Asian Steampunk part 3
So since my husband was making us lightsabers (his word choice for them) for the Asian inspired costumes I felt that i wanted to be a bit more anime inspired in my outfit. So I decided to make a modern underbust corset to wear over the basic pants and top. Below the cut is the process used to make the corset and a couple of pictures of the plexiglass sword made by my husband.
So I have not really had a lot of experience with making corsets. I have made a few corsets, but mostly Elizabethan corsets which have a very different shape from the corset I wanted for this piece. I really did not feel like drafting all of the pieces from scratch and wanted a pattern to use if at all possible. So I browsed around the web and found that people have been having success with a pattern named Celine from King & Company.
This is a pretty basic but curvy underbust pattern. So a note for those that want to use this pattern, there is no seam allowance, no construction instructions and no boning size provided. This is a starting pattern that needs to be adjusted for the individual wearer. That being said I found the base pattern pieces very helpful and it required little to no alteration to fit me. This pattern was a great time saver for me. The main portion of the pattern pieces are shown hear cut out of black fabric.
I did alter the pattern from the very start as I did not want this corset to have a busk in the front. I did a fancy front that required the busk be removed and that the overlay for the reverse applique be a solid piece. For the front, I took the front two pattern pieces (so the total front 4 fabric pieces) and redrafted the front to be a solid single pattern piece and cut this out a layer of gold faux leather. I then cut the normal pattern pieces for the front out of 2 layers of black twill, one layer of copper lame and only layer of gold and black organza. I then sewed the front pieces together and iron the seams flat. The black twill layers were the strength layers and held the boning. The copper lame was overlaid with the organza to tone down the color a bit. The outermost layer was the gold faux leather. I stitched the lame, organza and faux leather together and then stitched gear shapes on top. Once the gear shapes were stitched, I cut away the excess faux leather the expose the lame and organza layer.
The boning channels were then stitched into the strength layer and the whole front panel was sewn together. I have very little corset construction experience so initially I tried to construct the corset using standard sewing techniques. Some how the pieces never lined up perfectly no matter how many times a resewed them. I remembered a corset construction method that I believe came from the corsetmakers community on livejournal. I could not find the initial post, but this is method I used. I have drawn an illustration of the method here, but I did not create this method. This method is designed for a two layer corset. If you have more than two layers, treat the fashion fabric and the inner strength layer as one layer. So basic steps. 1. Take the center front piece (blue lines) that is completed (either with the busk added or a fancy front) and take the next piece (red lines) and lay them right sides together both in the lining and the fashion front. Sew the seam shown by the black line. 2. Fold the newly sewn pieces out and iron them flat. 3. Sew the boning channels (new black lines) on either side of the newly sewn seam. You can keep or omit the middle black seam line. This line just top stitches the seam you just ironed. I did this because I preferred it aesthetically. Now you can add new pieces to the newly sewn down red pieces.
So here is how this process looked as I was sewing around the corset. The first image is to show the progress and the second image is a close up of how the seams look.
This corset is boned with half inch wide flat steel in the front (5 bones), quarter inch flat steel next to the grommets and quarter inch spring steel for the rest of the panels. I then bound the edge of the whole corset with black PVC and added grommets to the back. Here is a picture of the completed corset.
And the outfit so far as completed. Sorry for the bad in the mirror shots. It is really hard to take pictures of yourself.
And now the weapon, I did not make this item. My husband did, but I think it is pretty fun addition. The blade is cut from plexiglass from the hardware store. The handle is wood. The handle conceals two LED lights, one blue and one red as well as the batteries. The switches on top control the lights separately.
So the outfit is wearable as is and I have gotten to wear it already. However, I cant get the beautiful link that gurdymonkey shared in the comments for my first post out of my head, Those foiled kimono were so amazing. I am planning on making long over robes with foiled images on the back, one in blue for my husband and one in brown for me. Hopefully I can complete these before our next opportunity to wear these outfits.
cross posted to dressdiaries and my personal journal
So I have not really had a lot of experience with making corsets. I have made a few corsets, but mostly Elizabethan corsets which have a very different shape from the corset I wanted for this piece. I really did not feel like drafting all of the pieces from scratch and wanted a pattern to use if at all possible. So I browsed around the web and found that people have been having success with a pattern named Celine from King & Company.
This is a pretty basic but curvy underbust pattern. So a note for those that want to use this pattern, there is no seam allowance, no construction instructions and no boning size provided. This is a starting pattern that needs to be adjusted for the individual wearer. That being said I found the base pattern pieces very helpful and it required little to no alteration to fit me. This pattern was a great time saver for me. The main portion of the pattern pieces are shown hear cut out of black fabric.
I did alter the pattern from the very start as I did not want this corset to have a busk in the front. I did a fancy front that required the busk be removed and that the overlay for the reverse applique be a solid piece. For the front, I took the front two pattern pieces (so the total front 4 fabric pieces) and redrafted the front to be a solid single pattern piece and cut this out a layer of gold faux leather. I then cut the normal pattern pieces for the front out of 2 layers of black twill, one layer of copper lame and only layer of gold and black organza. I then sewed the front pieces together and iron the seams flat. The black twill layers were the strength layers and held the boning. The copper lame was overlaid with the organza to tone down the color a bit. The outermost layer was the gold faux leather. I stitched the lame, organza and faux leather together and then stitched gear shapes on top. Once the gear shapes were stitched, I cut away the excess faux leather the expose the lame and organza layer.
The boning channels were then stitched into the strength layer and the whole front panel was sewn together. I have very little corset construction experience so initially I tried to construct the corset using standard sewing techniques. Some how the pieces never lined up perfectly no matter how many times a resewed them. I remembered a corset construction method that I believe came from the corsetmakers community on livejournal. I could not find the initial post, but this is method I used. I have drawn an illustration of the method here, but I did not create this method. This method is designed for a two layer corset. If you have more than two layers, treat the fashion fabric and the inner strength layer as one layer. So basic steps. 1. Take the center front piece (blue lines) that is completed (either with the busk added or a fancy front) and take the next piece (red lines) and lay them right sides together both in the lining and the fashion front. Sew the seam shown by the black line. 2. Fold the newly sewn pieces out and iron them flat. 3. Sew the boning channels (new black lines) on either side of the newly sewn seam. You can keep or omit the middle black seam line. This line just top stitches the seam you just ironed. I did this because I preferred it aesthetically. Now you can add new pieces to the newly sewn down red pieces.
So here is how this process looked as I was sewing around the corset. The first image is to show the progress and the second image is a close up of how the seams look.
This corset is boned with half inch wide flat steel in the front (5 bones), quarter inch flat steel next to the grommets and quarter inch spring steel for the rest of the panels. I then bound the edge of the whole corset with black PVC and added grommets to the back. Here is a picture of the completed corset.
And the outfit so far as completed. Sorry for the bad in the mirror shots. It is really hard to take pictures of yourself.
And now the weapon, I did not make this item. My husband did, but I think it is pretty fun addition. The blade is cut from plexiglass from the hardware store. The handle is wood. The handle conceals two LED lights, one blue and one red as well as the batteries. The switches on top control the lights separately.
So the outfit is wearable as is and I have gotten to wear it already. However, I cant get the beautiful link that gurdymonkey shared in the comments for my first post out of my head, Those foiled kimono were so amazing. I am planning on making long over robes with foiled images on the back, one in blue for my husband and one in brown for me. Hopefully I can complete these before our next opportunity to wear these outfits.
cross posted to dressdiaries and my personal journal