Today’s question is…
Where did you get your Belle hoopskirt?
Where do you buy your corsets?
I’m lumping these together to make one post about all the fun things like corsets and hoopskirts and petticoats!
Corsets
I don’t claim to be a corset expert at all (I seem to start a lot of FAQ Fridays like this… “I don’t know what I’m talking about, but…”); if you really want to get into corsets you’ve got a lot of research and various sites ahead of you. I’m just going to share what I’ve learned over the years!
I have a few store-bought corsets. The thing with buying corsets is there is a HUGE range in quality out there – generally, the more expensive it is, the better quality it is.
Here’s a couple of low-quality “fashion” corsets I bought – Susan’s is from ebay, and Poison Ivy’s is from Frederick’s.
Susan’s is pretty awful. I think I paid like $25 for it – it has really cheap plastic boning, hook-and-eye front that takes forever to get into and buckles uncomfortably when I lean over.
Poison Ivy’s was a little better – it’s more comfortable, anyway. It was like $55-$60 at Frederick’s. I wasn’t too concerned with the look of it since I was covering it in leaves. I altered it a bit, sewing up the hook-and-eye closures in the front permanently for one.
Next, I have a couple of underbust corsets I wear with various costumes – I have one black one and one white one. Both were from ebay but I can’t even begin to remember shop names – both were around $100-$120. The black one was a little more expensive and is the better of the two, in my opinion. I have no pictures of the white one, since I only wear it underneath Gentle Giant Leia, but here’s another shot of Susan, from when that cheap $20 corset busted and I had to wear my underbust over the top of it to keep it on:
I built Zatanna around that corset as well – the vest is engineered to fit on top of it.
I have a few other decent corsets I’ve bought for costumes – I generally just go on ebay and try to find something for under $100.
They’re all pretty decent and do what I needed them to do.
Now if you want to get serious about waist-reduction and having something that fits perfectly and is comfortable – first, please make sure you do your research into doing waist-training seriously. I don’t know a ton about it so I don’t want to spread misinformation. I know there are some fabulous shops where you can get super high-end, quality fitted corsets made to your measurements, so shop around.
I’ve gotten to wear I generally make my own corsets/bodices now. I made the corsets for Jane, Anne Boleyn and Marie Antoinette based on patterns:
Generally I make boned bodices for costumes these days instead of going for a corset (unless it calls for it) – I use Simplicity 5006 a lot and I love it. Here’s a few examples of that, and here is my little tutorial I did a while back on it.
For me, with bodices like this, it’s less about “reducing” and more about having some structure and strength to support itself without straps, or support other costume pieces.
HOOPSKIRTS & PETTICOATS
I generally get my hoopskirts and petticoats off ebay – wedding vendors sell them like crazy there.
If you’re getting a hoopskirt, make sure you also get a crinoline/petticoat. Some come with one attached, some you’ll have to make or buy something separate. The reason for this is that you don’t want the hard hoops to show throw your skirt fabric like ribs. (If you’ve got enough fabric/decoration on your skirt that it doesn’t show then you could get away with a petticoat.)
Here’s what my various hoops look like with a costume on.
My 3-ring hoopskirt with attached petticoat:
I have, over the years, had like 3 or 4 of this same hoopskirt. Some of them I’ve cut up for other projects or just needed a new one. The thing I like about it is that the hoops are remove-able, so if you want to take the bottom one out to make it less full, you can do that – or take them all out so you basically just have a fluffy petticoat left. Here’s the same hoopskirt, sans hoops, providing some fluff for Aurora:
Now, here’s my bigger 5 hoop. This one did not have an attached petticoat/crinoline.
I’ve had some issues with this one. The hoops are not easily removeable, but they get crushed very easily, which leads to a malformed hoop. It also had a weird “drop off point” after the last hoop, which I hated, so I added rows of ruffles to the bottom to help with that. Here is it is when it was new, vs last time I wore it:
I also made a petticoat to go over the top of it in 2009, when I wore it with Anne Boleyn:
In 2011, when I made Marie Antoinette, I tried my hand and making my own hoopskirt/panniers. I used Simplicity 3635:
Here it is under Marie Antoinette, and then under Belle in 2013. Before wearing it with Belle, I did some tightening up and fixes and I was much happier with them:
I get my supplies for both corsets and hoopskirts at CorsetMaking.com. They are awesome.