Before the corset...there was the kirtle!

Before we had corsets, before we had stays, before we had bodies even, we had girdles. This is our stiffened bust support foundation garment, and we are achieving that stiffness not through boning, but through stiffened fabric. It's literally just medium to heavyweight linen basted with a hide glue to give it that rigidity. Once dry and sufficiently papery, I will need about four concentric layers of buckram for each bodice. Each layer therefore is going to be cut slightly smaller than the last. The trick to working with any shaped garment like this is to work with it in its final form. Since each concentric layer of buckram will technically have a slightly tighter curve than the one behind it when worn on a curved body, this curvature should be worked into the layers as I'm sewing. And now that all the complicated work is done, we can get back to the skirts since the skirt and the stiffened bodice are connected. These two girdles are the beginning of what will become a much larger project I have got myself very roped into on the subject of 16th century women in alchemy. From reconstructing how women practicing alchemy in the 16th century would have dressed to reconstructing some historical alchemy itself. So, I look forward to seeing you back here and on.