Foundations Revealed

Trying to date a particular corset, track changes in lingerie fashion down to a few years, or just looking for new inspiration? Plenty here to keep you busy...

Regardless of whether you've been naughty or nice this year, we've got lots of tempting ideas for your gift list, from kits to calendars, and from tools to books!

An open pair of cotton drawers in the style of the 1840's  (but dated late 1850s to 1860s), with delicate whitework embroidery, sewn on a chain stitch machine.

The S-Bend is probably the most misunderstood and under-studied corset fashion in history. Marion separates the myths from the reality.  

We glance briefly this month at the historic makers of Bon Ton, Royal Worcester and Adjusto models: patents, corsets and where you can learn more about the company.

Marion shares with us a knitted silk undervest with a crocheted yoke that could date anywhere from 1880 to 1910.

Marion walks you through all the different layer options of the nautural form era, starting from the skin out, with variations in necklines and politics.

Marion shares a linen chemise circa 1879 from her collection.

Historical fashion magazine corset ads say over and over again: "Available in white or drab coutil, or fast black sateen". But what colour is "drab" exactly? And how can you make it cheaply?

This month Suzannah asks about corset mannequins, Laurie inquires about the different site look and Natalie wonders how adaptable the corset drafting tutorial could be.

Last month we drafted the pattern for this unusual design. This month, the step by step construction process, including how to sew some very tricky seams! Suitable for beginners.

Following our Pattern Challenge article, here's more about the pattern and its maker, along with my method of patterning this corset from scratch.

Thomson's Glove fitting corset: we look at the 1898 patent, advertisements, a few extant corsets in collections and work on putting the pieces together to recreate it.