Finally got round to it

Last September I started making this corset as a little project for myself. I had been gifted several historical patterns, so I thought I would try one out. It was a bit more of a challenge because they were entirely in French, but I got there.

It had been tucked away in a corner since then, finished apart from the bones, bias binding and eyelets. A friend very kindly offered to do a photo-shoot for my Wollaton costumes for me, so it gave me a push to finish it off so I could add it in.

I really like the shape of the front. According to Harriet, my flatmate who kindly agreed to model for the shoot, its really comfortable.

I think she quite enjoyed herself.
I don’t really have a use for it, so I’ve put it in my etsy shop.

Looking rather like a corset I would say.

So I have stitched the flowery corset fully together. I was not having the most together night when I did it, so I ended up having to unpick about 3 of the seams after I messed them up. Unfortunately it is too big for me (it was an exercise in using corset patterns, not making one fore me) and it is too small for the dummy, so I don't have a proper picture.

I am really pleased with the lining. Straight stitching all the way.

Now I just have to bone it and stitch on the bias binding. But seen as VenaCava sent me the wrong width artificial whalebone, it will have to wait a while.

Putting it together

All those little pieces that I cut out and mounted are gradually coming together into one big piece. I had to wait for the busk to arrive in the post before I could start, and I eagerly got too it as soon as it did.

This is the most complicated corset I have attempted so far, it has some curves and shapes than I'm not used too, so I don't think I put it together in quite the order, or with the method, that I should. But I'm pretty pleased with it so far.

I got to use my boning channel tape because the bones don't sit on the seams like I'm used to. The inside is a bit patchwork, but I kind of like it.

I didn't get the gussety bit quite right, I didn't tuck the edge over far enough for it to be caught by the stitch line in a few places, so I invisible stitched it down.

The way the pattern is, whenever you have two pieces of fabric to join together, one piece will have a 1.5cm seam allowance, and the other piece will have a 0.5cm seam allowance. There must be a reason for this, maybe I should be boning the channels? But I just can't work out how it would work, so far I've been drawing in the seam allowance lines and carefully matching them up, but there has to be a better way to do it.

How does it end up needing so many pieces?

I've acquired a bunch of new historical corset patterns that I have just begun to work through., there is the slight problem however that they are in French. Second to English, French is my best language, however that is not saying much, and beyond being able to buy a croissant and tell my sister she is a lemon it is pretty limited. And when it comes down to nitty gritty pattern directions it is nil, pity really scene as this one is covered in lovely little notes which I'm sure would be really helpful if I knew what they were.

So anyway, I'm jumping in blind, and managed to get all the pieces cut, and mostly all mounted this evening. Its a six piece pattern, so with outer fabric (the flowery one), two layers of calico, and the liner (The blue and green bits), that's 24 individual pieces. I admit in advanced corset terms its not a ridiculous amount, but they do seem to be everywhere.