Blue Peter corsetry

[delirium71]

I spent a rather interesting evening last night cutting out photocopies from the Jll Salen book and sellotaping them together to get a better comparison of shape. I started because I was going to use one of the stays patterns as a starting point for the next shoot - the 1790 one. It comes up tiny. I'm kicking myself for not photocopying the 1750

Comments

[sparklewren]

"I didn't do any of the regency or the ribbon ones, or the Edwardian (as she didn't pick very inspiring examples of later ones)."

I thought that too about this book. Perhaps this was all she had access to? Or maybe she didn't want to do patterns that have already been done? I don't know...

[delirium71]

I think the problem with the book is that there's a discrepancy between the author's main interest and our interest in buying it.

She's approaching it from a costumer's viewpoint with an added degree of academic interest. Hence the inclusion of some fairly unattractive items and the child's and doll's corsets. Which are interesting from a study angle, and in the case of some of the clunkier garments,still probably relevant in theatre for instance.

We're looking purely for beautiful corsets we can adapt into saleable and wearable garments. The book falls a little short on that.

I actually think the book falls short of both sides by attempting to be all things to all people. Not enough photographs and text for academic value and not enough pretty, usable eye-candy for us.

I still think Lara should translate her collection into a book. I think she could produce the book which that one could have been!

[virginiadear]

How large an image do you need, giving dimensions of the sheet of paper on which it would be printed and granting that the image will take up most of the page with no more than one inch of margin all round?

[delirium71]

I've been enlarging them onto A3 at about 200% so they're full size. I'll get the rest done when I'm back at work. I probably won't get much done with it this week anyway as I'm painting rooms and also have a corset order to get on with.

I was having a break last night from cleaning and decorating and thought I'd play with the patterns. It was an interesting exercise. I've been meaning to go through them and do that for a while. But there's always something else to do!

[virginiadear]

Ah.
Well, I haven't yet had the pleasure of reading Ms. Salen's book, although it's on my Wish List, but my mind was sort of ruminating on where else you might find patterns, and Nora Waugh's corsets and crinolines came to mind.
I was also thinking about some sites where you might find some of the images---not patterns---of other corsets that you might be interested in.

[delirium71]

I've got Corsets and Crinolines too. But the beauty of the Salen book is less fiddling to get the right initial enlargment. it has lots of drawbacks as a book but the larger scale diagrams are a bonus.