September 25, 2019 Bev Hulme Leave a comment
I think a lot of costume students are introduced very early on to the Janet Aldrich and Norah Waugh books because these amazing authors have created detailed scale patterns taken from original period garments. I’m a bit of a ‘maths girl’, so I was really up for the challenge to create some under-garments from the Waugh patterns.
In the book you get a picture of the finished item, a pattern layout and a tiny scale ruler which you use to increase the pattern layout to make either half scale or full scale if you wish! Of course, if you were using these to make an actual costume you would need to ensure fitting onto your model, but for the purpose of learning how to make the item, we used the standard half scale.
Our first challenge was the ‘Lobster tail bustle’ which in case you are wondering, is called this simply because it looks like a Lobster tail! We worked on this together in class and to be honest it caused a few of us some problems! I think one of my issues was actually working to half scale – it’s very fiddly and not what I’m used to! We also used some metal strips for the ‘boning’ which were actually flat steel pipe cleaner coils. You can buy the 4.5m coils very cheaply (plastic or steel boning is more expensive) and the steel is only 4mm wide which fitted our small boning channels. In principle it’s great, but it’s very highly sprung and I struggled to work with it in this scale. It’s also very sharp on the ends and even though we covered our ends with pieces of sticking plaster it had a tendency to poke out of the channels and seams.
We used calico which is a really great fabric to practise on and I decided to add a little decoration of ribbon to make it look a little more ‘finished’. I wasn’t overthinking my ribbon colour choice other than complementing the cream calico but of course, when I finished I realised using a peach ribbon really made it look like a prawn or lobster!!
The final learning point for this project was all about pleating and I couldn’t resist using pretty pleats along the bottom frill. Again, these were fiddly, but we will need to be able to pleat competently as many costumes incorporate them, so it’s all good practise! This was the project where we pushed more pins into, and ironed over, fingers than I have done in a lifetime of sewing!
I decided to try a couple more of the patterns from the book as ‘extras’ for my Uni module. I chose the full ‘pannier’ hooped petticoat which dates from c1740 to accentuate tiny waists and full hips while remaining relatively flat at the front and the back and the ‘basket panniers’ from c1760 which superseded the full petticoat but still gave the hip width.
The hooped petticoat pattern was very small with a tiny scale measure which was too small to work with. I had a bit of inspiration and used a photocopier to enlarge the page so I could measure it sensibly. The most difficult part was fitting the two pieces of boning at the hip as they sprung out of place quite easily. I used plastic boning instead of the sprung steel we had used for the lobster tail and it was a lot easier to manage. The pattern was open at either side of the waist so the wearer can put the item on, then once it’s on there are ties at each side of the waist.
The two basket panniers were simple and fun to make. The tops of the baskets are open down the middle and this may be to allow ladies to hide some kind of bag inside for any ‘necessities’. Again, using the lighter plastic boning was a lot easier than the steel strips.
I used the same calico and peach ribbon to bring all three pieces ‘together’ as a set. I’m really pleased with them and they look lovely on my home-made Mini Mannequin (check out the blog here for info on how I made this).
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Posted in: College 2018/19, UnderpinningsFiled under: Bustle, costumemaker, halfscale, Pannier, Petticoat, underpinnings