Questions about active communities and recommended books.

Good evening everyone, I have some questions and I promise I've done my homework first (hours spent searching online, watching book reviews and reading pdfs).
Question about (free, non paid membership) communities and forums;
The historical fashion boom on youtube has been going for a while and there are more costubers every 6 months, so I thought "is there some place online where these people come together and exchange notes on projects? Or are they all doing it on their lonesome with some books?".
Does anyone know any active historical fashion sewing communities aside from "historical costuming" on Reddit?
I spent some time googling it myself first but couldn't find much at all.
Regarding corset making there's this group, and there seems to be an active group on FB called "learn how to make corsets like a pro".
Foundations Revealed is usually the recommended place to be but they no longer have any free article afaik.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
Question about recommended books;
I own quite a lot of books on historical and vintage fashion. But none of them have any patterns/diagrams/schaled patterns in them.
I own "The basics of corset building" by Linda Sparks which I find useful and have used to make my first corset with but it's not about historical fashion and it doesn't contain patterns.
My initial idea was to just make it easy on myself and purchase ready made patterns of early edwardian underwear (straight front/s-bend corset, chemise, drawers/bloomers, corset cover, petticoat, bust and hip padding) and some of the early edwardian skirt and blouse patterns, but I would really like some actual books with multiple patterns in them.
I know there are some free to use online patterns that I could fall back on if necesary.
The ones I know of; there's a picture of the straight front corset from Corsets and Crinolines somewhere online (I saved it to my pc), and there's a website called "Marquise.de" that has some patterns that you can download to fiddle with yourself.
I searched online for which books would fit my wants, and I was able to look inside "Corsets and cinolines" by Norah Waugh, "Corsets" by Jill Salen, "The Little corset book" and "The cut of women's clothes 1600~1930" by Norah Waugh.
Can anyone who owns any of the following books tell me if there are any s-bend/straight front edwardian corset pattern(s), other edwardian underwear pattern(s) and edwardian clothes patterns in the following books or if you have any recommendation that I haven't mentioned;
"Evolution of fashion" by Margot Hamilton Hill
"Period costume for stage and screen" by Jean Hunnisett
"Waisted efforts" by Robert Doyle (this one has some mixed reviews, criticisms are that the corset patterns are made using a standard sloper)
"The Edwardian Modiste" by Frances Grimble. I am assuming this has clothes patterns, just not sure about underwear/corsets.
"The Voice of Fashion: 79 Turn-of-the-Century Patterns with Instructions and Fashion Plates" by Frances Grimble. I am assuming this has clothes patterns, just not sure about underwear/corsets.
"Patterns of fashion 2" By Janet Arnold.
Thank you for reading. Any advice is appreciated.

Does Dyeing Weaken Coutil

Hey there all,
I'm preparing to construct a garment with a rather unconventional neckline that will definitely allow the lining to peek out at times when I move.  It will also need to do some heavy-support work (my body plus some rather large butterfly wings) with as few layers and bulk as possible.  My plan was to make sandwiched strength layers of coutil and then the fashion fabric shell, but I need to color match everything as much as possible.  
I've had experience dyeing various fabrics before so I'm confident I can execute the dye process successfully, I just don't want to end up with coutil that is weaker or warped after doing so.  Any advice would be appreciated as Google hasn't been forthcoming with a lot of info on the subject.

Thank you all,

1878 Strauss Patent Corset Mock-up

It seems this forum is pretty dead. However, the post archive is still a really useful resource for people learning to make corsets, so I’ll add my experience with this particular pattern for posterity.

This is my second mock-up. I’m really in love with this pattern! I tweaked it to fit my figure in the following ways:

-took in the waist a bit at the sides
-let out the hips a bit at the sides and back
-lengthened the pattern at top and bottom.
-raised up the bustline a heck of a lot.
-took in the bust

The biggest problem with the original unaltered pattern was that it was extremely short in the torso, a common problem with period patterns. The first mock-up looked like it was meant to be an underbust. The part where it flared out to accommodate the breasts sat down around my ribcage. However, even then it has really nice, flattering curves around the waist and hips. So instead of slashing every pattern at the waistline and adding in a couple inches, I only redrafted the front pieces to have a higher bustline. I wanted to preserve the overall shape of the corset.

I am extremely pleased with how this second mock-up came out. I actually need to make the bustline even higher, but that’s about the only adjustment needed. This pattern gives a great 1870s/80s silhouette, curvy and rounded. Although it is a fairly standard vertical seam pattern, and similar ones are commercially available, I highly recommend this pattern for it’s flattering shape. I’ve never seen anyone else use this particular pattern, so I wanted to give some feedback on it for other corsetmakers out there.




Made a mock up for my first corset making venture (under-bust) need some adjusting/fitting the mock.

So, I'll introduce myself first as it is my first call to arms so to say. 

I've been sewing on and off since high-school and college where i took fashion tech, did nothing for a few years due to machine access and then have gone all out in the last year making all kinds of things. I'm Autistic/Dyspraxic so forgive me if i misunderstand you from time to time. I've been trying in getting my skills somewhat surpassed from my old understanding and i'm happy with the improvements. These range from undies to dresses, jumpsuits using all kinds of materials. I've been able to make and adjust some of my own patterns for these things rather than buying patterns after some practice but i feel these are still somewhat more basic than the skills seen on here by many of you. I'm always learning. 

I find those things easy now but adjusting a corset pattern is something else and a little scary and confusing with information that seems conflicting from just reading so I thought some questions might be best! 

I've made a Toile using calico — medium to heavy weight, I've been fairly accurate in my sewing and measuring from the standard pattern, i'm directly in between two sizes given, and although i'm happy with the waist reduction (about 2 inches) not being huge for my first corset as per advice there is some gaping at the top around under the bust line and the bottom side. I admit the waist tape ended up being a tiny bit not spread out with the fabric underneath so nice but it was on the waistline intended

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A snippet I would like to share about corsets in 1913 plus questions about bust support.

I was talking about old (edwardian to 1949) books on sewing with TheLongHairedFlapper on her youtube channel, and she recommended some freely downloadable books from archive . com,
I downloaded them, and looked for printed versions to buy on the internet as some of these have been cleaned up and reprinted by Scholar Select.
Only one of three of the books are available to me for purchase (the art of dress) so I decided to just start reading the pdf versions to see what exactly was inside the books.
"Home dressmaking or dressmaking made easy, by Jane Ford" has a chapter about corsets, their uses and how they should fit.
I thought it was interesting enough.
So for anyone who wants to read it here is the link; https://archive.org/details/homedressmaking00ford/page/n5

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LaBella

A Peterson's Article On Making One's Own Stays At Home

Came across this by a circuitous surfing route, while I was hunting for something not related to corsetmaking.
It seems to have come from an 1855 issue of Peterson's Magazine, and for those who enjoy reading the period prose instructions, it might be entertaining, or illuminating, or even helpfully instructive. I liked the hint about cleaning with bread.

http://www.victorianpassage.com/2010/04/art_of_stay_making/

1876 Corset Mock-up

Hello all. I’ve been a longtime lurker(learned so much here) but this is my first post.

So I’m using an original period pattern from Gracieuse Archives. This is going to be my first corset(though I did do several mock-ups for a different pattern about a year ago, but just couldn’t wrangle it into shape).

I made a whole bunch of adjustments from the first mock-up, and I’m feeling encouraged by how well it seems to be going.




I know I need to raise the top line at the bust, let out the hips some more, and a few other things. The problem I can’t figure out how to solve is fat from my ribcage is being pushed up into my armpits. I had the same problem with the other pattern.




It seems like my boobs might also be pushing into my armpits. As you can see from the back picture, the lacing gap is even, and the top is actually quite loose at the back; it even gapes a bit at the lacing, though you can’t see it in the picture. Any suggestions on how I might fix this? ATM I don’t have a picture of the pattern pieces since I altered them, but I will include a pic of the original pattern before I altered it just so you can see the general layout:

Also if anyone has any other suggestions for improving the fit in general, that would be invaluable to me.


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Jillian - Ghostbusters

Two really silly questions

I am familiar with 17th and 18th century stays, but Victorian era is new to me. I have two quick questions:

1. Why do Victorian corsets have external boning channels rather than inner ones like stays? for me, internal boning is really easy and my preferred method.

2. Laughing Moon's Dore vs Silverado: what are the differences other than the bust gussets? at some point I'm going to attempt a Victorian ensemble using some TV patterns in my stash but not really sure which corset to go with.

Pattern Pieces Not Matching Up

Hello! I am very new here and I don't know if I'm putting this post in the right place but hopefully it works out. 

I'm working on my first corset using TV110. I don't have a lot of sewing experience at all so this is a bit of an adventure for me. I've made one mock-up which fit quite well and was comfortable, but I wasn't satisfied with how well I'd cut some of the pattern pieces. They didn't really line up when I was sewing them together and also seemed to be of slightly varying heights. Nothing drastic but a little annoying. 

Today I was re-tracing the pattern pieces and laying them on top of one another to make sure they fit properly, when I noticed that the seam of #4 and #5 isn't quite lined up. The edge of #4 also extends higher than the edge of #5. They are both cut to the same measurements so I know that isn't the problem. I might simply be a bad tracer. Should I completely re-trace the pattern, or not bother with it and trim the fabric so they match when I sew them together?