Still doing research on the dress fabric, but taking a quick break to figure out corsetry, since this will be the most complicated part of the outfit.
So I was all set to do some research, when I found this blog post on Romantic era corsetry by The Laced Angel.
Holy kleenex batman, I can’t really see what research I could do which would be better than that! Basically, I’m done now. Thank you Laced Angel for that post. (I mean, did you see that spreadsheet? Swooooon.)
So here’s what I’m thinking:
- I’m putting a split busk in mine. It’s definitely less common (this fashion plate is the only evidence I can find for one), but being able to dress myself is priority #1.
- I’m going to use something with bust gores and hip gores. So uh, I guess it’s time to learn to sew gores…
- Preferably strapless. Late 1830s has these really off the shoulder gowns, and I don’t want to be futzing with straps.
- Guess this thing will need some cording. That’s a pain.
- Ideally I’d like something somewhat backwards compatible (I’m kindof hankering to do a ridiculous 30s dress with gigot sleeves of doom now) rather than forwards compatible, since my 1850s corset can fake it just find for 1840s.
I don’t think I’m going to go with the 1820s or 1840s corsets from Corsets and Crinolines. I don’t have a clue as to how to construct one of these, so a pattern with instructions would be nice!
Past Patterns seems to be the pattern of choice for the era – see 001 and 708. Feeling rather conflicted between the two.
001 seems more correct for the time period and would be backwards compatible, but I’m concerned about the straps. I might be able to leave them off, or make them off-the-shoulder enough?
708 is strapless and has a busk, but seems to come a little high on the hips , and I’m not sure how well it would work for late 1820s/early 1830s costuming since it claims to be from 1840s-1870s!
Avant Garbe 
The Laughing Moon Romatic-Era pattern kind of fits what you are looking for. I’m currently working on that since it is backwards compatible. Though, it involves 16 (!) gores / gussets *gulp*. They’re not hard to sew but take aages…
Thanks, I’ll take a look at that one too. But yikes, 16 gores!
In fact there are only 8, but the whole thing has two layers… 😉
I’ve used 001 for two regency corsets and love it, with some footnotes. The straps WILL need to be narrowed, no matter what period you use it for. It’s not a terribly curvy corset, so if you want a more swoopy shape it might be more trouble than it’s worth. If you’re larger than a B-cup, you’ll need to modify the bust gores. It’s quite long; I’m 5’2″ and have shortened mine over the hips both times I’ve made it.
You don’t need cording; my new pair is a super-quick fill-in-the-gap pair that I made after losing 60lbs, but had no time to do anything fancy and it just has spiral steel boning placed where I thought I needed the most support. Cording is super pretty, but not necessary to get the right silhouette. There are several lightly-boned originals, and ones with minimal cording.
Anyway, it’s a great pattern. But, depending on what you want from it, it might not be the right one. Unfortunately I’ve never looked at 708, so I can’t comment on that.
How is the fabric search coming?
Thanks, this is really helpful! As a 4’11” person some shortening would definitely be in order.
This fabric on puresilks might be the one: http://www.puresilks.us/index.php?route=product/product&path=2&product_id=4076
I’m still a little leery of computer screen colors, and their swatches are pricey and would take forever to arrive, so I’m calling a few of the local places to see if they have what I want (where local = san francisco = an hour away, so I’m hoping calling can potentially save me the trip)