poetryincostume

[poetryincostume]

The Madwoman

Aesthetic wrapper, 2020

Upholstery damask, silk ribbon, petersham, steel spun silk

#project: the madwoman #extant projects: 2020 #project: aesthetic wrapper #media: crimson peak #(sort of) #victorian #project: historical sewing #historical sewing #historical dress #gothic romance #gothic heroine #Halloween #*claps hands* I love all my terrible photos #crimson peak #ish #heavily inspired #happy Halloween ghouls and goblins!

[poetryincostume]

My zelda project was borne out of a similarity in silhouette with belle epoque silhouette, and my own meandering musings on just how (understandably) terrible the Zelda of BotW must be at fine sewing and the frustrations with and disastrous state of her entirely non-existent trousseau.

After watching the BotW GDC talk ‘Breaking Conventions’ (which I can’t recommend enough), I decided to approach this project on the same principles as the actual game: triangles! I wanted to insert and form triangles in as many elements as possible.

These combinations are false in that they were intended to be combinations - camisole and drawers in one, joined at the waist. When it came time to create the necessary opening in the camisole I couldn’t bring myself to do it as I loved it as it was. (Also I have an inconvenient button phobia so I was humming and hawing over fastenings. I took the easy way out.) These combinations are really separates, but that can be our little secret.

The top was drafted using the ‘handkerchief’ method which would have been a means for a lady to recycle a worn out (or perhaps elevate an especially beautiful) handkerchief by dividing it into four equal triangles which would then make up the centre front and back, and two side panels. Assembled, this would then gather into a waist and could be used as a camisole, corset cover or, as here, the upper body of combinations. The legs were a very simple circle drawer, with the same arguably triangular pattern pieces front and back gathered into the waistband, and lightly gathered into a kneeband (slot lace here.) As was for correct for this period, these drawers are left open along the crotche.

Some of the panels were pintucked for additional embellishment and to elaborate on the lovely cotton dobby I used for some panels.

The main labour was in the insertion lace: every single seam was joined with lovely cluny lace. Every seam was then worked over by hand using three point stitching, which creates lovely rows of decorative stitched triangles. Hundreds of little triforces for a Hylian Princess! With the number of seams from panelling and insertion, and the width before gathering (each drawers leg is 2m wide) this was a lengthy process.

False combinations with s-bend corset, 2020

Organic cotton/linen, cotton dobby, cotton lace, silk thread, satin ribbon

Silk matka, cotton coutil, cotton poplin, satin ribbon, cotton lace, antique brass suspenders

#project: Princess zelda #media: breath of the wild #media: the legend of Zelda #extant projects: 2020 #historical sewing #underpinnings #needlework #combinations #historical dress #cosplay #costume #poetry in costume

[poetryincostume]

Princess Zelda, 2020

False combinations with s-bend corset

Organic cotton/linen, cotton dobby, cotton lace, silk thread, satin ribbon

Silk matka, cotton coutil, cotton poplin, satin ribbon, cotton lace, antique brass suspenders

#project: Princess Zelda #media: Breath of the Wild #media: the legend of Zelda #the legend of Zelda #triforce #princess Zelda #breath of the wild #Edwardian #underpinnings #combinations #corset #historical sewing #historical dress #cosplay #needlework #hand sewing #costume #extant projects: 2020 #another of my favourites

[poetryincostume]

1830’s underpinnings, 2021

Handworked linen chemise, cotton twill hand-corded transitional corset, cotton corded petticoat, two tucked cotton petticoats, organdie pleated petticoat.

With matching hand-corded cotton twill facemask

#project: the name twin #project: 1830’s #early Victorian #underpinnings #corset #petticoats #chemise #historical sewing #historical dress #historical costume #costume #extant projects: 2021 #poetry in costume #and a facemask bc this was a lockdown project #the most useless photos but for some reason I really enjoy them #some day I’ll take proper pictures of these #the vibes - one could almost call them spooky

[poetryincostume]

On October 3rd, Elric asked me what day it was.

I said, ‘How dare you to talk to me, you coward.’

Major General Olivier Mira Armstrong

Traditionally tailored uniform, 2019

Japanese twill, canvas, grosgrain, leather, gilt braid

#project: major general Olivier Mira armstrong #media: fullmetal alchemist #fma #fullmetal alchemist #Olivier Armstrong #fullmetal alchemist day #extant projects: 2019 #tailoring #historical costume #historical sewing #cosplay #poetry in costume #I’m still so sad about my wig in this shoot - it took me a while to really nail the armstrong curl plus this was the hottest day that year #and I moved a bunch of furniture around after I was bewigged so that really messed things up. oh well! #at least I nailed it for competition #tho I have exactly one selfie to prove that

[poetryincostume]

For one last finishing touch, for the girl with no heart, and as part of my larger plan, I wanted to add a little embellishment.

I have long since followed the works of Karolina Laskowska and Sparkle Wren and adore their deliciously decadent approaches to lingerie as objet d’arte. Heavily embellished and experimental corsetry are mainstays of both deisgners’ collections.

Using Czech glass beads I had in my stash, I dove into embellishing without much of a plan beyond ‘heart’ below the left breast. Initially I had thought to do a literal half heart shape, drawing the line to fencing hearts that I have had in the back of my head for a year. Quickly I decided that would look sloppy unless I could take it right up to the busk, which wouldn’t work at all. Instead I went for the vaguest allusion to an organic, anatomical heart. I wish had more of the black and bronze beads to create more depth and sense of void, but I was using what I had to hand.

When I was regathering my long-neglected research for my Helga Sinclair ribbon corset, I rediscovered this gorgeous extant example in the V&A from 1895. Unlike most extant examples I've come across, this one doesn't feature overlapping ribbons. This suggests that it was made for a particularly slim woman who needed very little support and for particular summertime breathability (supported by the garment waist measuring 19", suggesting a laced waist of 22-24".)

To me, long-since trapped in The Locked Tomb, the ribcage-like appearance was inescapable. Wouldn't you know it, I have a Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia costume that I started a year ago that was needing a little something something to pull the design together and to help motivate me.

The pattern was adapted from my Helga ribbon corset, allowing for 24mm wide ribbon to meet at the sides and spread evenly in a ribcage like fashion at the front panel.

This time I used a beautiful shell-coloured silk ribbon. The ribbon is so beautifully soft, that it was a nightmare to work with. I do not recommend it for something that needs quite so much working as it marked with so much as a hard look! I am fairly certain that the V&A example the ribbon is self-mounted, so I again mounted my main ribbon, this time on a white cottong taffeta ribbon. If i slipped with my mounting or the ribbon twisted or buckled, i thought the white would be a suitably stark and skeletal contrast to the main silk ribbon.

As I am perhaps a little more fleshy than the lady who owned the original 1895 example, I cheated and also added a base layer of nude tulle to help smooth out the laced-up silhouette.

The overall construction process was the same as Helga: quilted the ribbon panels across the boned panels before covering and sandwiching them, and inserting the bones from the side to allow for for hem stitching.

To finish, another ivory powder-coated busk and stitched over eyelets for security.

References:

Underwear Fashion in Detail, 2010, Eleri Lynn

Corsets - Historical Patterns & Techniques, 2008, Jill Salen

Corsets & Crinolines, 2017, Norah Waugh

1895 Ribbon Corset, V&A - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O138887/corset-unknown/

How To Make A Basic Ribbon Corset, Sidney Eileen - http://sidneyeileen.com/sewing-2/sewing/corset-making/basic-ribbon/

An Edwardian Ribbon Corset, History Wardrobe - https://historywardrobe.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/an-edwardian-ribbon-corset/

#project: crown prince kiriona #project: ribbon corset #media: the locked tomb #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #gideo nav #beading #historical dress #embellishment #historical costume #cosplay #historical sewing #poetry in costume #project wip #making of

[poetryincostume]

When I was regathering my long-neglected research for my Helga Sinclair ribbon corset, I rediscovered this gorgeous extant example in the V&A from 1895. Unlike most extant examples I've come across, this one doesn't feature overlapping ribbons. This suggests that it was made for a particularly slim woman who needed very little support and for particular summertime breathability (supported by the garment waist measuring 19", suggesting a laced waist of 22-24".)

To me, long-since trapped in The Locked Tomb, the ribcage-like appearance was inescapable. Wouldn't you know it, I have a Crown Prince Kiriona Gaia costume that I started a year ago that was needing a little something something to pull the design together and to help motivate me.

The pattern was adapted from my Helga ribbon corset, allowing for 24mm wide ribbon to meet at the sides and spread evenly in a ribcage like fashion at the front panel.

This time I used a beautiful shell-coloured silk ribbon. The ribbon is so beautifully soft, that it was a nightmare to work with. I do not recommend it for something that needs quite so much working as it marked with so much as a hard look! I am fairly certain that the V&A example the ribbon is self-mounted, so I again mounted my main ribbon, this time on a white cottong taffeta ribbon. If i slipped with my mounting or the ribbon twisted or buckled, i thought the white would be a suitably stark and skeletal contrast to the main silk ribbon.

As I am perhaps a little more fleshy than the lady who owned the original 1895 example, I cheated and also added a base layer of nude tulle to help smooth out the laced-up silhouette.

The overall construction process was the same as Helga: quilted the ribbon panels across the boned panels before covering and sandwiching them, and inserting the bones from the side to allow for for hem stitching.

To finish, another ivory powder-coated busk and stitched over eyelets for security.

References:

Underwear Fashion in Detail, 2010, Eleri Lynn

Corsets - Historical Patterns & Techniques, 2008, Jill Salen

Corsets & Crinolines, 2017, Norah Waugh

1895 Ribbon Corset, V&A - https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O138887/corset-unknown/

How To Make A Basic Ribbon Corset, Sidney Eileen - http://sidneyeileen.com/sewing-2/sewing/corset-making/basic-ribbon/

An Edwardian Ribbon Corset, History Wardrobe - https://historywardrobe.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/an-edwardian-ribbon-corset/

#project: ribbon corset #project: crown prince kiriona #media: the locked tomb #the locked tomb #Nona the ninth #Gideon nav #Edwardian #historical sewing #historical dress #costume #cosplay #project wip #making of #poetry in costume

[poetryincostume]

Hey, what kind of costuming do you do? I'm obsessed with the corsets you've posted, they honestly look immaculate and I love the period inspiration. are you a historical costumer?

Hello!

Thank you so much, I'm so glad you like them! I've been wanting to make a ribbon corset for years, so finally making two has been very pleasing.

I broadly call myself a cosplayer as much as I call myself anything. I have a lot of feelings about the various labels people use and the forms of gatekeeping and snobbery that come from each. Really costume, in whatever form you may approach it, is an art form.

I have been working as a professional costumier in the UK film industry (tho not right now, thank you US studios for your greed) for the last 13 years. I’ve only been making for myself since 2017. I approach all of my projects the same way I approach my work - and have been so lucky to observe incredible designers working: I always end up falling into research holes and drag in historicsim, art, pop culture, and all sorts into my projects. But at the heart of it all, for me, is exploring character and narrative. Painting and sculpting characters out of fabric.

This is largely why I refer to my personal work as cosplay for ease: because I'm making characters or using character, theme or story as a leaping off point. See my little star warsy inspired jacket, and The Madwoman. The Saddest Girl In The World works as a standalone piece in this vein, but is also part of a bigger, whole costume that I started uuhhhhh a year ago. I want everything I make to stand on its own and express something.

Left to right: - Numa, Star Wars Rebels - I closely referenced the French Resistance in my research and making, but this is a true and true 'accurate' cosplay. - Olivier Mira Armstrong, Fullmetal Alchmist - also an 'accurate' cosplay, but I did deep research in historical tailoring, Japanese tailoring, and World War II military tailoring and created the entire costume using historical techniques. I won two competitions with this costume! - Princess Zelda, Breath of the Wild - an example of me building from the skin out. This is an accurately historical turn-of-the-century combination set made using historical handkerchief and insertion techniques and entirely handsewn. However I infused it with character and story by constructing the main body of the combinations of triangles, and piecing it together with three point needlework (more triangles), for a total Triforce infusion. There is a full set of similarly triforcey companion undergarments.

It's all fake and in space; it's all poetry. I'm playing. With costume. So I guess I'm a cosplayer, but when you're playing the limit is your imagination.

#ask and answer #bigsnorp #about xena #i don't think this is helpful. TLDR yes there is historicism bleeding through all of my work no i don't exclusively class myself as a #historical costumer. I'm just here to explore what i love intellectually and materially #and i don't expect anyone else to be doing things the way tht I do things bc where is the fun in that #can I just call myself an artist? it is art I like to think I’m making art #david zaslav personally owes me 200+ hours of overtime #absolutely delighted by the reaction to my ribbon corsets 🖤🖤🖤🖤 #I just really love costume #so very very much

[poetryincostume]

A ribbon corset has been on my list to make for a good few years now. In 2020 I was full steam ahead to make a Helga Sinclair (Atlantis) cosplay. Life, pandemic, work, and endless distractions means we’re still not quite there yet, but in dribs and drabs I’m tackling elements of the costume as I’m still sitting on the majority of the materials.

This was when when I was in the depths of being very taken with making costumes from the skin out; fit, silhouette and sharp clean lines are my priority when making and where I find great satisfaction. To achieve a perfect shape, you need the perfect structure to build on.

Playing with undergarments creates further opportunity to explore character and the setting, historical or fictional, in a fun intimate way. Fabric choices, actual garment choices, shooting for a silhouette that is easily drawn but harder to achieve in the flesh. This led to me deciding that Helga would need a full set of pseudo-historical undergarments.

With references to the Kaiser, the overall steampunk aesthetic, and the silhouettes featured in the Washington DC-set opening scenes, Atlantis is clearly set in the early 1910s before the outbreak of World War I. Helga's design, however, drew heavily on Hollywood starlets of the '30's and '40's, most notably Veronica Lake and her career making hair. Withn the film, Helga remained highly individual, and was exclusively animated at Disney's French Studio by Japanese animator Yoshimichi Tamura for maximum sex appeal that Burbank animators apparently just can't get right.

This gave me a lovely big window of around 30 years to play and pick and choose from for possible undergarments which led me to: the ribbon corset.

Ribbon corsets emerged alongside sports and 'health' corsets at the turn of the twentieth century. These developed out of a growing engagement with sports and exercise in the leisure classes, the burgeoning Dress Reform movement that advocated the abandonment of the corset. Particularly in the case of the pretty ribbon corset there was also the influence of the late Victorian aesthetic movement that favoured loose, diaphonous romantic garments.

These corsets sat under the bust and had boning at the centre front, back and sides and no more and rested on the high hip. This allowed maximum movement for the active lady, gently supporting the torso in the fashionable flat fronted shaped with little restircution. The body of the corset was otherwise was made up, as in the name, of strips of ribbon.

When looking for discussion of how to construct one of these, all pointers led to Sidney Eileen's perfectly detailed tutorial, which I do recommend reading through. To my eye it is a very modern approach that I didn't quite agree with so I used it as a jumping off point along with the patterns in Corsets & Crinolines, and Corsets - Historical Patterns and Techniques.

To draft up the pattern was very simple: I marked out my desired waist measure, then measured up my centre front and centre back lengths (averaged out from the various patterns in my references compared against myself). I then used my ribbon - 50mm jacquard - to map out my body layout.

When it came time to construct I realised that my ribbon - so abstractly bought years ago - just didn't have the body to take this structure. Much too flimsy, much too synthetic. Fortunately I had a 50mm green grosgain in large quantity in my ribbon drawer. Given the merc-for-hire miliatry drab favoured by Helga, I thought the green alongside the pretty shell coloured floral made a lovely character juxtaposition.

I mounted my jacquard onto the grosgrain, creating a nice delicate border. If you look closely you'll see that actually there are too shades of green grosgrain here as I was about a metre shy of my preferred colour, but i figured it was close enough and minimally to just fake through.

These newly formed ribbons were laid out on my pattern, stitched carrfully together and then tacked all over to stop any irritating movement when working.

The boned panels - side, back and front - were two layers of herrinbone couil, trimmed with grosgrain and covered with main ribbon. The ribbon panels were first stitched to one layer of coutil, as you would with any garment. The ribbons were then quilted neatly and vertically across the width of the coutil panel to make sure that they are entirely secured. This was repeated for all panels; the side panel has two layers of quilte ribbon as a result.

As no extant example that I have seen to date has binding on these boned panels - naturally, it would add bulk and distract from the clean lines of ribbons - I decided that this would mean that I would sandwich and hem my boned panels for security. Each boned panel had its grosgrain trim and top ribbon tacked in placed, the the second layer of coutil was stitched and turned to the inside, folding the quilted ribbon very neatly inside. Boning was then inserted from the side and stitched into place rather than inserted into channels.

A lovely ivory powder-coated busk, and stitched over eyelets and Helga's vaguely turn of the century ribbon corset is all done!

References:

Underwear Fashion in Detail, 2010, Eleri Lynn

Corsets - Historical Patterns & Techniques, 2008, Jill Salen

Corsets & Crinolines, 2017, Norah Waugh

The Making of Atlantis - https://youtu.be/tvR9Zdp74fY?si=5mMV1AH6HLir2rNZ

How To Make A Basic Ribbon Corset, Sidney Eileen - http://sidneyeileen.com/sewing-2/sewing/corset-making/basic-ribbon/

An Edwardian Ribbon Corset, History Wardrobe - https://historywardrobe.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/an-edwardian-ribbon-corset/

#project: Helga Sinclair #project: ribbon corset #media: atlantis #cosplay #historical sewing #costume #historical dress #historical costume #Edwardian #making of #project wip #poetry in costume #long post

[poetryincostume]

The Saddest Girl In The World

Edwardian-ish ribbon corset with beading, 2023

Silk ribbon, cotton taffeta ribbon, Czech glass beads

#project: crown prince kiriona #project: ribbon corset #project: historical sewing #cosplay #media: the locked tomb #tlt #the locked tomb #historical costume #Edwardian #Nona the ninth #historical sewing #costume #poetry in costume #beading #excuse the iffy lacing I used what I had on hand which is too wide and I didn’t want to unlace Helga #EDIT: upsetti #I captioned it something sensible rather than WHITHER THE HAMBURGER??? #there’s time #not sure why this has broken 1000 notes but it is releasing all the brain chemicals

[poetryincostume]

Helga Sinclair

Edwardianish ribbon corset, 2023

Jacquard ribbon mounted on grosgrain ribbon

#project: ribbon corset #project: Helga Sinclair #media: Atlantis #Edwardian #historical dress #historical costume #cosplay #poetry in costume #sewing #I have half a making post written but oh my glob how has anyone been posting on this site? #I think I last regularly posted around 2016/2017 and it is a NIGHTMARE #Tumblr dot com keeps eating my draft swapping my pictures around eating my pictures eating whole paragraphs reformatting AASRGGGHHH #I’m too tired for this #my curves are more secure than my dress form here (my new one!) so #she’s not quite sitting right here

[poetryincostume]

With life and a back-breaking work schedule for a couple of years - until now, thank you greedy film studios - I have barely undertaken, nevermind finished, any personal sewing projects. This meant that when Star Wars Celebration returned to my neck of the woods this year I had no costumes to wear even if I had the energy to spend a day sweating and Uncomfy. But I needed something swarsy, even if just for a minute!

That led to me bashing this jacket together so I could put together a vaguely Hera Syndulla inspired look. The franchise and I may be at odds, but my general will always have my heart. Draped on the Tuesday night, made on the Wednesday, slip-stitched the lining in on Friday night after a day at the con and worn on the Saturday. I think the end result was quite lovely!

I called this a ‘doodle’, as I was effectively sketching the idea of a jacket with only a vague idea of what I wanted to achieve: a short cropped jacket, possibly a grown kimono collar and power shoulders since I already had XL raglan pads pinned to my dress form for the Arcane jacket I’ve been tooling with for a year and a half (and finally finished a month ago.)

The drape evolved into panels as there is one thing I love: unnecessary panelling. This also felt appropriately Swarsy. To lean into that Her Syndulla pilot/70’s workwear vibe I wanted a back yoke and vent. (You can tell this was a super quick project bc it has a side seam and these days I am morally opposed to side seams.)

Some semblance of shaped achieved I dove straight into smashing a pattern together from the drape, and decided that I would work out any issues as I went.

The main fabric is a coated scoured cotton I bought several years ago for a Hera jacket (inspired by the Lego series) so it’s come vaguely full circle back to it’s original intention. Ish.

As I was cutting I decided it needing piping! Yes! Piping is very fun and rebellionish, and another of my favourite things. It adds a lovely definition to panelling whilst also adding support to the fairly exaggerated silhouette. The piping was made from a stretching cotton twill that I dyed several years ago for an(other) abandoned Hera project.

The piping led to an abundance of topstitching as a lazy way to keep all seam allowances in place, and then becoming a tribute to Jyn Erso and her topstitching.

The jacket was then lined in a brown fine grosgrain that I inherited from a job, which was quickly slipped stitched in. I faced the cuffs with the wrong side of the main fabric to have a featured turn back.

The final look thrown together at the most exhausted, low-effort Celebration. I was aiming for cool modern Hera Syndulla but the end result was much more April O’Neill.

There are a number of grain issues, particularly with the back panels and vents that I didn’t particularly bother to finesse from the drape to the cutting. But it’s fine! It’s a funky little jacket for one event, no one got what I was going for but I did get some compliments. And most of all I got the satisfaction of actually making something from beginning to end in a period of exhausted personal sewing drought.

#project: celebration jacket #project: doodle #project: Hera Syndulla #Star Wars celebration #a more casual look on the last day #for when you have to find your adoptive #son and you know nothing good is going to happen any time soon

[poetryincostume]

With life and a back-breaking work schedule for a couple of years - until now, thank you greedy film studios - I have barely undertaken, nevermind finished, any personal sewing projects. This meant that when Star Wars Celebration returned to my neck of the woods this year I had no costumes to wear even if I had the energy to spend a day sweating and Uncomfy. But I needed something swarsy, even if just for a minute!

That led to me bashing this jacket together so I could put together a vaguely Hera Syndulla inspired look. The franchise and I may be at odds, but my general will always have my heart. Draped on the Tuesday night, made on the Wednesday, slip-stitched the lining in on Friday night after a day at the con and worn on the Saturday. I think the end result was quite lovely!

I called this a ‘doodle’, as I was effectively sketching the idea of a jacket with only a vague idea of what I wanted to achieve: a short cropped jacket, possibly a grown kimono collar and power shoulders since I already had XL raglan pads pinned to my dress form for the Arcane jacket I’ve been tooling with for a year and a half (and finally finished a month ago.)

The drape evolved into panels as there is one thing I love: unnecessary panelling. This also felt appropriately Swarsy. To lean into that Her Syndulla pilot/70’s workwear vibe I wanted a back yoke and vent. (You can tell this was a super quick project bc it has a side seam and these days I am morally opposed to side seams.)

Some semblance of shaped achieved I dove straight into smashing a pattern together from the drape, and decided that I would work out any issues as I went.

The main fabric is a coated scoured cotton I bought several years ago for a Hera jacket (inspired by the Lego series) so it’s come vaguely full circle back to it’s original intention. Ish.

As I was cutting I decided it needing piping! Yes! Piping is very fun and rebellionish, and another of my favourite things. It adds a lovely definition to panelling whilst also adding support to the fairly exaggerated silhouette. The piping was made from a stretching cotton twill that I dyed several years ago for an(other) abandoned Hera project.

The piping led to an abundance of topstitching as a lazy way to keep all seam allowances in place, and then becoming a tribute to Jyn Erso and her topstitching.

The jacket was then lined in a brown fine grosgrain that I inherited from a job, which was quickly slipped stitched in. I faced the cuffs with the wrong side of the main fabric to have a featured turn back.

The final look thrown together at the most exhausted, low-effort Celebration. I was aiming for cool modern Hera Syndulla but the end result was much more April O’Neill.

There are a number of grain issues, particularly with the back panels and vents that I didn’t particularly bother to finesse from the drape to the cutting. But it’s fine! It’s a funky little jacket for one event, no one got what I was going for but I did get some compliments. And most of all I got the satisfaction of actually making something from beginning to end in a period of exhausted personal sewing drought.

#project: celebration jacket #project: Hera syndulla #extant projects: 2023 #media: Star Wars #media: original #cosplay #bounding #sewing #poetry in costume #project: doodle

[poetryincostume]

Gideon, where is your heart?

- Sense and Sensibility, 1811, Jane Austen

#absolutely 100% don’t @ me #project: crown Prince kiriona #project: ribbon corset #the locked tomb #cosplay #historical sewing #historical costume #Project WIP #Edwardian #beading #Poetry in costume #what if I occasionally dump the out of context progress shot I normally throw at Twitter #but their ai doesn’t deserve

[poetryincostume]

The Madwoman

Aesthetic wrapper, 2020

Original gothic-inspired design , styled here with bra by Karolina Laskowska

Upholstery damask, silk ribbon, petersham ribbon, silk/steel yarn

#project: the madwoman #costume #media: original #project: historical sewing #extant projects: 2020 #historical costume #victorian #aesthetic dress #crimson peak inspired #gothic romance #gothic dress #I think maybe I’m going throw a few old projects up on here #bc Instagram shouldn’t be the only record #and Lso it’s good for me to review - I’ve been so wrapped on work I forget that actually I can sew #poetry in costume #write up to follow once I’ve found the images outside of my insta made slides (may have to settle for those)

[poetryincostume]

Hi, did you recently delete a lot of posts? Because I have no memory of following you -- which isn't unusual for me -- but I wouldn't have followed an empty blog.

Yes! Well, not recently but a year or two ago.

I don’t remember. This blog used to be where I wrote a lot of costume and character design analysis, 99.9% about Star Wars. I cleared everything out in part to stop seeing notifications, and also to distance myself from that particular fandom era for various reasons (personal; pointed comments from certain creators; irritation at demands from certain people when I just didn’t have time with life and work.) Most of those posts are still available on my Wordpress blog (for now, at least. They make me cringe quite hard so I’m considering if I want to leave them up.)

With the implosion of Twitter and something of an aversion to Instagram/the audience I cultivated there I’m dusting this blog off with a new start and seeing what happens.

#ask and answer #I haven’t quite decided WHAT I want to do #if I want it to be purely my making #or if I want to slide back into analysis #or also bring in aspects of my industry work #but it will prob be more freeform #and I’m uninterested (and unable) to lock myself into one particular little fandom pigeonhole

[poetryincostume]

I’ve been meaning to get around to making new period dress form for a long time, particularly given my first go around experimenting with an Edwardian pattern and expanding foam turned out decidedly wonky.

I wanted to make a soft form mannequin this time that would be pliable enough to shape with corsetry but also be sturdy enough to work on the stand.

I started off with Atelier Sylphe’s Victorian Mannequin pattern - no alterations. For the body fabric I used a (truly awful) herringbone poly-wool that has been sitting and taking up to much space in my personal stock for too long (I think acquired during wrap from a production). I would never want this fabric to touch my skin, but it is extremely sturdy with no stretch and next to no ease, easy easily takes and holds a shape. I used the wrong side of the fabric which has less of a nap and is lighter and more even in colour. The unpleasantness of the fabric aside, it gives a an appealingly neutral historical feel which works for a Victorian form.

I didn’t think to take many photos whilst making it!

Putting together was straightforward. All seams were left raw internally. For the neckpiece I cut a circle of foamex that glued the seam allowance of the neck fabric two then whipped into the neck of the dress form. I did the same process for the base, whilst also marking out and building up a space for a pole if I want to use this on a stand in the future. For now she will be a table top dress form.

The body was then stuffed with a mix of recycled wadding I had lying around and fabric scraps and off cuts. I also wedged a large sturdy pole I had lying around down the centre to add extra rigidity and stability. The wadding needs a bit of a smoosh around once it’s settled, but she’s turned out nicely!

#poetry in costume #making #project: dress form #project: historical sewing #Victorian dress form #mannequin #costume #sewing #okeydokey let’s start dusting off this blog and start actually posting things #and see what happens