corsetmakers: Pattern Review 3 - Ageless Corset Patterns

Johanna (

britgeekgrrl) wrote in

corsetmakers,
@ 2004-07-15 11:29:00

Entry tags:

ageless 1339, patterns

Pattern Review 3 - Ageless Corset Patterns
I understand Ageless offers a variety of Victorian corset patterns, depending on their stock available. They look pretty nifty (and tricky) to me, so I'd love to hear from anyone who has used them.

Liked them? Hated them? Tips and tricks for assembling them?

If you want to suggest a pattern or online generator for the Pattern Review threads, please email me at johanna_mead(at)yahoo(dot)com. If you're recommending an online generator, don't forget to include the URL!

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mi_ciana
2004-07-15 11:43 am UTC (link)

Seen them. Own a couple.
You have to do a little research to use them efficiently. They have a lot of information without a lot of instruction.
In some, they don't have any. At least, none that is easily understood.
Ageless found an archive of patterns with instructions. They reprinted them as is. No modernizations. So they can be tricky because a lot is not explained. They assumed you knew certain things, well, we don't have the same standard of "you have to know" as they did.
That's my take on them.
Good luck with those. They have more than fifteen styles of corsets, depending on the activity, age and size.
Oh yeah.. The size on the pattern is that size. That's it. There are no variations or multiple sizes in any of their patterns. Ever. If you don't fit into that size, it's all up to you for modifications. They don't help you with any of that. You had to fit the clothing, not the other way around. So with that in mind... you should be fine.
Good luck. Let us know how it works out for you.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	dragoneyes19 2004-07-15 08:50 pm UTC (link)
	are you talking about agless pattens on ebay? some of their patterns do have multi-sizing. I just got three in the mail today and of them one does have all a huge range of sizes. it says in the pattern descriptions which do and which don't. (Reply to this)(Parent)

maramaye
2004-07-15 04:07 pm UTC (link)

I second the above.

Also, my experience is that the size of the pattern is NOT the size quoted -- I've had to remove as much as six inches off the measurements. Because of the necessity of modifying every pattern, and the almost complete lack of instructions, I consider these to be patterns for experienced corset makers only.

That said, they have some lovely patterns and extremely useable designs.

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	tanthe 2004-07-16 03:10 pm UTC (link)
	Also, my experience is that the size of the pattern is NOT the size quoted This aside from the usual difference between pattern sizing and regular clothing sizing? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

lilithsatyne
2007-11-16 12:15 am UTC (link)

oooh oooh. i made a skirt for a lady with ample hips, and i was using a store bought pattern. it turned out that her hips were about 2" bigger than the largest size in the pattern, so i drafted out an extra 1/2" on each seam (4 seams) it came together beautifully, but when she put it on, the skirt was 6 inches too big over her hips lol so in went some darts. it left me scratching my head and wondering, how did this skirt get so big.

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random_c
2004-07-26 01:15 pm UTC (link)

I've made (or attempted to make) several of their patterns, and I have the book they offer, of reprinted instruction articles. In every single case, they've come out *considerably* larger than stated. A 21" waist corset will come out at about 24" and the bust, eeesh. Be prepared to make a mock-up and do some *serious* messing about with it to get it to fit. They *do* look nice when you've done all that, though. :)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	courtneychaos 2005-12-02 03:44 pm UTC (link)
	I found the same thing. A 34 bust/20 waist/29 hip came out as a 38 bust/25 waist/33 hip. I reviewed the pattern pieces obsessively and couldn't find my mistake. I was worried I was going crazy. All is fine now, I just took it in here and there. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	random_c 2005-12-02 03:54 pm UTC (link)
	Indeed. Either their instructions are twaddle, or there's something seriously screwy with those patterns. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

Ageless Patterns
francesgrimble
2006-05-17 06:43 pm UTC (link)

The Ageless Patterns corset patterns are all, as far as I know, from issues of _Harper's Bazar_; or, for any period after _Harper's Bazar_ quit publishing patterns (circa 1904), from _La Mode Illustree_ or possibly, _Der Bazar_; both of which were "sister" magazines to _Harper's Bazar_ and which kept on publishing patterns somewhat longer. The pattern format for these magazines was a very large sheet of paper printed on both sides with overlapping pattern pieces for 20 or so garments per issue. In order to get a pattern for one garment, you had to put tracing paper over the multipattern sheet and trace off the each piece; not always an easy task as garment pieces too large for even one sheet were cut up or folded over and put on the sheet in sections. I've done this many times, only with a computer. I'm publishing a series of historic clothing pattern books, I have six out so far, and three of them use _Harper's Bazar_ patterns. Two of those, _Reconstruction Era Fashions_ and Volume 1 of _Fashions of the Gilded Age_, include corset patterns (to be enlarged with an overhead projector or by hand with a grid) and instructions. (_Fashions of the Gilded Age_ also includes several corset patterns from another source which can be enlarged to the wearer's exact size with apportioning scales, which are described on my website, http://www.lavoltapress.com.) Due to their format, _Harper's Bazar_ only published each pattern in one "medium" size, which BTW was not consistent from pattern to pattern. So any sizing for these was done by Ageless Patterns. They also published instructions for each pattern. About once a year, they had an "article" with the basic procedures for making all corsets, only somewhat updated from year to year, as it included fairly static information on things like inserting boning and so on. I've put a couple of those articles in my books. One thing to remember is that this was simply the kind of corset pattern that was available during the periods when these were published: There are no better genuine period patterns. Another thing to remember is that most modern books and patterns for corseting for any historic era tend to whittle the styles down to one or two per decade. In fact the Victorians applied considerable thought and ingenuity to patterns for corsets (and also, BTW, hoopskirts and bustles). There are many variant styles and patterns, and you have to look to the period sources for most of them. Frances Grimble Lavolta Press Books on Historic Costuming http://www.lavoltapress.com

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	Re: Ageless Patterns random_c 2006-05-17 07:41 pm UTC (link)
	I don't have any original corset patterns, but I do have some other original patterns. When I have time, I'm going to trace them off and try them... (Reply to this)(Parent)

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