Edwardian corset from Corsets and Crinolines (again probably!)
Hello all, I've been meaning to post this for a while but haven't got round to it ... those who know me from Facebook will have seen this work from the outside, but not from the inside, with a few notes :)
It's the Edwardian diagonal seam corset from Corsets and Crinolines pictured here:
I scaled it up from the book using Ralph Pink's amazing tutorial using Photoshop. So easy! See HERE. I made it up just as it was - no measuring as I only wanted to learn about the construction - how to use silk with this type of pattern and how to hide the bone channels thereby keeping the swooping lines at the front 'clean'. So that's what I did .. and then I tried it on and by weird co-incidence, it fit me! The hips have a little extra space, and the bust is a teensy weensy bit small .. but to the untrained eye, I could get away with wearing this 'out'.
I added some 'fins' over the hip panels to accentuate the hips but they didn't really work how I wanted them too - should have padded or stuffed them. To do this I removed the vertical seam and added 2 horizontal seams to slot the fins into, but the hip panel could be customised further and be made smooth with no seams.
So the outside is double sided silk which is a bit heavier than dupion type silk - it's like the silk they make mens ties with - fused to a cotton woven fusible interfacing, and stitched together with lapped seams - though not tucked under on the reverse to save bulk.
The inside is coutil stitched together the same way, and the bone channels which are cotton twill tape, are attached to that on the inside. They are placed as per the diagram above, which was pretty easy. I also added a waist tape. The boning is all 7mm flat steel with extra tough flats on the CB edges.
You will see from the pattern that the CB edges curve. I would not normally draft a corset with a curve at the CB but I went along with this thinking that they must've known what they were doing. I put a flat steel in there and this had the effect of kicking out the hips, and thereby making the whole corset spring into shape.
I joined the two layers via the small diagonal boning channels (sewn last of all) at the back and by the CF/CB panels and the binding.
Those back boning channels aren't very visible here but the do look nice :)
The binding and fins is a ribbed dupion silk, inspired by pitufina's ladybug corset of quite some time ago (this is the only link I could find quickly) , the ribbed silk reminded me of the underside of a ladybird so I thought it was apt.
All in all a very fascinating and insightful project. I shall most certainly be customising this pattern in the future.
It's the Edwardian diagonal seam corset from Corsets and Crinolines pictured here:
I scaled it up from the book using Ralph Pink's amazing tutorial using Photoshop. So easy! See HERE. I made it up just as it was - no measuring as I only wanted to learn about the construction - how to use silk with this type of pattern and how to hide the bone channels thereby keeping the swooping lines at the front 'clean'. So that's what I did .. and then I tried it on and by weird co-incidence, it fit me! The hips have a little extra space, and the bust is a teensy weensy bit small .. but to the untrained eye, I could get away with wearing this 'out'.
I added some 'fins' over the hip panels to accentuate the hips but they didn't really work how I wanted them too - should have padded or stuffed them. To do this I removed the vertical seam and added 2 horizontal seams to slot the fins into, but the hip panel could be customised further and be made smooth with no seams.
So the outside is double sided silk which is a bit heavier than dupion type silk - it's like the silk they make mens ties with - fused to a cotton woven fusible interfacing, and stitched together with lapped seams - though not tucked under on the reverse to save bulk.
The inside is coutil stitched together the same way, and the bone channels which are cotton twill tape, are attached to that on the inside. They are placed as per the diagram above, which was pretty easy. I also added a waist tape. The boning is all 7mm flat steel with extra tough flats on the CB edges.
You will see from the pattern that the CB edges curve. I would not normally draft a corset with a curve at the CB but I went along with this thinking that they must've known what they were doing. I put a flat steel in there and this had the effect of kicking out the hips, and thereby making the whole corset spring into shape.
I joined the two layers via the small diagonal boning channels (sewn last of all) at the back and by the CF/CB panels and the binding.
Those back boning channels aren't very visible here but the do look nice :)
The binding and fins is a ribbed dupion silk, inspired by pitufina's ladybug corset of quite some time ago (this is the only link I could find quickly) , the ribbed silk reminded me of the underside of a ladybird so I thought it was apt.
All in all a very fascinating and insightful project. I shall most certainly be customising this pattern in the future.