The Tudor Revolution

  I know a lot of folks in the costuming community have been defending corsets again because of some silly articles from The Sun without sources claiming Netflix and the BBC would stop allowing actresses to wear corsets in period dramas. The extremes wear conditions that actresses have been facing in the film industry has been spoken to at length by other creators like Bernadette Banner and Abby Cox so I would direct you to their channels about corset myths. My focus for this vlog was to get out and take my pit bull on a hike for the first time since my injury, and why not break in my new corset at the same time? Through out the entire hike I had more difficulty with my ankle and navigating uneven ground than I had with the altitude or my corset. This corset was not custom made, but ready made. I worked with the seller to make sure I had one that was the correct size for my measurements and compression goals. Do you wear corset on a regular basis? Tell me about your experiences be...

Every woman feels more feminine when she has pretty underwear. This thought inspired me to make another pair of bodies. My pair from 2012 are holding up beautifully, nothing needs to be replaced, but there are other styles I want to try. This pair uses a cherry wood busk I purchased several years ago down the center front, and two soft "cups" over the bust. In Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion 3, Arnold describes a pair of bodies belonging to Dorothea Sabina von Neuberg. Dorothea's original pair of bodies was an ivory silk over linen and stiffened with whale bone. I do not need anything nearly as ridged so I have stuck with my reeds.Just like the effigy corset before there is a magical combination of heavy linen canvas to be covered in a decorative silk. I stuck with the basic pattern of my effigy corset because I primarily wanted to focus on the exotic bust treatment on Dorothea's stays. This pattern was elongated in the front by 1 inch compared to my previous...

I have been told so many times that corsets are uncomfortable and awful to wear. My response to this is simply- you must not be doing it right. Here is a quick checklist for all of you inclined to try wearing corsets. Always wear something under your corset!  Historical corsets (as far as my research has shown me) were NEVER worn next to the skin. There are many reasons for this but the two best ones are that its really uncomfortable for long periods of time and the corset would need to be washed more often. Hand wash your corsets! I know we put lots of tension on a well built corset some times, but modern washing machines will degrade the fabric faster. Depending on the style of boning you have it may degrade over time as well. The biggest problem with doing this is that usually the ends of the boning channels will wear down and the stays/busks/boning may poke through while you are wearing it. Lay your corset flat to dry on a towel. Electric driers may shrink...