Corset Busks; regular, wide, spoon and colours

Corset busks that open have been around since the mid 1800's. Made of metal an opening corset busk consists of two parts; one side has knobs and the other loops. When the loops are hooked over the knobs the busk acts like a clasp to hold a corset shut. This means that you can get into a corset without someone to dress you. Always loosen the corset laces before attempting to get into and out of the corset. Since a corset is essentially smaller that your body, trying to put the corset on without loosening the corset laces will be impossible and trying to take the corset off without loosening the ties will potentially damage the busk.

 

You have choices when buying a busk.  The most common busk is a "regular busk" or "straight busk" which is white with silver coloured knobs and loops. More colour options have become available in the last few years so you can now get "gold busks" that have gold knobs and loops,  "antique brass busks", "black busks" and even ones that have "diamonds"/clear crystals set in the knobs that are called "diamond busks" (though no, they are not real diamonds). Having colour options means you can co-ordinate the busk to the fashion fabric.

 

There are also "wide busks" and "spoon busks" both of which are silver in colour and made from stainless steel. The "wide busks" are extremely supportive and a good choice for women or men needing/wanting more support - they don't flex nearly as well as a regular busk so they don't curve over the chest well.  The "Spoon busk" is historically accurate for corsets of the late 1800's and the bowl of the spoon is meant to cup the stomach...not the chest!

 

The busk (regardless of style or colour) should be put into the corset with the loop piece on the right-hand side so that the wearer can pull the loop section with their right hand while holding the left side in place. Hooking the loops over the knobs.

 

Busks can be found in many lengths from 4" to 18" so you can likely find one for any project you have.

 

The link below will take you an article about getting into and out of a corset with an opening busk.

 

http://farthingalescorsetmakingsupplies.com/tips.php?article=17

 

The next link will take you to a wide selection of articles related to costume making

 

http://farthingalescorsetmakingsupplies.com/tips-index.php

 

and the last link will take you to a web page to see all the busks that Farthingales offers for sale

http://farthingalescorsetmakingsupplies.com/products.php?cat=busk



What is a Waist Cincher?

I get asked "What is the difference between a corset and a waist cincher?"              A waist cincher is a corset - but it does not cover the chest area. The focus of a waist cincher is just to cinch in the waist, the blue corset is a short waist cincher and the bronze one is a long line waist cincher. Waist cinchers can be underwear but they make great fashion accessories and are alot easier to make...because you don't have to fit the bust. Rye and Ginger kits offers waist cincher kits. ryeandgingerkits.com

Corset Making Tip

There are many ways to make a corset and inumerable types or styles of corsets. A detail that had totally slipped my mind has been incorporated by Joan Scheerer. She stitched her two layers of coutil together - (note: this is vintage coutil) and as you can see in the photo she then heavily machine stitched a section above the one bone casing. This area will be under the arm when the corset is complete. The stitching ads support to the corset under the arm but keeps the bone away from the arm pit. If you're shorter than average in the torso you'll know how uncomfortable it can be to have a bone digging into your underarm!  This is a great tip!

Joan's corset will be a simple coutil Victorian shaped corset and she'll be modelling it at the Farthingales Corset Fashion Show during the Creativ Festival in Toronto on October 22, 2010 at 1:00

Corset Fashion Show background details

Sara Brzozowski is the first to finish her corset for the October Corset Fashion Show at the Creativ Festival! She chose to make a waist cincher from black silk satin and an Asian inspired cotton print. To continue the "fan" motif from the side panels into the black silk panels at the front and back she cut fans from her printed fabric. She fused the fabric with "wonder under", made sure the fans she cut followed the pattern, confirmede their placement and fused them into place. She experimented with gold stitcing and opted against idea as the fans stood out so well in contrast to the black.

To see the completed corset and find out if Sara added any further decoration to her corset come to the Creativ Festival in Toronto on October 22nd. Fashion show starts at 1:00 corsets will be on display at the Farthingales booth all weekend....though Sara may be wearing hers!

The corset fashion show will take place at the Toronto Metro Convention Center on October 22nd 2010 during the Creativ Festival. While Farthingales is producing the show there are about 32 women involved and a couple of men to! Everyone has submitted sketches or descriptions which means everyone who originally signed up is still on board which is pretty incredible for a volunteer project.

Kathi is the first one I've got some photos from; as a fiber artist with no corset building experience she's focusing on the fabric. She's creating two corsets for the corset fashion show. One corset is being featured in A Needle Pulling Thread magazine in a three part series - check out the August Issue for the first installment.

Several fabrics cut into bits and pinned securley between two layers of net.

The second corset Kathi is working on will be built from the same corset pattern - a modern take on an 18th century corset. She's taken several fabrics, cut them into bits and with decorative machine stitching anchorded them between two layers of open net. This one of kind fabric is only being used as a detail; it's being combined with other purchased fabric.

There will be over 30 corsets on the runway during the corset fashion show and many will be on display for the balance of the weekend. So mark you calendar and book a day off work Friday October 22nd this is a show worth seeing.

Corset Fashion Show

Farthingales is producing a Corset Fashion Show for the Creativ Festival, October 22nd 2010. Follow the link to find out more about this event and the many aspects of the Creativ Festival - you won't want to miss it.

This is going to be an amazing show with 30+ corsets made by over 20 people. Everyone has designed and created a unique one of kind corset. Over the next few weeks some of these corsets will be posted here on the Farthingales Corset Blog. None of the corsets are finished yet but we'll be posting pictures of the sketches and fabrics that are now in production.

This project is awesome in that it's a team project. The women involved are not competeing but supporting the process - right down to shoe swaping to make the outfits complete! We actually had a "Cinderella" situation....who ever fit the shoe got to wear the corset!

Check back each week to see more as we close the gap to October 22nd!
Look for the ribbon dress that's actually a corset, the steel corset - welded not sewn! The corset that's knit but still creates great shape, the lace corset with red bones and many more. 

You can follow the progress of one team in the Canadian magazine "A Needle Pulling Thread"
http://www.aneedlepullingthread.com/