FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Here comes the sun
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
My go-to natural pick-me up: Looking up to see the blue sky and most importantly the bright, golden sun. The Beatles once sang “here comes the sun / and I say / It's alright” and I couldn't agree more.
It's safe to say that I am a sun-loving person! Sitting in a sunny area and soaking up its warmth really makes my day and, according to my husband, energizes me as if I'm doing photosynthesis. I'm just starting on my journey into historical fashion / historybounding and wanted to capture the sun against the backdrop of sky in the undergarments as the foundation for future pieces of the early Edwardian period. Whatever the weather outside, I am corseted in sunlight.
For the first layer I recreated the iconic combinations 1890–1900 from the MET with the different laces (bobbin work and insertion), and linen buttons to give the illusion of cirrus and cumulus clouds against the blue sky. The bust improver adds more cotton-cloud volume. I chose a fashion fabric for the corset which shimmers in orange-yellow hues to come close to the radiating sunshine filtered through clouds. While sewing I listen to the Beatles song a lot and all in all it helped me get over the winter blues.
Outline the construction…
The Edwardian combinations pattern is from BlueFineGoods, made out of a cotton lawn with cotton lace and linen buttons. Wearing History supplied the pattern for the bust improver, which is made from the swiss dot cotton fabric machine-stitched on the same lawn as for the combinations, filled with wadding and finished with more white lace. The Edwardian straight front corset is made from coutil, an iridescent cotton-polyester as the fashion layer, and synthetic whalebone. The golden busk and grommets are bordered by synthetic golden thread. The pattern with construction details was bought from BlackSnailPatterns.
This was my first project that I did on my own, so I had to learn to use the 1980s Pfaff sewing machine and started with the combinations. My straight lines are no longer too wobbly but are not quite there yet. The corset gave me the most headache for several reasons. It took a few mock-ups to get the right shape to accommodate my swayback and my short torso, the FR website really helped. While the instructions only use one coutil layer, I chose to make it two-layered without factoring in that the fashion fabric had to be a bit bigger to stretch over the coutil within the three-dimensional shape of the corset. The fashion fabric is an imitation of iridescent shantung silk which frayed really quickly, so I had to stabilize it with an iron-on interfacing. Despite everything, I really love the way everything comes together and the shimmer effects of the corset.
“Whatever the weather outside, I am corseted in sunlight” best line ever. You also look so happy on the photos, radiant even 🙂
It’s so well-made and so sweet! Nice choice of materials, well-stitched, nice attention to detail (the lace insets on the combination! The Swiss-dot “bust improvers”!) in a range of undergarments where it would be so easy to go “eh no one’s ever going to see them anyways….” . The corset silk color is glorious, and a corset is an ambitious project that you did very well!
I need this in my life. It’s sew beautiful.
I’m so delighted to see how your corset and entry turned out. You did such a great job!
Great job! I love the color choice!
The first thing I thought of when I happened upon your entry was The Beatles song. (It’s been playing in my head default mode for days now). You’ve done a great job!