I've never seen the actual pattern pieces for the Past Patterns version of
the straight front corset, so please bear that in mind when I say this:
I've been horribly disappointed in the accuracy of the patterns out there
for straight front corsets. In this I even must include the Norah Waugh
pattern in Corsets & Crinolines; while it may well be based on an extant
corset, it is in no way representative of the straight front corset, and if
you're trying to get that look, you'll be disappointed.
If you want accuracy and aren't afraid to try to figure out a difficult
pattern, try this:
http://www.agelesspatterns.com/corsets_5.htm
#1339 (early Edwardian) or #1522 (late Edwardian). Both are representative
of the lower cut Edwardians that were actually worn.
Also, remembering that they are NOT to scale except for the last one, you
may want to glance at the pattern pieces you'll see in the photos section of
one of my yahoo groups:
http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/straightfrontcorsets/photos/browse/1bcb
That last one is the pattern to the coral corset you'll see me wearing
elsewhere in the photos section; it's got a mid-decade straight front fit,
but the top and bottom lines are very early decade. (You should be able to
select Large under View in order to make out enough detail for it to be
useable, but if not I can send you a larger version of the image.) If I
remember right, that's a 26" waist, 40" bust, 42" hips, tall.
By the way, whenever I get around to moving over all the files, the straight
front yahoo group will be absorbed by my other corset group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Historical_Corsets/ which does have some good
discussions on occasion. This is because for some reason, "straight front
corsets" seems to mean "let me tell you all about my sex life and send you a
link to my 923432 favorite bondage sites" to 75% of the potential members.
Luckily, we haven't had too much of that trouble on historical corsets.
Since many people ask, yes that is a corset I made on the front page, but
sorry, I do make all my own patterns. If I ever decide to give a class in
that, it'll be at FFC and I'll let the group know.
-E House
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