I've decided to edge into the Victorian era, which is, to be honest, rather exciting. But first, I need to complete a huge list of undergarments. This project prompted my first overseas order - and I've discovered I love getting parcels in the post, especially if they contain sewing materials/books.
Anyway, let me just say now, I love this garment!!! I'm going to spend the next few paragraphs outlining its faults, but I love it! Despite it's problems, I feel happy with this as my first Victorian project and first curved-seam corset. It's so pretty and feminine and lovely and, most wonderfully of all finished!
Pattern:
My corset is made from the Laughing Moon Mercantile pattern. I used the Silverado pattern which has four bust gussets and two optional hip gussets (which I did decide to add in at a rather late stage in the construction). Now, to be perfectly honest (and I rather think I should) I did masacre this pattern a little, but completely unintentionally. It wasn't until very late in the piece that I realised that I'd constructed the whole garment with 1cm seam allowances, even though the pattern allowed a 1.5cm seam allowance. Oh dear. I'd spent a long time agonising about sizes and wondering why my sizing didn't seem right. I did compensate by taking 2.5cm off each back edge, so I figure that I must be around about the right size. So, a good outcome, but I'd like to have another go and do it right, doofus!
Materials:
The corset is made from three layers: a lining and interlining of white cotton drill and an outer layer of salmon pink silk dupioni. It has a front opening busk (12 inches) and back lacing with 17 lacing holes on either side. I ordered steel boning for this corset, which I've never used before, so it was a bit of a learning curve. I tried inserting the steel boning all round, but found that it creating too straight a line in the front of the corset. In the end I replaced the front boning with cable ties as described here by Sarah Goodman. I know this is not recommended for Victorian corsetry, but I found it gave enough stiffness, but still allowed the front of the corset to curve appropriately. The front 4 bones on either side are replaced with cable ties.
The conclusion:
This project is far from perfect, and as I can be a bit of a perfectionist, that's was a bit hard to accept. Whilst finishing this, I was torn, being pulled between wanting to get it finished and wanting to be pedantic and get it perfect. However, I think common sense won out. Since this is my first corset, I've accepted that it won't be perfect. I also know that I've learnt a lot during this project - not least of all how to insert the gussets properly, and believe you me, it took a LONG time to get that through my head.
The fit is reasonably good, but again, I think I've learnt a lot, and would like to have another go with this pattern to put some of this knowlege to use. I decided the insert the hip gussets to attempt to get a more 'hour-glass' figure, but in the end this means the corset closes more tightly over the hips than further up. So overall, although there are problems, I decided it was better to recognise them and finished the corset & save my new-found knowledge for next time rather than letting it bog me down here to much.
So, ta-da, finished! On to the chemise!
(check back for better, more Victorian-looking pictures once I've got a chemise to wear under it rather than my jeans *grins)
