A Corset
by Lady Angalina de Medici
Tournament Win, Feb. 2003

There are several myths about wearing corsets many of which spring from Victorian corsetry rather than Elizabethan. In the 16th century, the corset was not meant to draw in the waist and create an hourglass figure; rather, it was designed to mold the torso into a cylindrical shape, and to flatten and raise the bust line. There is one 16th century reference to a small waist being fashionable, but on the whole it was a fashionably flat-torsoed shape, rather than a tiny waist, that the corset was designed to achieve.

How did the corset evolve into a separate garment? In the 15th century, a tightly fitted kirtle worn under the outer gown was used to shape the body into the fashionable form. It's likely that it was the bodice of this kirtle, which was first stiffened with buckram, and then with stiffer materials such as reed or bents, as the fashionable silhouette became flatter and flatter during the 1520s and 1530s.

Queen Elizabeth had several pairs of bodies listed in her wardrobe accounts. The following listings, according to Janet Arnold (author of Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd), most likely referred to a corset-like garment.

· A payre of bodies of black cloth of silver with little skirts (1571)

· a pair of bodies of sweete lether (1579)

· a pair of bodies of black velvet lined with canvas stiffened with buckeram (1583)

· for altering a pair of bodies...the bodies lined with sackecloth and buckram about the skirts with bents covered with fustian.

· a pair of french bodies of damaske lined with sackcloth, with whales bone to them (1597)

Based on the extant corsets we have to examine and on the construction techniques found in other garments of the period, we can draw some conclusions about how these items were made in the 16th century.

Professional tailors often mention corsets in their bills and accounts. Like French Farthingales, petticoats and kirtles, "whaleboned bodies" were an item readily available from a lady's tailor. As with many other garments of the time, women who couldn't afford a tailor could easily make a corset at home from sackcloth and the small reeds readily available to all for stiffening.

The effigy corset was made of three pieces--two front pieces and one back piece--which were made and finished separately and whip-stitched together along the side back seams before wearing. This technique would allow for easier size changes: if the wearer gained or lost weight, the back could be removed and a smaller or larger piece added.

These corsets and the two stomachers were constructed by placing layers right sides out, sewing the boning channels, and then binding the edges with a strip of leather or fabric. The modern "sew right sides together and then turn right sides out" was an uncommon technique of the time.

The binding on the two corsets and on two extant stomachers of the time was placed right side against the outside edge of the corset, stitched down, turned over to the wrong side, and either hem-stitched down along the edge or stab-stitched through to the front of the corset, following the seam line of the outer binding edge. In the case of the two stomachers, the raw edge was left unfinished on the inside. Binding strips could be made of ribbon, of fabric cut on the bias, or of fabric cut on the straight.

Lacing holes had a row of boning to either side of the holes, in all cases. The holes were poked with an awl and whipstitched around the opening for strength.

The quality of material varied widely, as can be seen from the different listings for corsets: sackcloth for less exalted bodies and for lining more expensive pairs of bodies which were covered with damask, satin or taffeta. The quality of construction varied as well.

The corset that i have made is made of twill, with steel boning. I used the corset pattern generator to make the pattern witch I then drew by hand onto brown paper, then chalked it onto the twill, would have just chalked it out on the material. I sewed the right sides together and turned it right side out sewed the channels for the boning to save time I used a sewing machine, they would have done it by hand. Then I took bias tape and bound the top edge of the corset by hand for closing of the channels. Using an awl I put the holes into the corset and hand sewed them all, lace it and you have a corset.

Sources:
http://costume.dm.net/corsets/history.html#intro
Arnold, Janet. "Stays or Corset". A summary of findings on the pair of stays worn by the
Effigy of Queen Elizabeth. Westminster Library, London.
Arnold, Janet. Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Men and Women's Clothing 1560-1620
Arnold, Janet. Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd