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I made a corset mock up!!

The first draft is done. To be honest, putting it on for the first time gave me mixed feelings. It very quickly became apparent to me that I have quite some alterations to do for the pattern. The bust area came out way too big, which however should be relatively easy to fix. It‘s a bit annoying considering the fact that I put a lot of time and energy into making the pattern wider there in the first place (according to my measurements) but welp 🤷🏻‍♀️

What worries me more is that it clearly is too small at the waist (my friend has a picture of the back of the mock up where you can see it quite good, I’ll add it to the post once she sends it to me). I‘m not so sure how to deal with it yet though. One option would of course be to make the pattern wider at the waist. Wich I‘m not entirely sure how to do and sounds like a lot of work and honestly gives me anxiety. I could also just leave a wider gap at the back than the pattern intends. It‘s supposed to be about 5cm if I remember correctly and not widening the pattern would at least double that space. It might be a good idea though because I plan on loosing some weight in the future. However no one can know how that will work out (no pun intended) and I am a firm believer in the concept that you are not supposed to fit into your clothes but that it‘s your clothes job to fit you and I guess leaving a wider gap would contradict that in a way.

Even though it was of in fact exiting to be able to try on the mock up for the first time, it also gave me some body insecurities. As you can see on the next picture, it doesn‘t flatten my tummy really. That is because even though I do have quite some body fat in that area of my body, instead of being “squishy“, which would allow the corset to help distribute the fat more evenly (or just differently) and thus make the tummy appear more flat, my body tends to still be quite tight there, so the corset is not really able to form the body. I know that I will eventually come to terms with it and learn to love and accept this aspect of my physical form, but for now it is an insecurity and a challenge.

Now as to how I made the mock up…

After pinning all the pieces together, I first had to mark the seam allowance, that was already included in the pattern, before I could start sewing. I ended up doing most of the sewing by hand, mainly because that way I was able to watch TV while doing so. I used a running stitch and even though a running backstitch might have looked neater, I think it still did a good job. Especially because this is just the first mock up.

I do not have the busk yet and used a zipper instead as the pattern suggested. I had one lying around that was too long but still did the job. I used my singer treadle machine to sew it on. Because, again, this was just the mock up, I did not make an effort and did not even use a zipper foot (which I don‘t have anyway) but it still turned out okay enough.

To form the boning channels, I pressed the seam allowances towards the center back of the garment, marked the width of the boning on the hereby created channels, and sewed them down also with the treadle machine (I hope that explanation makes sense). I‘m using 7mm plastic whalebone that I ordered at the piccolo shop. I cut the boning to roughly the right size but didn’t file down the ends yet because I was too lazy to do so or too exited to get the mock up done to allow something like that to hold me back or maybe actually a bit of both. I then sewed along the bottom edge of the fabric in a straight line (again by machine) to close the boning channels in one direction, inserted the boning and adjusted the length and then closed the boning channels at the top with some backstitches. (The pattern includes a lot of additional boning channels which I decided not to include in the mock up)

Somewhere in between, I used a small ale and, in the absence of a bigger ale, a slightly bigger crochet hook, to punch in the holes for the binding. I did not use any sort of eyelets on the mock up and one of the holes did rip a bit, but not too badly and it still all worked out.

I have not bought any corset lace yet so I used some red cotton yarn that I had lying around for the binding. I do not know how I managed to not loose my mind trying to thread the mock up but after about an hour or so and about three failed attempts, it was finally done and I could try it on for the first time …

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I wrote this elsewhere for someone who was struggling to find information, and then realised it was probably relevant to many other people too, so I’ve expanded it a bit. Therefore I present;

Which boning do I want? A guide

Flat steel; flat steel flexes front and back, not side to side. Heaviest option. Pricy. Difficult to cut and finish (will tear holes in your project if you leave raw edges). Expect bolt cutters and a metal file, or faffing around with “tipping liquid” which may or may not be illegal to post in your country (Nail polish is only a temporary alternative in my experience). Will last a million years. Extremely robust shaping. If you want to hold up an entire garment on 3 bones; flat steel. DO NOT WASH (I’m not your real dad but also it does corrode eventually if you keep getting/leaving it wet)

Lot of people swear that even if you use different bones everywhere else, you want flat steel next to your eyelets. Personally; eh. This appears to be convention rather than based in solid evidence (bunch of extant Victorian corsets don’t have steel by the eyelets, some do, a lot we don’t actually know). Go with your heart and your wallet, especially for special occasion pieces

Spiral steel: flexes side to side as well as front to back. Lighter than flats (in theory). Pretty robust and long lived. Easier to cut than flat (still metal, still bolt cutters), but made of wire, basically, so you have to buy metal end caps and fit every single one with pliers. Cheaper than flat steel. Generally agreed to be more comfortable than flat steel but again. Still metal. DO NOT WASH NO REALLY I MEAN IT THIS TIME this stuff loves corrosion

A lot of modern corsets are a mix of flat and spiral and they will tell you that’s for flexibility but it’s usually for budget

Zip ties: cheap and they work, pretty much, but mainly cheap, extremely variable in thickness/size/flexibility, did I mention cheap? Don’t buy random ones online; you want to handle them and be sure they’re the size/rigidity you’re after (or even just feel good about. Some zip ties are incredibly flimsy. Heavy duty ones tend to also be thicc). Generally washable, but with highly variable results

Rigilene/other generic plastic boning: wafers of flimsy plastic. Surprisingly expensive and won’t hold up to a stiff breeze. Disappointment city. Washing sometimes also kills it? When people whine about plastic boning, this is what they’re thinking of

“Synthetic whalebone”: really fancy plastic. Consistent width/thickness/rigidity. Several options of width usually. Very light. Good balance of support and flexibility. Can cut with heavy duty scissors and finish with a nail file. Mouldable with heat. You gotta buy a lot at once, but not ultimately expensive in comparable amounts (big rolls, per metre, more cost effective than heavy duty zip ties; but are you gonna use 50 metres of boning?). Washable in a way steel just isn’t; must warn you that the whole “mouldable with heat” thing also means “very occasionally the tumble dryer kills one of my kirtles and I have to dig out a bone and replace it”

Synthetic whalebone means adjusting the way you think about boning a bit; one bone is not as strong as a flat steel. That doesn’t mean (as I’ve seen some people say) you can’t use synthetic whalebone if you’re fat; it means you’re going to want two, three or four bones side by side to do the same job. This is exactly what people did with real whalebone (good lord if you’re making 18th century stays or equivalent don’t use steel, it’ll be so heavy and uncomfortable). You can even put two bones in the same channel stacked on top of each other if you make it big enough. You tend to use more of it than you would steel, but it still usually works out cheaper - the “extra boning” channels thing only really comes into play for aesthetics (it is COMPLETELY FINE to pick the more expensive and difficult option for aesthetics and anyone who tells you otherwise is a coward)

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Controversial opinion (?): I think adaptations of period novels and historical events can absolutely benefit from being made more accessible to a modern audience at times. However, less by making the characters sound more modern or express modern social views and more by doubling down and actually explaining to the audience the social context behind certain events and decisions.

Because it's all good and well to praise Edward Ferrars for sticking by Lucy Steele a million times, but if you don't explain why it would be such a dick move for him to break up with her everyone is going to continue thinking that he should follow his heart or that he's actually being cruel to Lucy by pretending to love her. Both of which would be absolutely true today but which are not very important considerations in their case.

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New corset update. Some time ago I spent the weekend with my parents where my mom very kindly assisted me in printing, assembling and then cutting out the pattern and finally transfering it to my mock up fabric and cutting that out as well.

First, we had to take my measurements. I‘m having quite a strong chest wich lead to a difference in 3 sizes between the chest - and the waist-measurement. Waist- and hip-measurements resulted in the same size. What we did then was to take the smaller size as orientation, then adding on the 3 sizes in the bust area and connecting the sizes before cutting everything out.

That been done we went upstairs to „just fetch some fabric for the mockup“ - wich turned into a 4 hour session of me and my mom clearing out her sewing supplies drawers. We had a very good time though, her lamenting on how much stuff she had and „when and why did I buy all that zippers, what was I ever gonna use them for“ and telling stories about all the things she‘s sewn in her youth.

After we finally sorted all that out and a quick dinner break, we transfered the pattern onto the mockup fabric, using a washable pen we just found, and then cut it out with a rotary cutter that she had forgotten about until I dug it out of the drawer. We used an old sheet that was green at the top and then turned blue. I personally didn’t care a lot about how the mock up would turn out other than I wanted it to show me what I have to alter about the pattern (becaus that’s what the mock up is for, right?) but my mom got carried away by the idea that I could turn it into a corsage dress and insisted that the waistline had to sit on the line between the green and blue fabric which slowed us down significantly and cost me some nerves for sure. She was very happy though and so I am as well. It was about 11.30 pm when we finally had transfered all of the final markings to the fabric.

Next step will be to figure out how exactly to assemble the mock up peaces. Eventhough I plan on handsewing a lot of the actual corset I‘ll probably use my 1906 singer treadle for the mock up. I‘m very excited about how it will turn out!

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Why am I disappointed that it wasn’t a clear win for the ants? 🐜

Challenge between humans and ants, who will win?

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Okay but what WERE they called then? 🤔

Have you seen this post?

You probably have. It currently has over 120,000 notes, largely because of this addition.

Of course it's going to get reblogged, this kind of unsourced factoid does numbers on here. But something about it wasn't quite right.

A bit of searching turned up the origin of the "fact".

Alright, so it's someone who posted this on reddit 4 years ago and somehow ended up in the search hits. And the post confuses the electric eel (from South America) with the electric catfish (from the Nile, which the Egyptians would have known about).

Reminder: this is an electric eel (Electrophorus electricus). It is from South America. (image from Wikipedia)

And this is an electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus). It is from the Nile and would have been familiar to the ancient Egyptians. (image from Wikipedia)

And then of course people were speculating in the notes to that post about trade routes between South America and Egypt. Excellent scholarship everyone.

At this point I was ready to call it another made-up internet fact that gets reified by people repeating it. But something was still bothering me.

An ancient Egyptian slab from 3100 BC. What could that be...

Oh.

The Narmer palette. It's the goddamn Narmer palette. (image, once again, from Wikipedia)

So where is this "angry catfish"?

It's not the Egyptian name for the electric catfish.

It's... Narmer. It's Narmer himself.

Narmer's name is written as above (detail of top middle of the palette), using the catfish (n`r) and the chisel (mr), giving N'r-mr. The chisel is associated with pain, so this reads as "painful catfish", "striking catfish", or, yes, "angry catfish" or other similar variants, although some authors have suggested that it means "Beloved of [the catfish god] Nar".

So.

Where does this leave us?

It would appear that this redditor not only confused electric eels with electric catfish, but also confused a Pharaoh's name with the name of a fish. And then it got pushed to the top search hits by a crappy search engine and shared uncritically on tumblr.

In short, "the electric eel is called angry catfish" factoid actually literacy error. Angry Catfish, who ruled upper Egypt and smote his enemies, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.

Also the Arabic name for the electric catfish is raad (thunder) or raada (thunderer).

References

Afsaruddin, A., & Zahniser, A. H. M. (1997). Humanism, culture, and language in the Near East: studies in honor of Georg Krotkoff. Eisenbrauns.

Clayton, P. A. (2001). Chronicle of the Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson.

Godron, G. (1949). A propos du nom royal. Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Egypte, 49, 217-221.

Sperveslage, G., & Heagy, T. C. (2023). A tail's tale: Narmer, the catfish, and bovine symbolism. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 109(1), 3-319.

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alla mingalёva

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I need one but with battleship TEXAS.

source

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The Titanic Is Driving Of Into The Night

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Titanic: Project 401 allows you explore a jaw-droppingly authentic recreation of the RMS Titanic, from first class all the way down to the engine rooms.

Read More & Play The Alpha, Free (Windows)

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13, 14, 15, 16

This 1841 wedding dress, worn by the wife of a farm laborer in Lincolnshire, England, mimics the design of a high fashion wedding gown like Queen Victoria’s, but in an inexpensive printed white cotton. Although the dress is white, it is versatile enough to be worn on many occasions. 

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Queen Victoria’s wedding gown, 8