The new Patterns of Fashion book has absolutely amazing detail covering historic corsets and underpinnings. It also showcases how they were made. This is both incredibly enlightening and surprising. The surprising part is in the construction. I have been using speed shortcuts for making garments since my years working in the costume shop at college. I make my corsets with two layers of stiff material and a decorative layer- and a LOT of steel boning. The result is a sturdy garment that is heavy in weight, but simple in the number of layers.
The historic corsets and bodices are the exact opposite. Huh. I am looking at bodice fronts that have 6-8 layers of different materials. The under layers are staggered in like the horsehair and padding layers in the shoulders in a really well made suit jacket. Wooden busk front that are wider than I expected, and sometimes even triangular. (!!) So many many layers and different layers in and across the body. Several types of fabric, leather, paper, pasteboard, all sorts of things go into these.
The boning in them is balene (strips of whalebone) and it is very very VERY lightweight. I bought a roll of the synthetic best substitute because the book says very specifically that metal boning is not the appropriate material for replicating these garments properly. The plastic whalebone is very much like zipties, though far more elegant.
It is a drastic mindshift to think about going from two layers and tons of metal, to 6 layers and tons and tons of plastic. I have read that the finished garments are quite lightweight when finished and mold to your body in a far more comfortable way. I expect only medium comfort, but excellent smooth shaping when tightlaced. It is going to be an expensive ($250?) ride for getting the materials, and multiply my time spent by 5 at least in order to make one of these. Or, I can do the newly laid out shapes buy use my existing process.
It is a real challenge to my patience and I haven’t even started yet. It is yet to be seen if I can actually follow through and make one the historic way.