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Welcome to Sparklewren Bespoke Corsetry. Please check the blog entries below for the latest news.
Crimson Collection - caged experiment
Also today I found a bit of time to apply some black casings to an experimental design I’ve been playing with. I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. To be honest, I don’t know if I will really have a solid opinion of this piece until I see it on a real squishable body…
It started the day as such:
And ended up as follows:
Placed on a mannequin, you begin to get an idea of the criss-crossing pattern. It’s certainly unusual, but it’s hard to imagine the proper effect whilst it is sitting without the pressure of a body to smooth it out. And perhaps I would like this better in a different colour scheme.
Or perhaps I would have preferred it without the black casings entirely! But I had committed myself to trying the design in this way from the start. I will also like it considerably better once it is trimmed, lined, boned, and neatly bound.
R&L frosted green update - texture
With this tightlacing corset, a high number of steels is desirable for comfort and shaping. My client and I were considering numerous black casings (unavoidably decorative) and topstitched interior casings (almost invisible), when she suggested self-made silk exterior casings.
Now, I hadn’t placed such casings alongside satin coutil ones before, and was concerned that the higher profile of the silk/coutil casings would look out of place (they are slightly bulkier on account of how they are made). But my worry was unfounded, as the surface texture of the different casings, ribbons, and lace looks great!
Don’t forget, I also have a pre-business sample in my etsy shop, which is a derivative of the Ruffles&Lace designs. Check it out here!
Remember the draped corset idea to make you go cross-eyed?
Well, here is the flat pattern taken directly from the drape! Inspired by the complex diagonals and seams of some Edwardian corsets, of course.
This thing is utterly terrifying. I haven’t changed anything or smoothed out the lines, simply traced it direct from the draped pieces. I worried only about the waistline since the other markers (low hip and underbust) were so insanely placed due to the way the pieces wrap around the body that I was going mental just looking at them. I do anticipate plenty of problems arising at toile stage, but it’ll be fun to see what happens (even just looking at it now, I can see at least one error that I have made!). And my reason for draping rather than using the Body Contour method or trying to work out a flat pattern? To ensure that the pattern pieces as created would, straight from the word go, lie flat when used to trace a pattern. I mean, look at those shapes! I would never have been able to guess at those shapes if not by draping the actual fabric directly onto the mannequin… still, it actually only has 10 pieces per side, for all it looks like a hundred!
Today was a pattern drafting day in general. One piece for a private client order with full hip gores, the wonderful nightmare shown above, and another very exciting draped piece (that I am writing up for FR, so I can’t share it here I’m afraid). I had also wanted to re-size the 1890s corded corset that I did a tester of at Christmas, but I ran out of time as I was working on a bespoke client order as shown below:
This piece is a kind of cross between a lattice corset and my caged designs, with shaping reminiscent of the black cherry corset.
Top: new “caged lattice” pattern.
Below: “black cherry” pattern (before alteration – I don’t have any “after” photographs, but the side seam came inwards at the hip and a couple of other points were tweaked and moved around).
You can see how I’ve done a similar 7 piece pattern draft but how the difference in figure and proportions is resulting in a longer, leaner hourglass shape. This is one of the reasons why I like to have client torso photographs to work from, it helps me visualise more clearly where to place shaping and reduction. Beautiful shaping is possibly the most important aspect of corsetry, whether the client be athletic, curvy, thin, voluptuous or so on. It’s very much about producing the best shape for the individual, and I hope to continue to improve upon this with time and study.
I’ll be having a toile day soon, so I’ll let you know what happens with the 10 piece pattern then.
Crimson Collection - lattice corset
Over the weekend I got a touch more done on the crimson corsets, but mostly I just relaxed which was lovely 
I went with crimson casings in the end (many thanks for people’s thoughts on this) and I’m liking how it’s turning out. I need to make more casings though! And I am also going to made black busk panels (black lacing panels too) as I generally prefer lattice corsets with that detail.
It’s a shame this fabric is so tricky to photograph, it has a beautiful dark lustre in real life that gets somehow “flattened” when photographed. I’ll spend more time trying to get the exposure right once they’re finished.
Crimson Collection - in progress
The Crimson Collection was started a little while ago with a view to creating some permanent samples for display which demonstrate different styles, shapes, techniques and so on. It also gives me a way of filling little spots of time, either when I’m waiting on a delivery, client email, measurements, etc. or when I just need to refresh my head and boost my concentration by relaxing on something that isn’t a client order.
Once I’d finished today’s “proper” work, I stitched the lining layers for the above three crimson pieces and pondered some more on the lattice corset. I wished to make a mid-bust as inspired by the antiques here and here, with a view to mimicking their look quite closely. So the ribbon placement is more curved than in other lattice corsets I have made. I am as yet undecided about the casings (black or crimson – the antiques always seem to match the casings to the body rather than the ribbons) and whether it should have lace and a rosette as the antiques do. The colour is already very strong (though not as strong as this flash photograph would suggest!), so I think I’ll ponder it a bit more. I’m veering towards crimson casings at the moment.
The central cincher is pretty standard, so not a lot to tell there. I will be using a combination of spirals and flats I think, and you can see it’s basic shaping here. It’s my standard sized 24” (closing at 22”) pattern, which tends to fit my mannequins very well and is therefore best for display purposes.
The third piece is the real experiment. As it is only for display (not sale) I am trying out synthetic whalebone. Further, I am doing what some larger corsetry companies do and sandwiching the bones directly between the fused fashion layer and the coutil. I am of the thinking that this will create a pretty enough corset that would be good for perhaps one or two wears, but little more, and I don’t think I’ll end up repeating the technique. Still, it’s good fun to explore! I intend to photograph it modeled, and then simply keep it for display on my mannequins, so time will tell!
Whistle while you work
I can’t actually whistle though.
My workroom is south facing, so on a lovely, moderately sunny, day like this it fills up with light and warmth, which is ideal. Throw in a few merry songs on my iPod and I’m good to go.
So, this morning has been spent at my 99k singing and sewing. I do find that when I’m happy and productive I sing to myself, so it’s just as well I work alone. Time for a quick lunchbreak, and then back to it!
Second Design Sheet - red caged corset
Following on from our first design ideas and chats, my client for the red caged corset has selected a longline corset with spoon busk as inspired by the black cherry corset I recently made.
I think we’re going with the pomegranate silk (as shown on the original “caged” corset, but inverted), and I’ve been playing with ideas that go between my caged design and antique lattice corsets by making the red silk bands wider (about 1” or 1.5”) and using black exterior casings.
Antique corset enthusiasts who enjoyed the lattice corset, please consider donating to LaraCorsets website if you find her online gallery useful or interesting
Curves and decoupage :-)
As some of you will have read last week, I have a delicious new mannequin! She’s a modern re-interpretation of an antique shape (very straight-fronted, full hips and bosom, with a teeny-tiny 21” waist!) that Lucy Curtis of CorsetLacedMannequins decoupaged with vintage French and English papers. There are little adverts for lace tea-frocks, crepe-de-chine jumpers, and snippets of stories about people with names like Lady FitzAlan and Mrs Moberly Bell. If you would like a good look at her, Lucy’s photographs are far prettier than mine! Lucy has also wrote a lovely blog post about my mannequin
Now, despite the seemingly tiny size of these mannequins, they are actually brilliantly suited to displaying standard sized corsets of 20” – 22” (closed waist measurement, so to be worn at 22” and 24” respectively). This is a rather ordinary and common size for corsetry, so it’s very useful. Underbusts and midbusts look especially good on these curvy mannequins. As the topline comes higher and the hips get lower, the fit goes off a touch, and as you can see with the 26” corset below (closing at 24”) displaying a piece that is slightly too large does result in some gapping and wrinkling.
But put a 24” underbust (to close at 22”) on her and it sits beautifully!
The above piece is, of course, unfinished, so it isn’t as close to the mannequin as it will be. But it does hint at the fun to come! I also love this mannequin as she has slightly different shaping and proportions to my two others (which are based on 1875 and 1910 silhouettes, respectively).
I do now have a slight obsession with decoupage though… I’m sure it will pass. But in the meantime, I’m having a hard time telling myself that I really do not need another one. Especially not decoupaged with a beautiful city map, for example…
Looking at Lucy’s photographs reminds me also, I either need a prettier house (ha!) or to get some sort of backdrop for photography. I’m toying with the idea of one of those simple “pop-up” flat backdrops that have a different colour on each side (eg: grey and blue) since they seem to take up the least room and are reasonably priced. A plain, flat backdrop would surely be an improvement on what I can achieve with draperies…
Busy/tired Sparklewren…
Ooh, I’ve been busy today… lots more sewing of various items that I’ve had prepped and waiting during my time without my favourite Singer. Preparatory work (pressing, fusing, cutting, etc. etc.) is all well and good, but I never quite feel as though I’m making progress until I’ve done the bulk of the stitching.
It’s been a good day. Lots accomplished, no skipped stitches or unpicked seams, everything easily to hand, no interruptions, and good progress made with both a sample piece and couple of client orders.
The sample piece is going to be a mid-bust lattice corset, crimson damask taffeta with black ribbons. Not sure yet if I would prefer the exterior casings to be in crimson or black. Probably black. Anyway, I’m mostly working on it in-between orders (along with the rest of my crimson samples – I’m doing them as a little collection) so it will probably be a while before I have any fun photographs to share. In the meantime, here’s a link to a stunning antique R&G corset found courtesy of google.
