It's a good day to sew!

I feel bright as a button this morning. Despite a late night and waking up early to a shouty baby, the postman delivering my silk at 9.30 has cheered me up immensly. It means I can really motor on my designs as well as start the next wedding dress commission. Sometimes you just know its going to be a good day!

I was having a look back at my research from the Symington collection and on the Met museum website for some much needed enthusiasm. I'm also looking for a corset dated 1911-1912 in which to base a design for a competition (yes - I govern my success by acheived challenges) and I think it is time for me to give one of the Jenyns designs I have had my eye on for a while.

This is the drawing from my original research at the Symingtom collection. For more on this corset see my previous blog The beauty of Fan Lacing

This is D15, not a very glamorous name for such an awesome piece of corset engineering. Dated as 1911, this early Jenyns  no.9 model was licensed to be produced by the Symington Company but was invented and patented by Sarah Ann Jenyns, who with her husband ran a surgical instrument and corset company. Sarah also sold licenses to make Jenyns models in Canada, Germany and the USA.
This is one of the earliest Jenyns designs made by Symington but the Jenyns company still made corsets until late into the 1990's.

Here are some more detailed photo's from the corset. I particularly find interesting the look of fan lacing and the buckle attachment at the front. It has some pretty crazy inserts and seaming which I am going to have to figure out so it should be fun.

Source: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jenyns-sarah-ann-10711

Fan lacing...experimenting...

Experiments with fan lacing going well.

I've been  trying to incorporate concepts of fan lacing with the aesthetics of the Victorian corset. Been having loads of fun finding different ways of lacing up the back to get the most out it. I have surmised from  my experimentation that considerable fitting must be made to the lacing to make it 'fit' correctly, so upon purchase of one of these models an assistant will have had to adjust these laces to the wearer exactly before the freedom of daily self lacing could happen. Presumably, the design itself allows a certain amount of flexibility for the wearer top loose/gain weight as all they would have to do (unless weight change is dramatic) is go and have the laces re-fitted at the retailer.

Interesting.

Also of note is that the fan lacing corsets are not meant to be tight laced like their predecessors. There is just not enough flexibility to gain the 4" difference you could expect from a traditionally designed corset.

I love the idea of incorporating fan lacing as a decorative feature on a traditional shaped corset. This is a first propper attempt, very pleased with it...further experimentation required. Took me three lacing's to make it work. Phew!

Corsets - the beauty of fan lacing

The fan lacing corset was designed with only one idea in mind : to make the corset easier to lace up ones-self.
There are two notable companies that were at the top of their game in this specific corset design genre: Jenyns and Camp.
When I did research at the Symington Collection I got to see oa Jenyns corset up close, and I kid you not....it was a fantastic feat of engineering!

The things that defines this type of corset is the lacing at the back and how the criss crossing of the lacing between the fan and the corset provides the ingenious ability if the wearer to be in complete and sole control of tightening the lacing without the need for assistance.

This particular corset is made under license by the Symington Company, and is dated 1911. Here is the original advertisment:
The corset sat low under the bust, and provides no support there, and low over the hip - giving supposed excellent suport of the lower back. This model was popular well into the WW1 era when women donned their Jenyns to support their backs as they worked in factories for the war effort.
The corset is made of white coutil.

This is an exert from my sketchbook about this specific model.

The brand 'Camp' was the main rival to the Jenyns and was invented by Samuel Higby Camp in 1908, but not patented until 1921. Whilst the original Jenyns models used lacing sewn into the fan shape Camps featured a metal fitting that allowed the lacing to remain in one length and allows the lacing to be adjusted using a pulley system rather than simply by front buckles as in the above Jenyns example. Later jenyns examples feature Camp's pulley concept.

In trying to understand the way this works I have mocked up a simple short version of a Jenyns corset. Unfortunatly at the time of experiment I didn't have any of the little metal pulleys, so have replaced it with eyelets. At this stage I have omitted the belt tightening because it clashes with the eyelet system. I have used two different coloured laces to show the crossing pattern...it's the geek in me.

 Since then I have now sourced the metal bits I need to create a true fan lacing corset I'm off to do some mor experimenting...