News:

Welcome to the Renaissancefestival.com Forums!  Please post an introduction after signing up!

For an updated map of Ren Fests check out The Ren List at http://www.therenlist.com!

The Chat server is now running again, just select chat on the menu!

Main Menu

Question About Lacing a Bodice

Started by Amras Elfwine, October 21, 2008, 03:23:26 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Amras Elfwine

OK, garbing forum regulars, it is indeed your old Amras paying you a visit. I have a question about bodices, the answer to which may be quite obvious to such a knowledgeable group as this, but is quite beyond my meager experience...

This weekend, we acquired a new Moresca bodice for Lady Elfwine...this bodice is solid across the front, and laces up each side and up the back...my question concerns the laces at the very back of the bodice. Unlike Lady Elfwine's other bodices,this one came with two  laces for the back instead of one...what is the proper way to lace this? Do you start at the bottom and top, meeting in the middle with each lace? Or, do you start in the middle, ending up at the top and bottom? Or is there another way?

I'm quite sure that for such fine and experienced artisans such as yourselves it'll be obvious, but things like this take all my brains.

Thanks, and Cheers!
Your Humble Amras
R/F member since 2004
"They say that men who go warring afield look ever to the next hope of food and of drink." ~Tolkien

"Who are you callin' plushy??" ~ Todd the Squirrel

Master James

Well we prefer using spiral lacing but it sounds like this bodice at least was not intended to be laced that way.  But when they give you 2 laces, you usually start in the middle and work out or from both ends to the middle but middle out is more typical from what I've seen.
Why can't reality be more like faire?
Clan M'Crack
RenVet
Royal Order of Landsharks #59
FoMDRF
RFC #51

PurpleDragon

When using two laces, I recommend the top to center and bottom to center method.  This allows for easy release of both laces at the same time, and allows for more control when one or the other needs to be tighter or looser laced. 
Karl "Dragon" Wolff
The Pirates Cove

Bin Ich SCHLECHT? Ja BIN Ich.

isabelladangelo

I'd get new laces and do the spiral or ladder lacing method.   It actually is "tighter" in that it won't loosen nearly as much over as it's being worn for hours and is also "period correct".   

Fairyfly

Hey Amras! All the bodices that I have with two laces were set up in the from top to center, then bottom to center method. They came that way so I've kept them that way. When I had a merchant lace me up in a leather bodice that had two back laces, that's the way they did it as well.
EtteMum
TaskMistress of the Bayou Scoundrel's
Fae'N M'Crack... or at least working on it.
Rani's Divine Whip

Adriana Rose

Wich moresca did you guys get?

if its the max I have mine spiral laced in the back, and on the other sides I have laced the standard way...

hope that helps

Amras Elfwine

It is indeed "The Max".

I thank you all for the info. She'll lace it several different ways, I'm sure, to see which works best for her. I bet that spiral lacing, starting at top and bottom, meeting in the center, will win.

Thanks again!
Cheers!
Amras
R/F member since 2004
"They say that men who go warring afield look ever to the next hope of food and of drink." ~Tolkien

"Who are you callin' plushy??" ~ Todd the Squirrel

Scarlett

Definitely from top and bottom to center.  By the very nature of a womans body ie. wider at hips and bosom, a bodice or corset can be adjusted for maximum and proportionate fitting this way. 
Mimosas - They're Not Just For Breakfast Anymore
SWG, Chapter 1, co-founding member

raevyncait

My Max's both just have the one lace in the back, though my pirate came with two in the back originally, and as I've gotten a little smaller, I've gone to only needing the 1.  My preferred method with just one lace is bottom to top in the back to give ahem, the girls the most OOMPH, and my side lacings on the Max's are laced top to bottom, which allows me to get myself out of the bodice easily if I need to.
Raevyn
IWG 3450
The ORIGINAL Pipe Wench
Wench @ Large #2
Resident Scottish Gypsy
Royal Aromatherapist

Amras Elfwine

My thanks to all for helping to advance this old forest-tramper's knowledge about bodice lacing...fascinating!
R/F member since 2004
"They say that men who go warring afield look ever to the next hope of food and of drink." ~Tolkien

"Who are you callin' plushy??" ~ Todd the Squirrel