn't look dated to the era that it was made?

There is an official flickr pool for this. I will post my progress here on my blog and in the flickr pool when I have something a bit more interesting than pattern pieces made of tracing paper. I am really excited to see what everyone else does. There are people from all over the world participating!

and on to the next thing

If you have been following my Twitter feed lately or have visited me at Crafty Wonderland or talked to me in person recently, it is no secret that I am working on an exciting new project: CORSETS. And you may say to me, but Kirsten, you have already been making corsets for years. True, true, but these are different. These are steel boned traditional waist reducing corsets. Each has three layers of fabric, spring and spiral steel boning, and tons of handwork. My great-grandmother Bachan taught me how to sew when I was three. She hand basted everything with a needle and thread, and I thought that was totally crazy and unnecessary. But these are all hand basted; they have to be for the pieces to match up perfectly.

The lovely absinthe green and black lace corset pictured above is my first of hopefully many. I am learning about how they fit, and techniques that will save me from tearing up my fingers like I did on this first one. I used an altered commercial pattern on this first one, and I have already designed a new on from scratch (in muslin form below). I hand sewed the lace on and hand flossed the boning in the traditional manner. I am not sure that I am interested in historically accurate in looks, but I do use all the traditional techniques (as I always have with everything else I make). I have been thoroughly obsessed, and researched this topic way too much in the last six months. There is something really satisfying about hand finishing a garment.



Why this, why now? When I started my business 13 years ago, I was making really crazy labour intensive pieces couture style. All cut to fit and hand finished with excruciating detail. I need to be challenged. I need to make my own designs that dance around my brain whether I have time to attempt them or not. This what makes me happiest. In the last several years, I have been relegated to accessories and taking on whatever project that offered me enough money to survive. I had so many ideas that never got to be made, or are sitting half finished in boxes or languishing in sketch books or invading my dreams. The dreams haunted me with the designs I longed to make instead of wiling away the hours avoiding the things that I had to make on deadlines that had me pushed up until the last minute..

So here I am. There will be a trunk show in the fall, date(s) and place(s) TBA. In the mean time, I am looking to try this lovely muslin on as many bodies as possible. If you are in Portland and have a waist 27-32 i would love to try this lovely muslin on you. I will be grading the pattern to fit other sizes, but I have to start somewhere, so if you are outside this range, I may need to try a later muslin when I get to that point. I am slow. Slow because all the things that I feel are worth doing take time. Slow because I still have to fill orders and take the occasional odd project to keep going. Interested? Send me a message.

size does matter

through years of custom work i have gotten to be reasonably good at fit. the transfer from my mind to a two dimensional sketch to a three dimensional garment with all of its curves and movenment is more than enough to confound even many designers. i actually enjoy the challenge of the female form with all of its idiosyncracies. the biggest challenge is to fit within a size chart. as you may have guessed from trying on mountains of clothes (how many friends have called me crying from the dressing room of the local department store):

there is no such thing as an average woman.

we are reduced to 3 measurements: bust, waist, hips. no account for height, nor proportions relating to the three, nor length of limbs nor torso. fit can be a nightmare. setting a sleeve to lay flat AND be able to move withour benefit of stretchy fabric is a definite skill. so what happens when one is forced to make pret-a porter off the rack clothing? there are always the people on the peripheries of average size X giving me advice. oh how i hate the "you should," but i do listen. i may ignore, but i do listen. i have been developing an everyone corset for months now. i think i have gotten it satisfactorily made in its curves and adjustability +/- an inch.

the challenge was first grading it into multiple sizes. this process is usually put off as long as possible. it is really tedious. i won't bore you with the details, but it involves making that perfect pattern into every size considering those size chart boundaries of bust waist hip. i have finally managed 4 sizes: 1,2,3,4. but what to call them? they don't exactly correspond to bra sizes or SML. come try one on!

PRETTY GIRL HOLIDAY SALE
16 november 2007 artists' reception and sale 6-9
17 november 2007 sale 11-5
at the egg
534 se oak street (at grand & 6th) in portland

www.myspace.com/prettygirlholidaysale