Flossing & Lace

A blog dedicated to the Symington Collection of Corsetry & Swimwear

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1890 Busk front corset typical of the beautifully designed styles of this period.

Made with black lasting fabric lined in white twill. Features flexible corded hips and an intricate boning system involving forty two cane strips and four tempered steels down the back lacing.The cane boning allowed decorative stitching to be accomplished by the recently invented embroidery machine. A skilled operative could safely pierce the cane strips without needle damage. The original sample ticket on the corset quotes the price of 20/6d per dozen (£1.02 1/2)

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‘The Woven Waist Corset’ was designed in 1908 and has a unique design of interlocked tapes around the waist, the bust and hips zones are made from blue and white cellular cotton. The sides and back are boned with a combination of whalebone and flat steels. It has four frilled suspenders with metal loops and buttons.

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@symingtoncorsets here is my 20" recreation of Symington 2370 from the Leicestershire collection....

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This black lasting corset is lined with white cotton twill and edged with gold and black braid. It was designed in 1900 and is stamped ‘best English make, watch spring steels’. Watch spring steel was light and flexible but very strong which meant that it could give a gentle but controlling curve to the shape of the corset.

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To get into the spirit of Christmas I have chosen this very festive black and red corset. 

Dating from 1900 and probably of German manufacture and boned with a combination of whalebone and flat steel. Made from black sateen and lined in white twill with casings and zone piece in red sateen. The decorative black flosswork is hand stitched.

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1899/1900

This corset is made of khaki drill lined with white twill and interlined with hessian. There is no boning in this corset except for tempered flat steels to support the back lacing. Instead it has strong, eight ply string cording vertically and across the hips. The spoon busk has a wide steel support underneath which was known as a double busk. The newly formed limited company of R and W.H Symington and Co Ltd produced this quality corset for the extremely low price of 16/3d per dozen which means that it could have retailed at 2/3d each.

Waist 21” Depth 14”

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Dating from 1900 this Lightweight busk front corset is made from light brown sateen lined in cotton and over-strapped with fawn sateen. This garment heralds the coming fashion change for corsets to the straight front of the early 1900's known also as the ‘Health Corset’. It has a single long straight busk as opposed to the then conventional spoon busk. Across the front are double crossed straps for added strength. It is moderately boned with whalebone and split cane supporting the back lacing.

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c1890. Busk front corset made from cotton twill lined in fawn coutil and interlined with hessian. This corset is a Symington speciality and is called 'The Pretty Housemaid' and is advertised as the strongest and cheapest corset ever made. The corset was made and directly marketed at women in service and was one of the top sellers of its day.

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C. 1895

This busk front corset is typical of the beautifully designed styles of this period. Made from black lasting lined with white twill it features flexible corded hips and an intricate boning system involving forty two cane strips and four tempered steels down the back lacing. The corset is decorated with sky blue feather stitching. The cane boning allowed decorative stitching to be accomplished by the recently invented embroidery machine, and a skilled operative could safely pierce the cane strips without needle damage. The corset has a waist measurement of 22".

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Corset made from yellow silk brocade and trimmed with white leather. It dates from around 1770 and was proberably made in Italy.

It forms part of the Fashion Collections of Leicestershire County Council.

This corset is available for study, by appointment, at the Collections Resources Centre in Leicestershire.

For further details please email: [email protected]

[symingtoncorsets]

Corset made from yellow silk brocade and trimmed with white leather. It dates from around 1770 and was proberably made in Italy.

It forms part of the Fashion Collections of Leicestershire County Council.

This corset is available for study, by appointment, at the Collections Resources Centre in Leicestershire.

For further details please email: [email protected]

[symingtoncorsets]

Download the mood board at  https://clickconnectblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/retro.pdf   to see the techniques Hannah Wroe employed to transform the 1890s corset pattern and view the mood board to see what inspired her in the first place.

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Christmas is now very nearly upon us and so is the party season, but you may still have just enough time to run up that extra special party outfit and to help with a little inspiration here is the final corset in our series.

Adored with bows and beads, what more could anyone wish for!

Like all the corsets we promote on this blog, it shows the different ways you can alter a pattern to make a variety of corsets. We’ll post the spec sheet in a couple of weeks.

If you are making a corset based on any of the Symington patterns, please do share it with us. We’d love to see your creations.

Thank you to Hannah Wroe for creating the corsets and Paul Dale for photographing the models. 

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Mood boards for the November corset, sorry a little late this month.

https://clickconnectblog.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/antique.pdf

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With the dark nights well and truly upon us, our thoughts are now turning to, dare I say it, Christmas! Well here is a corset that could be worn for a party or maybe back at home.

This corset has been made from a warm ivory satin and embellished with an ivory antique lace. The bust line has been raised and boning adjusted but other than that the design is true to the original pattern.

We’ll post the spec sheet in a couple of weeks but for now, enjoy these images of this fantastic corset!

The corset is based on this 1890s corset pattern from our Symington collection of corset patterns from the archive. The pattern comes in a lovely box that has been designed to store your corset

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As promised here are the mood boards and spec sheet for our October Gothic inspired corset.

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With Autumn now upon us, thoughts turn to the darker nights and Halloween. The corset for this month has a gothic theme with a raised bust line and double hip flare in both black satin and lace.

We’ll post the spec sheet in a couple of weeks but for now, enjoy these images of this fantastic corset!

The corset is based on this 1890s corset pattern from our Symington collection of corset patterns from the archive. The pattern comes in a lovely box that has been designed to store your corset