#corset making

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 5/5)

And finally, I am happy to say that I finished this project. There was very little left to do from where I left off in my previous post, I just needed to add the eyelets, the binding and the lace. Something that’s quickly done, right? .

While I did finish it all in one sitting, it was quite a hassle to add the eyelets, for some reason moreso than with my previous corsets. But first, I decided to do the binding.

Finishing the raw edges like this is super easy, you just whip stitch a band in place and you’ve got a nice clean edge. But I’m also pretty sure this was my last one layer corset. It is really hard to whip stitch when you only have one layer, I had to constantly go back and fix some stitches because you could see them on the other side.

Next up were the dreaded eyelets, and now let me start this by saying that not only did pretty much nothing work the way I wanted it to, the eyelets are also of really horrible horrible quality. And I didn’t have anything to make holes in the fabric so I had to improvise.

Last time I made a corset, I figured out that if I just hammer the holes in it’s easier than trying to get the fabric to stretch using a nail. So I tried to hammer some holes but it ended up being super uneven. Long story short, it was back to the nail, then pencil, using a bigger utensil every time to widen the hole. Hammering the eyelets in also only worked up until the plastic handle broke, so then my dad made some makeshift eyelet pliers and we went from there. I think I spent about two hours on the eyelets alone, if not more, but then I was finally able to move on to my favorite part of the day - the lace.

Adding lace to a corset is pretty much the easiest step in making a corset. Much easier than adding the lacing. If you have a thread that’s the same color as the lace, it’ll be barely visible and you can pretty much just sew it on however you feel like. I just did a really quick hand stitch and it did the job. Super refreshing after spending so much time on the eyelets!

So here is my final product - it’s not perfect, in fact once I tried it on one of the steel bones kept poking out and I’ll have to fix it, but it fits me perfectly and gives me an incredible silhouette!

I don’t have the right padding just yet, but here are some photos where you can see what I’m talking about -

Now let’s talk crazy myths about tiny waists.

This corset makes me look as if I had a really small waist, especially in the third picture. Even when I looked into the mirror I was incredibly fascinated, and I got my measuring tape just to see what was really going on and what was solely due to the sheer shape of the corset. And guess what? My waist was just about 2cm smaller than it is without a corset. That’s not even an inch. But that just proves that corsets weren’t meant to shrink you down to nothing, I was perfectly able to breathe in it, in fact I wore it for about two hours, I did my hair in it and obviously took all the pictures and didn’t feel like I had to take it off at all when I did. At first it was a little restrictive, as it always is, but once I wore it for a few minuted it actually got really comfortable. Sitting down I noticed it put a lot of pressure on my stomach, normally I wouldn’t have cared but since I have stress related stomach issues at the moment I found it to be a little uncomfortable. But other than that it felt like a tight hug and didn’t hurt at all. This is probably my second most comfortable corset after the Pretty Housemaid! But is that really a fair comparison?

Hope you enjoyed my sewing journey and hope to see you next time when I actually start working on the ✨mysterious dress✨

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 4/5)

It’s been a few weeks but I’m back with an update. Sewing each and every ribbon on top of the boning channels by hand took so much longer than I had anticipated, but I am so glad I can move on to the rest of the corset and don’t have to hand stitch the ribbons anymore.

It was very therapeutic though, not gonna lie, but after a while I just wanted to be done with it. The corset was supposed to be just a warm-up for a bigger project coming up soon, but who knew it would end up being a month-long project on its own.

After I was done with the ribbons, I wanted to go ahead and do the binding but I almost forgot I hadn’t put in the spring steel boning yet! Turns out we don’t have bowl cutters, so cutting them was quite a challenge and I ended up almost twisting my wrist and still had to wait for my dad to cut it for me. If you ever want to attempt to cut through spring steel, be careful or use a bowl cutter.

In the mean time, I decided to add the waist band. For that, I just transfered the markings from the pattern onto the fabric. I didn’t really measure it on myself since the pattern fit me pretty well and I figured it was fine to just transfer it. While I was at it, I decided to stitch my initials onto the band as well. Super extra of me, but they would sometimes stitch the brand name onto the waist band and I wanted it to be a somewhat personilazed.

Then I also added my markings for the eyelets and I’m serious when I say do as I say not as I do. For some reason I decided to mark them on the front thinking they’re going to be covered by the eyelets anyways so it’s not a big deal. Well, guess what happens when you make a mistake? It’s clearly visible. I’m gonna have to see if I can somehow get rid of those wrong markings. Maybe I’ll just try to erase them. At this point, it doesn’t matter how I do it.

Finally, I was able to insert the spring steel boning. It was my first time using it and I’m surprised at how sturdy it is. I guess it’s to be expected as it is steel but I just expected something similar to baleen. I only inserted two of them per back panel, so four in total.

To keep the sharp edges from poking through the fabric we sanded them and then I put some teflon tape around it and put it into the channels.

This is what it looks like now.

I am very excited to finally finish this piece and move on to the bigger project. I will have to make the proper bust improver and a bum pad as well as a corset cover at some point to really finish this corset but I think that’ll have to wait because I’m too excited to work on the upcoming dress. However, I will need the corset cover for the dress so…. I might make it soon? I don’t know, we’ll see! For now, I’m gonna try to finish this corset this week and then we’ll see.

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 5

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 3/5)

I just want to start this post by saying do as I say rather than do as I do. I am incredibly impatient as it seems so I decided to just screw everything and jump right in and wing it. But the correct way to do it would be to make yet another mockup (or fix the existing one, whatever works!) or, if you’re lucky enough and your mockup fit perfectly by now, you’re good to go and start sewing the corset.

In my last post I was describing issues I had where the corset fit me, but didn’t have that effect that Edwardian corsets usually do. So what I did now was, I reprinted the paper pattern and went up a size in the bust and hip area, leaving the waist as it was. I would much rather pad it and have the shape that I wanted than have it be closer in size to my actual body. I know it probably doesn’t make sense, but Edwardian corsets were kind of made with that logic. Edwardians knew that their body wasn’t perfectly hourglass shaped (or s-bend shaped) so they mainly focused on the waist and kept bust and hips to scale in proportion and padded out what needed to be padded. Like this, it gave the illusion of a tinier waist because the rest was simply bigger in comparison.

Long story short, I skipped the mockup this time as I, like I said, am a very impatient person and frankly could not be bothered to make that. Obviously, I’m only doing that when I’m making my own garments, I would never skip this when I’m making someone else’s. So I cut it out of my cream twill and am now fixing the markings (half of the pieces don’t have markings because I cut two panels at once if that makes sense?).

Then I stitched all the pieces together and inserted the front busk. I made sure to cut four panels of the busk panel and the back panel to be able to insert the busk and have some added support in the back.

Then it was time to secure the busk. I still cannot understand how people machine stitch busks. I tried it this time and, surprise, it didn’t work. I didn’t break the needle this time but the stitches were very uneven, so I ended up hand stitching it. My seams are somewhat uneven as well but that’s okay. I feel like the front is acceptable for my skill level but the back is very uneven, I don’t really know what happened there. I even used one of those rotary cutter spike thingies that mark your seams and maybe I used it wrong but I wasn’t really able to follow the markings as they disappeared after a few minutes.

Then I made the boning channels and started inserting the boning. For the first time I used synthetic whalebone and I’m genuinely surprised. It’s pretty similar in texture to zip ties but it’s slightly sturdier, though much easier to work with. I could easily cut it with my fabric scissors and sand it. I used water blocking tape to secure the edges so they weren’t as sharp and inserted them.

This is what it looks like now -

It’s still lacking a few boning channels for the spring steel boning but I forgot to add them as I don’t have it right now, I’m going to the fabric store tomorrow to get it. But overall, I’m super impressed with the shape and I really hope it fits now! It’s crazy to me how small the waist looks even though it’s not. I knew this in theory but it’s mindblowing seeing it with my own eyes.

Part 1|Part 2|Part 4|Part 5

Making a 1906 Corset (Part 1/5)

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and I apologize, uni has taken up so much more of my time than I had anticipated! As of right now I’m on my semester break so hopefully I’ll have some time to at least complete some of the projects on my to-do list. I have a much bigger project coming up but I still have to figure out the design so until then I decided to use some of my scrap coutil and make an Edwardian corset.

I’ve been wanting to make one forever but while I love Edwardian clothing I also feel like they are some of the most difficult ones to make so I always put it off. But now that I’ve found a free pattern from araneablack I’ve decided to give it a go!

This is the one that I’m going for:

(Apologies for the horrendous quality! I screenshotted that from a De Gracieuse magazine)

And this is my paper pattern.

I decided to go for size E which has a waist of 65 cm, I certainly do not have that waist size but I figured if it’s made for 5-10cm waist reduction maybe we can work with it. So I really hope the mockup fits, because let’s be honest, I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing.

First, I’m going to separate the panels again and cut them out of some old bedsheets. Up until now I’ve always sort of eyeballed the seam allowances on my mockups but for this one I wanted to be more precise. I know it’s gonna be less work in the long run!

I stitched everything together and quickly sewed some boning channels and inserted some cable binders. I didn’t cut them because i didn’t wanna waste them as I finally ordered some fake baleen and to my surprise found out that it is much cheaper than cable binders. I’m so sorry for ever recommending cable binders as a “cheap alternative”, I hope you were smarter than me.

Anyways, I tried it on to see if the length was alright and I think it is, then I pinned it onto my mannequin to see if the back fits and even with the padding inserted it seems to be fitting perfectly!

So I didn’t have the right padding and no bum pad (is that even what it’s called?), but I’m going to be making it. I inserted this makeshift padding just to see if it even works at all and it seems to be working out great! I’m obsessed with the shape and the silhouette and I can’t wait to see the final product!

I also didn’t have a front busk so I put in some cable binders as place holders but I’m gonna be ordering that soon!

Obviously, the mannequin is not a real body so I’m not sure how it’s gonna be when I actually pull it tight, I’m a little worried it might still be a little big. I might insert a couple of eyelets and test it out on the mockup but to be completely honest, I don’t want to waste sewing supplies so I might just go with it and hope it works out. I haven’t decided yet. I know the smart thing to do would be to insert the eyelets now and see if it fits. Oh well, I’ll decide tomorrow.

As for the final product, that’ll be one layer cream coutil with some coutil or canvas lining on the front and back pieces just for extra stability, the boning channels will be on the outside and I sort of want to do light blue coutil strips but I’m not sure yet. I have some blue lace I bought for a dress and never used and I really want to use it for this project. I don’t think I will be doing flossing just because it is so freaking tedious and I don’t think I saw it on the original, but maybe I’ll add some details if I feel like it. I’m also not entirely sure if I’ll add suspenders, it is the historically accurate way to do it but I don’t really have a costume to use this corset with so I think I could just add them whenever I need them.

That is it for now, I hope my supplies arrive soon so I can continue working on this!

Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|Part 5

Making an 1890s Symington Pretty Housemaid Corset - Part 3 (final)

So… I’m done?

I was going to post an update before and then do the finishing touches but I was on a roll and just finished it this week end!

But yes, let’s get into the actual sewing adventure that led to this beautiful finished product.

Before my eyelets were delivered I took advantage of the time before I got them and added the lining on some panels, doing the back ones first so I could insert the eyelets once I got them. It was therapeutic once you develop a steady rhythm and accept the fact that it’s going to take you a while. For some reason I just love hem stitching… It makes everything look so authentic!

I decided not to line the busk panel as it already had the busk in and the lining wouldn’t really have had any effect at all so I just hemmed the raw edges. I was a little unsure whether I should line the side panels as I had messed up my stitches when making the side boning channels but in the end I tried my best to line it anyways. I also thought I would add some hip padding but I left that out, for comfort reasons and once I tried it on I also wasn’t too pleased with how bulky it made me look. I made the padding though so if I need it for structural reasons I can just quickly sew it in place.

I had done most of the lining on one side and only the back on the other when the eyelets got delivered so of course, I had to put them in to be able to try it on!

I added thirteen eyelets just like in the original and it was a process but I finally figured out the right method to punch the holes and then I got pretty quick at it. Then I could finally wear it for the first time, and let me tell you… it’s *chef’s kiss* so freaking comfortable! It’s hands down the most comfortable corset I own, and even as someone who constantly annoys people trying to educate them that corsets weren’t torture devices I was still very surprised by this. But it makes so much sense - it’s a Pretty Housemaid Corset. It was made for working women so it had to be comfortable. It provides just the right support in just the right places and I honestly didn’t wanna take it off again. But I also wanted to continue.

Next, I finished the rest of the lining and then I could move on to the binding. Binding is probably my least favorite part of making a corset, it is so time consuming but I decided to hem stitch it this time because I wasn’t going to use my sewing machine anyways so I might as well save some time hand stitching it. I actually made the binding out of the twill lining, I’d never made binding before but (this particular) twill made it pretty easy because once you press it with an iron it stays in place, which I really appreciated.

Then it was time for the lace trim! I fell in love with this lace the very first time I saw it back when I didn’t even have a project in mind but I just knew it would be perfect for a corset.

The last part was the flossing. I was going to do the same design as was on the original but I forgot to stock up on thicker flossing thread so I used regular thread but quickly came to the conclusion that it would take me forever, so I used the rest of the cream colored embroidery thread that I had leftover from the Anne With An E dress, but I didn’t have a huge amount so I looked through google pictures and found this design that I really loved.

But yes that was the sewing journey and I’m really happy with how it turned out and especially with the fit! It doesn’t cinch my waist by a lot, but then again it’s not meant to, it’s a corset specifically designed for work. A little padding or a bum pad can certainly help with the illusion of a small waist.

Here she is in all of her glory.

I might post pictures of me actually wearing it sometime in the near future. If the pictures turn out good. I already wore it over my late Victorian skirt and it’s awesome. I might just need a petticoat to cover the edges…

Part 1|Part 2