Sew Historically: In the Edwardian era (1901-1914), straight-front corsets became popular. Unlike Victorian corsets with their curved fronts, the main feature of Edwardian straight-front corsets is – as the name implies – 😉 the straight, rigid front. Beginning in the early 1900s, it was now fashionable to have a straight front from the bust to the knees – aka “The New Figure”.
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When I began to get into theatre by way of historical fashion, I experimented with trying to recreate many different types of historical garments from a whole host of eras. At some point I attempted to make a late Victorian corset, although I wasn’t able to get my hands on a majority of the necessary materials, and as a result, the corset was not structurally sound. I researched a bit more and got my hands on most of the materials, and finally made a corset that could actually function, however that was a number of years ago and it no longer fits. Given that this article has high quality pictures and extensive instructions, I am going to consult it when I start my third attempt at making myself a corset. I find corsetry to be one of the most intriguing aspects of historical fashion, because of the malleability of the silhouette due to strategically placed padding.
I do believe that all of creation lies in the hands of tutorials that people out of passion post and give for free on the internet. I love that this exists with so many avenues of further research linked in the central article along with video tutorials as a video can often show aspects and techniques that words and pictures can not. On corsets specifically I’m glad tutorials exist for this as I’ve heard that having a customized corset helps against the pain of wearing a mass produced corset, being that it doesn’t dig or isn’t too tight or loose. I also like how many different options were available in the article in terms of material that could be used for the corset. Many times I’ve looked at a tutorial and seen that I don’t have the specific material that they said is needed to use and am not sure where to go from there, but in this article there are many different materials that are suggested so if I don’t have or can’t get one, chances are I could find another.
I have always been fascinated with historical costuming and clothing. In the past I have tried my hand at corsetry a few times, but I had never had a guide as useful as this one. In my opinion, corsetry is one of the hardest sewing techniques to master. Without proper planning and skills corsets can come apart at the seams from the pressure of how tight they tend to be worn. The idea that so many women wore corsets means that the fashion industry of the time had to have employed many knowledgeable seamstresses.
I’m not familiar with Edwardian corsets in the slightest, though I’ve seen them used in a variety of theatre and film. The fact that it’s made from one layer of strong and thin material is impressive in that it’s not easily ripped. In that era, they used whalebone for more expensive corsets (metal for that of cheaper kinds). There are a lot of necessary materials to make one corset alone - not to mention all of the intricate sewing needed to make one corset alone. From these tutorials, I became interested in the history of the Edwardian corset, and found that Ines Gache-Sarraute, a woman who studied medicine and corsetmaker designed the S-bend corset to promote breathing in a corset, rather than to restrict it. In the late 19th century, the corset purpose - and by effect, shape - had morphed significantly. Health corsets didn’t really catch on until Gache-Sarraute. After her, corsets changed much more rapidly than before, with a greater focus on women’s health.
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