""Second, the little research I've done so far indicates that during the Victorian eras, there were many corset patterns that used gores - yet many of the current commercial patterns focus on those without. Is there a reason for this that anyone might be aware of? Is it easier to fit without gores? Are gored patterns more difficult to make up? Any help in this direction is also a huge plus!"
As one member already pointed out the "Victorian" era ran from 1837 until 1901. A lot of fashion changed happened in those 60 years and therefore a lot of corset changes happened in that era. You can't really make a "Victorian" corset pattern without attaching some dates to it. You will also notice that as the era progressed corsets with gores fell out of popular usage based on looking at surviving originals. The reason for that is that as the era went on corsets overwhelmingly became factory made and in a factory setting gores are fiddly to put in so the shaped seam corsets became much more typical. They were simply faster to make in a factory setting and could be made cheaper for that reason. For your research though start looking at patents and fashion plates. Patents will only get you so far because they are ideas for corsets that may have never even made it into production. Fashion plates will get you further, but again, how likely is it that they were ever made. Your best bet is to start contacting museums about making arrangements to see the original corsets in their collections. Maggie Halberg -----Original Message----- From: Michael Deibert <michaeljdeib...@gmail.com> To: Historical Costume <h-cost...@indra.com> Sent: Thu, Mar 24, 2011 5:16 am Subject: [h-cost] Corset patterns and research questions Good morning everyone! I'm doing some research into corsets, and thought it best to start on here where many of you already have research. While I know a lot regarding corsets, I have two main focuses. The first is regarding corset patterns. I am hoping to develop a corset pattern and thus would like to be able to have as many corset patterns to base it off of as I can. While any corset pattern works, I am specifically hoping to find Victorian era corset patterns with hip and/or bust gores. >From the many companies out there currently selling commercial pattersn, there are few who focus on corsets with gores. I am looking at trying to simplify the process of grading for different sizes, and believe that there might be a way to accomplish this with gored patterns. So if any of you have or know of patterns that I can get, please direct me in that direction! (Remember copyright laws and direct me to where I can find things, rather than just copy and paste.) Second, the little research I've done so far indicates that during the Victorian eras, there were many corset patterns that used gores - yet many of the current commercial patterns focus on those without. Is there a reason for this that anyone might be aware of? Is it easier to fit without gores? Are gored patterns more difficult to make up? Any help in this direction is also a huge plus! Please don't shy away, the more I can accumulate, the better my final pattern shall be once it is ready! Thanks in advance! Michael Deibert _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume