My Favorite Movies for their Costumes

Sometimes when I watch a movie, I'm just in the mood to look at pretty costumes. Aside from the fact that I'm a costumer, I'm a highly visual person in general. Character development is definitely important to me, and I like a good plot as much as anyone else, but having a beautiful set, good …

How to Write About Corsets in Historical Fiction

Are you a writer of historical fiction? Do you have characters who wear corsets? Are you someone who pays attention to detail and wants your writing to feel real? If so, then this post is for you! I am a writer, amateur historical costumer and corset maker/wearer, so I'm here to offer my advice on …

Making a Modern Corset: Lessons I’ve Learned in Corsetry

After making my 1910s corset, I knew my corsetry adventures would not end there. There's something so satisfying and addicting about corsetmaking- you get to see it form into shape and become firmer and smoother every time you add a bone to it. And you have complete control over the shape of the corset. So …

Tiny Corseted Waists of the Edwardian Era

If you research Edwardian fashion online for two minutes, you'll immediately find hysteria about the poor fainting women, oppressed by their corsets and struggling to breathe. This is due partly to all the photographs we have of women with exaggerated hourglass figures that many people today find unnerving. Then we tend to assume that the …

In Defense of Corsets

Our society in general has a widespread fear of corsets. Ironically enough, the negative perception of corsets we see today has been spread around by people who have never made, worn or touched a corset. Meanwhile, the main proponents of corset use are people who wear and/or have made corsets. If corsets were a bad …

COMPLETED Edwardian Corset!

I can now say I've completed my first GOOD corset! Not made of canvas, not boned with flimsy featherlite boning, not drafted by myself, not something that poorly fits my body. Nope, this is a proper historical foundation garment that is made of coutil and spiral steel boning and it's comfortable and supportive to wear. …

Edwardian Corset Mock-Up v2.0

You know how people binge-watch TV? Well, I binge-sew. I can't just spend half an hour a day doing gradual work on a projects. I spend over 6 hours on a Sunday doing a sewing marathon, and then leave a project for two weeks. Thankfully, I had lots of time yesterday to make Version 2 …

Edwardian Corset Mock-Up!

Do any of my fellow costumers here get what I call "costume anxiety?" It's that point where you're just like. Oh. Crap. Everything is messed up and it's going to be even more complicated than I thought, and everything I need is so darn expensive and how am I ever going to fund this!! Well, …

Padmé Costume: Corset Embroidery!

And now it's time for the most tedious and intimidating but most pretty and satisfying part of the costume! The corset embroidery! Not a whole lot to discuss here... mostly progress pix. But, there is some important stuff I had to do... First of all, I needed a reference to draw those shapes. Padawan's Guide …

Padmé Costume: Corset Construction

Here's a pic of all the materials I had at this point! I had the completed blouse and skirt (with an embroidery hoop and bag of sequins for continued embroidery progress). The headband and hairnets were also complete. I had all my corset supplies- you can see the white silk, cut up pieces of canvas, …