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Friday, April 8, 2011

Corsets under construction

I'm making a new corset. This time for the lovely creature pictured here: my daughter. She kindly modelled the white outfit for me, even though the corset is a little small for her. It shows quite nicely, even so.

I am constructing her new corset in dupioni silk, with a brushed denim as the lining. I find denim in the right weight to be as good as the more expensive coutil for a corset. I am giving the design a fair bit of boning, to support the bust and shape the waist.

You can see here, I use boning tape, which is much better than just twill tape. I will use it if I have to, when wider boning won't fit the tape. If you've never used the tape, it has a pocket in the center, which the bone slides into and has a seam allowance for stitching it into place. Perfect for placing bones between seams. I often stitch it to the lining, so extra bones don't show on the outside. Otherwise, I insert bones along seams and I quite like the look of the top stitching down the seams. It needs to be accurate though! You can see  both methods used here.


The eyelets come next. I cut the holes and then use one side to mark the other. This way you get an exact match. I always use double laces, to really cinch the waist. They can be knotted at the waist this way.

The eyelets are stronger when washers are used on the inside. My grommet setter does a nice job with this. I bought my setter from Farthingales and the eyelets with washers also. The black are the eyelets, the silver are the washers.


I'll keep you posted with progress, though I have 1812 corsets for Fort Wellington to do first. It all gets done in the end! Don't you find you juggle several things at once?

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