Foundations Revealed

Photo by Julian Andrew Holtom

Jema Hewitt shares with us pictures and the pattern of a beautiful Victorian corset from her personal collection.

Made by the Charles Bayer (CB) corset company around 1899-1900, it has five main pattern pieces, with one bust shaped godet and two hip godets on each side. It is a very sophisticated and elegant piece of pattern cutting.

Jema shares the pattern, detail pictures and a little history, working out when the corset might have been made, and then takes us step-by-step through constructing a new corset from this pattern, including a new seam technique just for corsetry that negotiates curves perfectly and encases all the raw edges neatly.

The first piece of historical underwear I’m going to show you is a beautiful Victorian corset. It is very light and quite plain, but it's beautifully made with a dainty silhouette.

It was manufactured by Charles Bayer and Co, “CB Corsets,” and is stamped inside with his registered trademark and a registered pattern number – 6379. The earliest CB corset I can find a record of easily is one called “The Sprite” whose pattern was trademarked in 1886, but I'm sure the Bayer Company was going strong well before this.

It was claimed that CB corsets were “as easy fitting as a perfectly cut kid glove, with a complete absence of pressure upon the respiratory organs.”

Prices for their corsets ranged from 10/6 to three guineas and he claimed to use “the daintiest French fabrics- both plain and fancy”. One advertisement mentions "coutille, batist and broche," all said to be “super fine”. The corsets had lovely fanciful names - “The Imperial Cygnia” is my personal favourite!

CB corsets were bulk manufactured in Britain, stitched by machine, utilising the most modern technologies. In 1898 a steam engine was purchased for the Bath factory, though it’s not explained which of the many sewing machines would have utilised its power.

There were several Bayer factories throughout Britain, including Bath, Bristol, Portsmouth, Gloucester and London. As so many CB corsets were produced, most museum collections have at least one. There are several advertisements for the company in magazines dated 1915 for “British Corsets for British wearers,” so we know that the company was still going strong up until the first World War.

My corset measures a bust of 29”, waist 21” and hip 30”. I’m afraid I do not have a stand that fits it well; it's much curvier than it appears here (above)!   It has an 11” straight steel busk centre front, gold in colour, with a five stud closure. The bottom stud has been replaced at some point and is now silver. The hook side of the closure has a very pretty star design engraved on each loop of the metal. (Click on the photograph to see it for yourself).
The corset is created from only one layer of very fine but densely woven cotton; the machine stitches are tiny, around 28 per inch. There are 5 main pattern pieces on each side, and one bust shaped godet and two hip godets on each side. It is a very sophisticated and elegant piece of pattern cutting.
The bones are flossed in place along the bottom and the top edge is neatened by a very pretty cotton machine made lace and silk ribbon, attached with a large running stitch.

The corset has been constructed in its entirety with lap and fell seams, prior to having twill tapes sewn down the corset for the bones. It also has an inch wide twill tape as a stay around the waist.

It is bound top and bottom with tape, machined in place. It has 32 eyelets (16 each side) spaced approximately ½” apart..

There are 9 x ¼” wide bones on each side, whalebone or cellulose – arranged in pairs, with an additional bone next to the edge of the busk. Also 2 x ½” steels on each side panel. There is also a 3/8 ” steel each side of the eyelets.

Without access to the CB company records I am finding it hard to date this corset exactly. It is definitely earlier than 1910, by which point corsets in CB advertisements became very long, often straight across the top edge with long suspenders and coming low over the hips and bottom. My corset still has a heart shaped neckline and no suspenders but it does have a busk, which were invented in 1829. It also has metal eyelets – which came into popular usage around 1830...

It’s machine stitched, which puts it after 1850 when machines were first used in commercial manufacture... but most corsets from 1860 have a much more pronounced wasp waist and not such an elegant pattern cut as this one.

There are several catalogue pictures from other companies of corsets in the 1880’s with bust and hip godets, but most of the pictures of corsets from the very late 1890’s show many small panels instead of godets... there is also a very fancy black diagonal seam corset by Bayers from 1890 in the Symington collection with complex boning. My corset also has a straight busk, while spoon busks were popular from 1873 till the late 1890’s...

Aha! – a riding corset from Dickens and Jones dated 1901 (fourth row, centre) has bust and hip godets, light coutil, straight front busk, with bottom two hooks closer together...lace and metal eyelets – yes, this looks a bit like my corset.

So, using lots of reference, I think this corset is probably from 1890-1900 So I think it is borderline Victorian/Edwardian, since Queen Victoria died in 1901.

Roles for women in society were changing rapidly around this time. Women were studying at universities, bicycling and mountaineering, even training and working in previously exclusive male professions. I think this corset would have been light and easy to wear, a modern corset for a modern woman.

Below is a preview of the pattern, the full sized versions can be downloaded by clicking on the link below.