Hurrah! Made some progress on painting over the weekend. It feels good to be productive again. Now if only this heachache goes away I can get even more done…
In the evenings when there isn’t enough light to paint by, I’ve been reading up on costuming again and am currently browsing through Waisted Efforts: An Illustrated Guide to Corset Making. While the book offers a survey of corset making from the 16th to 20th centuries and a plethora of diagrams and illustrations, it doesn’t include much in the way of sewing instructions. It’s interesting to see corset ads from the late 19th century where the illustration incorporated a photo of the female model but her corset is handdrawn. Did the majority of women back then actually achieve such tiny waists? In certain eras it was fashionable for men to adorn corsets too, along with padding, but they aren’t given the spotlight as much as the females. Makes you wonder if women were (are?) more prone to be slaves to society’s everchanging ideal of beauty and willing to suffer to be point of endangering their health. Yet despite what it had stood for, there is something fascinating about corsets… Well, guess I’ll just fumble my way through sewing and see how far I get before giving up. 
