A natural form era corset

I hate corsets. Have I said that enough on this blog? I absolutely hate making them, and they never give me the shape I want. To be fair I've only ever made about 5, this being my 5th, so I don't know what I expect. My 4th was good, it was the Victoria kit by SewCurvy, and it was a dream. Unfortunately because that had gone so well I thought I was a friggin expert and went straight onto the advanced pattern, courtesy of Ageless patterns.

The above is the pattern I used. It's Ageless Patterns 1876 corset for Cuirass bodices. I thought because the beginner's kit had gone together so easily I was a big girl and could go straight for the HA ones. What was even better was that this pattern came in multiple different sizes, so there was no need to scale it up myself, which at this point I had never done.

Oh my, how wrong I was. I had done gussets before for my first bustle era ensemble foundations, and realised there were as many ways to put them in as there were ice-cream flavours in existence. This pattern offered yet a new way, which didn't work for me.

I began as any sensible costumer, by making a mock-up. The instructions were...well....sparse, but that didn't stop me. I could have sworn I took pictures of the mock-up stage, but my laptop died, as did most of the pics that weren't on Dropbox, so I can't find them/don't have them. All I can say is that it was roomy. I could have fit a watermelon or two in the bust, as well as the girls.

The bust has two gores, and there is one hip gusset at the front, and another at the back. I reduced both hip gussets, and took one of the bust ones out altogether, instead widening the front most one. Why did I do this? The placement of the second one ended up being nearly under my armpit, and I couldn't understand what exactly it was doing. My girls are quite small for my size, and that gusset was doing nothing. I always have problems with the bust area in patterns, so this was no surprise, but I couldn't be bothered faffing around with so many gores.

Also, it took me days to figure out how to insert them. All of the gores I've ever inserted have been in a slit in the fabric, but these are all between seams. It's hard to explain this pattern without a picture, but one panel would be smooth, and then the other would have a straight step towards the pattern piece where the bottom of the gusset was supposed to go. Yet the gussets weren't flat at the bottom themselves. How the hell you were supposed to get them in is still kind of beyond me.. The very talented owner of Before the Automobile blog made a much more successful corset than mine from the same pattern and managed it fine.

After the alterations it fit well, and it even gave me hip definition, (thank you hip gores).

The materials I decided to use for this were so stupid I don't know how I ever thought it was a good idea. This project was ambitious from start to finish, and my inflated ego about corsets didn't help. Arrogance doesn't make life better, kids. I was enamoured of the lovely silk covered silk corsets from costumers like Izabela of Prior Attire, and I wanted one of my own. My ego wasn't completely out of control because I knew I'd make a mistake at some point and so didn't want to fork out the money for silk. I went for poly satin. I know, I can hear the disapproving shakes of your heads from here.

I knew how to make a silk covered corset from the blogs I'd read on the subject, and the FB posts I'd seen. I still used coutil, trusty old coutil, and kind of flatlined the satin with the coutil, and treated them as one layer. That was where the problems started. The satin moved about like buggery, and there was already ripples in the pieces before I sewed them together. That's satin for you, no matter poly or silk.

The busk I used for this was true to pattern. The fabled spoon busk that started to become more frequently used in this period. It's wider at the bottom, and from what I understand is meant to give some more tummy control, which Lord knows I need in buckets. It goes in like any other busk. I was still proud.

I managed to wrangle in all the gussets, and put the eyelets in the back so I could check the fit. And shockingly enough it was still too big.

The office manager sleeping on the job

I had made some minor alterations after the second and final mock-up, mostly because the one-gusset was a little too snug in its support of the girls, but it wasn't anything major enough to fiddle with the fit everywhere. I must've forgotten to reduce something here or there. The fit illuminated the problems of the dreaded wrinkling. I suppose it was inevitable really considering my beginner status as a corset maker, but it's still annoying. If I was to do it again, which I won't be doing in a hurry, I would iron in fusible interfacing to the satin before attaching it to the coutil.

And it was way too long at the front, like not going to be able to sit down long. I had known that in the mock-ups, but had been too afraid to do anything with the length after my disastrous corset from last year that was too short. It was easily fixed, as was the fit.

Boning channels were sewn, based on the pattern on the original, but with a few alterations.

I was kind of hoping the wrinkling would go away when the bones went in, but only some of it did.

As the colour was purple, I, of course, had to bind it with black poly satin bias binding to complete the look. Then it was time for the final fitting.

Just about parallel lacing, potentially not so much, but look at those hip gussets!

Ugh, those wrinkles on the bust gussets!!

The wrinkles prevailed, but looking at it after a month or two makes it seem a little better, and not bad considering it was my first time working with poly satin. I do like the shape of this corset, especially giving my hips room to move.

There is another thing I've noticed in hindsight. I showed the finished pics to my seamstress friend in disgust and shame, and she asked me if I was sure it went up high enough at the bust. Looking at it now it does seem a bit on the low side, but I'm not spilling out. From what I can tell from the one Before the Automobile did hers curves up at the sides, so if I ever try this pattern again I might alter it to do the same, because I do look like I'm in danger of some spillage. I think the whole thing needs lengthened from the waist up by an inch or two because the bottom of those bust gussets are nearly at my waist!

Another lesson in corsetry.