Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Review of the Steampunk corset and skirt

About time!  I know, I'm sorry, I should have done this a long time ago, but alas, better late than never.

Well, like I mentioned in this post, this ensemble comes from Corsets UK.  They have expanded a lot their Steampunk line (which I absolutely adore!), but as of today, I only have 3 of their pieces, two of which I am going to review today.  

So, we will begin with the corset, which you can find here:

Picture from the Corsets UK website
For technical details, I will refer you to their description.  These are some of my own observations:

The zipper.  The pull tab looks like a spring, which is a fun addition.  Even though the zipper goes up to the edge of the corset, it won't close that far, since the design of the corset won't allow it; you have one of the stays in the middle, as well as one of your breasts.  In my case, it won't go up more than an inch or two, and occasionally it goes down a little by itself, but you cannot tell looking from the outside that it is not in the correct place.

The pocket and leather part.  As it is advertised in the website, the corset DOES NOT come with a pocket watch.  I knew that when I bought it, and I keep on it my pocket compass.  The pocket slot measures 3 1/8 inches (8 cm), but you won't be able to fit something that big inside, as the fabric itself takes up some space.  My compass measures 1 3/4 inches (4.5 cm), and it fits inside perfectly well and with some extra room.  The inside of the pocket is faux leather too.
The faux leather is flexible, and I have had no tears, discoloration or scratches on it.

The side ornaments.  As you can see there are two snap buttons on the low edge of each side of the corset.  They are there mostly for decoration, because they cannot be used to adjust the corset to your size (they cannot be unbottoned, because there are no other snap buttons underneath to adjust the size).  There is a buckle-like thingy in each of the straps.  The commercial pic shows the watch chain over there to add visual interest.  Some time ago there used to be this pic in the corset listing; it is not there anymore, but it is still on the Amazon page for this corset:

Picture from the Amazon listing for the corset
The tab to which the chain is attached is NOT there, so I attached my compass chain to the buckle of the strap so there is no risk of me losing it if it comes out of the pocket (which has never happened).

The skirt, which you can find here:

Picture from the Corsets UK website
Once again, for technical details I will refer you to their description.  These are some of my own observations:
First and foremost, it is a thin skirt.  Very very thin.  The fabric does not have any weight, and if you are going to use it in Winter, you need leggins or a thick pantyhose underneath, or you will get cold.  On the other hand, is perfect to use in Summer.
It closes with a zipper on the left side, and it has a nice corset-style lacing in the back of the waistband, which is fully adjustable.  The belt straps on the waistband front are adjustable too, but they only have one extra hole.

That is all I can think about.  If there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.  I hope I can put up a review for the other steampunk corset I have very soon.

2 comments:

otterine said...

I love it! I'm in the process of making a steampunk ensemble for my holiday party (on my sewing blog). I just love the creativity and style of steampunk! :D

Kaleidoskopic Romance said...

Hi otterine! Hope you have fun creating and wearing your outfit :)