Queen of Cups

A tarot reading friend once told me that I would be best symbolized by the Queen of Cups. Apparently, her characteristics are loving, tenderhearted, intuitive, psychic and spiritual. Sure. Except for the psychic part. Unless excessive de ja voux is a strange form of psychic power. What's funny is that "loving," among other definitions, denotes "infinite patience." While this is fairly true when it comes to people, this rule does NOT in any way shape or form apply to corsetry. Heh.

Regardless of knowing that fact, I set about working up a corded corset this weekend. I educated myself by reading Jen's article, and then drooled over various examples. One of them being Beth's new curvy "s" corded corset. The shape certainly gives her that buxom "free" peasant look, but with the support of well, a corset. I knew I'd like to achieve something similar. The problem is that I really don't think I'm up to the "creative tailoring" it would necessitate later for drafting the overlying dress. I honestly think beth is a far better pattern drafter, and will do well with it, while it would most likely just frustrate me. Also, I'm a chicken.

Then, in an internet search, I was inspired by this:

Its a corset from 1598 Germany. I imagine that the unboned "cup" section would allow for a bit more curvature, and hopefully the "underwire-ish" cup action would mean less probability for pancake boobies (as seen in beth's what-not-to-do post). Oh, and as its otherwise straight, I thought it would make later tailoring of dresses easier.

I was certain that it wasn't the right type of corset for a flemish peasant/working class. But comfort with corset trumps authenticity with floppy boobies. Like Beth, I don't go out without some support, you know?

For the corset design, I used the bodice pattern from my green venetian, with less point at the front, point removed from the back, strap altered a bit to not be at the shoulder point like on the venetian, and front lacing.My original plan was to make the corset from my green cotton and cream duck. But since I wanted some give at the unboned boob section, I decided not to go with the very sturdy duck and settled on an inner lining of yellow linen from my recent thrift store finds. I also made the front portion fall somewhat on a slight bias to allow some "give" so my womanly bits could assert themselves. Probably a big no-no for lacing integrity. But I guess we'll find out, eh?

Then the sewing part happened:
While I was sewing, I abandoned the cup plan completely. Mental note to try that sometime. But my "infinite patience" ran out. Chuckle. I did use the diagonal boning channel design like beth --it seemed rather natural since the corset front was on the bias anyway. I ended up with a hemp-corded green and yellow corset bound with white grossgrain, cuz that was all I had on hand. I must've been subconciously affected by Niter's recently dyed "sprite" yarn. I dub this the "Sprite corset" in deference to her cleverness. Its definitely not as curvy as Beth's fun experiment. But its awful comfy, and it'll do.
I didn't think to take a pic while I had the lacing strips still attached. So here it is sans eyelets (and with a bit more binding left to finish).



Hopefully I'll be able to finish this bad boy tomorrow, and get a decent pic with "womanly bits" asserting themselves.