Sometimes there was a bit of boning in the gown, as well.
****** Every upscale gown from the teens I've seen always has a boned under-structure no matter how draped and flowing the gown is. It usually takes the form of a muslin or glazed cotton sleeveless bodice that ends at the raised waist that is lightly boned front and back and closes with hooks and eyes CF.... no matter how the gown closes. This is what the drapery of the gown is usually tacked to. Many gowns are made to look like layered garments, sometimes like a high necked bodice with an unstructured draped flowy thing over this.... all tacked to the boned under- bodice The closings can get ridiculously complicated to make the draped part look like it's just been "thrown" on and it fell perfectly all by itself with all manner of little hooks and eyes or snaps on the side or around the back or on one shoulder...whatever.... but the boned under-bodice always closes CF. This under- bodice never shows! BTW... zip ties/ cable ties work well for boning this type of structure. They should be narrow, but because of the raised waist, need never bee too long (like 9" -12" at the most). You can use small cable ties from Lowe's. Also... I find the stuff Rose wears in the film "Titanic" to not be very period. Her stuff is beaded to death but the feel and shapes and "logic" of her gowns to me shows the designer doesn't "get" the period. The extras are better dressed. And her clothes are utterly conventional for the time.... not very "forward" or avant garde like her character is supposed to be. For a REAL high-brow look from this period I suggest you check out the film "Wings of the Dove" designed by Sandy Powell. It's full of uber-rich high society types in forward fashion of the time (especially Charlotte Rampling) -----Original Message----- From: Marjorie Wilser <the3t...@gmail.com> To: Historical Costume <h-cost...@indra.com> Sent: Fri, Jul 20, 2012 12:12 pm Subject: Re: [h-cost] Boning for Edwardian/Titanic Era dresses I've seen folks use long zip ties for light boning! Ends cut off, of course ;) You can buy heavier-than usual ones at a specialty hardware store, or perhaps a shipping specialty store (not ups! they're consumer grade) ==Marjorie Wilser @..@ @..@ @..@ Three Toad Press http://3toad.blogspot.com/ On Jul 20, 2012, at 8:54 AM, Carol Kocian wrote: > Hi Rachael, > > Sometimes there was a bit of boning in the gown, as well. Even with > a corset, the gown could ride up. Generally it was still whalebone, > split into thinner widths. > > Plastic featherboning is supposed to mimic actual feather shafts > used for boning. I heard that from a friend but don't have any > actual source. Anyway, the featherboning should be enough to keep > the gown seams smooth, it's just not enough support for a corset. > Rigilene is another light stiffener that will work, and is flatter > that featherboning. Something else that works in a pinch is > horsehair braid — I use one piece as a base, and stretch another > piece to zigzag on top of it. The ends have to be tucked into > fabric, though, or else those little nylon strands will poke. > > The good news is, you can add the seam boning after the gown is > made, so you can try it on first to see if you need it. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
