Elizabethan Vampire

The Elizabethan Vampire is another wonderful costume by Jen Goodger of Calgary.

The corset was drafted by Jen and is not from a commercial pattern, she did extensive research to get the look she wanted. The corset was made with two layers of coutil and a shell of muslin, it has 102 bones in it; in a mix of spring steel and spiral steel. Centre busk was made by Jen from a piece of oak flooring, ground to shape with an orbital sander, hand sanded and then rubbed with beeswax. Tabs were not made separately, but were incorporated into the corset draft to simplify the process of sewing and for comfort. The bones do extend into the tabs and most of these bones are spirals. The corset weighs 2 lbs but Jen says it is very comfortable and does not feel heavy when on.
 

The farthingale was built using Simplicity #8881 but Jen chose not to use the bum roll and altered the pattern somewhat. She added two extra hoops at the bottom to help support the layers of heavy brocade she had chosen for the outer skirt. She commented on how much easier the process was using the hoop connectors.

The skirt and bodice were drafted by Jen based on her research and made of deep, dark colours to enhance the vampire effect desired. One tip she shared was that she used our hook tape along the inner bottom edge of the bodice so that it could hook to the skirt and not shift. She did not use the loop tape but hand stitch as fine cord along the skirt creating several loops so that that no silver hardware would be visible.

An incredible amount of work but the results are an incredibly successful project.

(See also the Cage Crinoline built by Jen)

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