Corsets and Crinolines

For years I’ve heard of this book and how wonderful it was. How it was practically the Bible of underpinnings. So I finally purchased it and I must say I am sorely disappointed. The information contained in it is limited at best. The “references from contemporary sources” are really useless excerpts from random publications. No use at all to the professional costumer. The rest of the pertinent information consists of sketches and drawings of period pieces the are available in multiple other books. Most of those other books also containing scaled, reproducible patterns. In short, do not waste you time or money on this book. Instead look to the Jean Hunnisett Period Costume For Stage and Screen series. They are much more informative, detailed and useful.

Don't expect much "how to" from this book but it is an invaluable history on the evolution of foundations in our history. This illustrates to me how lucky I am to be a woman born in the 20th century (1940). My mother passed away a few years ago at 100 so she came in on the tail end of the bondage to corsetry, she never really complained about it because it was what she knew and it did give her figure a better line. I remember myself as a young woman wanting to look my best along with the rest of my friends at that age in the 1950's squeezing ourselves into waist cinchers so we could have 18" waists, silly I know, but it did give us a feminine look which we we're all willing to suffer the uncomfortable consequences to achieve, now at 80 I can't fathom torturing myself to be anything but me in my own skin! I have been a sewer of clothing most of my life and interested in costume and the history of evolving styles throughout the centuries. I know now that I can look at any any style from any age and know exactly what the wearer is wearing under the outer garments. I have always thought that the very word foundation is the perfect word to describe what we wear to give shape to all apparel in any given decade. Today, many of us still wear underwired bras because of needed "lift", or we wear Tee Shirt bras for a smoother look. Now a days, especially in America where there is an epidemic of obesity a lot of women could certainly use a little help from the waist down or even from the bosom down but comfort triumphs, I see women (and men) walking down the aisle in the supermarket today looking almost obscene compared to the average person just 50 years ago and compared to 100 years ago todays person most certainly would have been locked up!

I recieved a VERY old book, almost falling apart, but the info in it was priceless and worth every tear and yellowed page. There is so much to learn from this book and it is an incredibly pleasurable experience going through it. I have not yet found another book on corsets this well written. It is not for the beginning seamstress trying to sew a corset as far as patterns go, more for an advanced seamstress with some skill in this area but well worth having in your sewing library no matter what level you're at if you're interested in corsetry. It is also a fantastic book for those who are not seamstresses but who are interested in the history and makeup of corsetry over time. One of the best purchases in my rather large sewing library.

I opened the package and immediately said "Really??"I've heard of people singing praises of this book, and I just don't see it. For the price, it's small and contains little interesting information. The modern references are pointless unless you care about some 19th century person complaining about something. Some of the "modern references" are even written in French with no translation, so it's even more useless to me.Unless this is a required textbook for your course or something, I wouldn't recommend buying this. I already regret spending the money, and it's too much work to return it. This book is completely useless to anyone other than the odd folks that might care about the opinions of random people that lived long ago

This is not a reading on the seller but on the book itself. The seller got it shipped fast arrive before it was supposed to and it's in perfect condition. This seller absolutely deserves five stars.My problem and I wanted to rate this three stars but I didn't want to ruin the sellers rating because it's not a reflection of them as they are not the author, is I really didn't like the book. It's out of print so it's very expensive, I purchased this book because I'm very interested in 18th-century stays in 18th-century sewing, a lot of people who are in historical selling groups that I belong in use this resource and reference it frequently, however I didn't find myself very thrilled with this purchase at all there's a lot of new were books out there that have more information, and easier to read information.There are quite a few patterns in the book available to scale up but I found the construction informational a little bit difficult to follow along with and understand. There's great historical information and historical references in this book so it is a really wonderful book if you're looking for a good historical resources being in multiple centuries but I was looking for one specific century and hoping for more construction and design information than this book offers which is probably why I was disappointed, there's great historical information and historical references in this book so it is a really wonderful book if you're looking for a good historical resource spanning multiple centuries but I was looking for one specific century and hoping for more construction and design information then this book offers.

This has been a wonderful refrence with the period corsets we have been building in the costume shop this year.

Exactly what's on the cover. Amazing book with a number of useful patterns for corsets and skirt supports. The lack of a grid system makes the patterns a bit more difficult to scale, but still a very good price for the number of patterns you get.

Haven't drafted from it yet, but it's great to have this many patterns to study!

Excellent Item and postage, Thank you.

Excellent Item and postage, Thank you.

Exactly the book needed to make my nieces exhibition piece. I now know all about inserting bones.

For a costume makers purpose this is just a bit too much of a history book and lacks the detailed design element that we require. A very interesting read but does not provide enough pictorial evidence for re-creation.