HSM Challenge 1: Foundations/ Or, “Facing my Fears”

“HSM? What’s HSM?” You ask.

“Historical Sew Monthly,” I answer. 

“Lydia, you aren’t doing so hot keeping up with HFF! AND you have yet to post your series on making pegged shoes! Why on earth are you doing another historically themed “challenge” series?! Don’t you have enough on your plate?!”

And to that, dear reader, I have absolutely no reply.

So to avoid that awkward topic, here’s my entry for the HSM’s first challenge after the jump.

What the item is: A circa 1860's corset
The Challenge: Foundations
Fabric: Cotton coutil, cotton muslin
Pattern: Drafted pattern, based off of general 1860's corset shapes (so many fitting modifications it's not even funny! lol)
Year: Circa 1860
Notions: Steel boning, busk, metal grommets, lacing, wool batting, boning tape, binding tape, cotton embroidery floss, cotton thread.
How historically accurate is it?: I'd say 90-something%? I don't know how accurate my flossing design is, or the cute little x's I put on the quilting on the hip gussets, and I embroidered a little heart on it too (that's that random red dot near the busk.
Hours to complete: I don't know, as my coworker Bevin Lynn helped me out with the construction and I don't know how long she spent on it. (She's the best!)
First Worn: Other than wearing it around the house? hehe Saturday, Feb 7th
Total cost: Freeeeee!!!! I'm not kidding! This was all on my workplace's dime and the embroidery floss was part of my stash and a gift to me, so I didn't spend a single penny on it.

I’ve ranted a lot about my last corset and everyone’s probably sick of hearing about how negative that experience was and the owner of the Etsy shop I purchased it from is likely preparing to sue me for defamation, so I won’t discuss that train wreck anymore. It was my second purchased corset. I’d actually really liked my first corset, although I’m not sure if it was genuinely good or if I just had no idea what a good corset actually is, but I wanted to spend less on my second corset. You get what you pay for… I should have just spent the extra money (really not a lot more money, actually…) and gotten a better corset. But I didn’t. And oh boy did I suffer (poor materials, poor construction. Bones popped out of their channels left and right, nerves were poked at, the busk and all the remaining bones bent horribly, and I actually broke one of the remaining bones sneezing while sitting down.

Well, why didn’t I just make a corset myself? Why wasn’t that my first thought when I wanted to replace my first corset?

Corsets scare the daylights out of me! Well, not corsets themselves, but making corsets. Boning, grommets, busks, dealing with those things are terrifying. And corsets are notorious for being picky-tricky when fitting.

So when I was getting ready to replace my Corset from Hades, I was either going to fork over the money to get a properly made and fitted corset, or I was going to have to face my fear of corset-making. Facing my fear of corset-making won out in the end, thanks to the corset-making workshop offered up by the Museum. It was free for staff, or else something like $35 for the materials. Not only was I presented with a neat little plastic bag containing an informational packet and the supplies (except boning and busk, as those would need to be ordered after we had the measurements we needed), but I also had skilled instructors to hold my hand through the whole process! Hooray!

We started off by wrapping me up in duct tape and then sketching out the corset pattern pieces with a Sharpie marker. This method works for some kinds of corsets, or if you’re not intending to reduce your measurements, but in the future I don’t know that I would use the method again except maybe for an earlier corset (like a corded 1830s corset). After cutting off the duct tape form (and putting a shirt on), we cut up the pattern and cut out the pieces in denim to make the mockup and fix fitting issues.

ALWAYS MAKE A MOCKUP!!!!  Especially when you’re making a corset; coutil is an expensive fabric and you don’t want to waste it messing around with fitting issues. Of course, even after doing a mockup, I still ended up wasting coutil because of my stupid curves…. Being kind of dramatically curvy means mockups are a big more important for your figure than for some other body shapes.

We cut out the coutil pieces, sewed everything together, quilted the hip gussets, and then the next class was all about putting in the boning, busk, and lacing. Putting in the busk was a lot less scary than I always thought it was – it’s just a lot of starting and stopping your sewing, grommets were fun to do, but boning could be a little bit tricky. My corset is so curvy that there was some interesting angling and other such things going on with doing the boning.

I was frustrated that my waist wasn’t getting smaller when I put on my almost-finished corset. It wasn’t taking full advantage of my squishiness and there was no way that I was going to fit into any of my dresses. Or petticoats, for that matter! That was going to be pretty bad for me. I do have new garments on the to-do list but I don’t have the time or money to start almost from scratch. So, one of my historic-sewing heroines, my coworker Bevin Lynn, took the corset off my hands to whisk away to her magic workshop and fix for me.

My final steps were to put in two more bones to fix some bust-area wrinkling, put on the top binding, and do the flossing.

So, in summary, I’m still a little scared of making corsets, but not for construction reasons anymore. Now I’m just intimidated by the picky-tricky fitting! To all my sewing friends who are thinking of making a corset and, like me, think they don’t have that “knack”, don’t be afraid to ask for help from more experienced seamstresses! It’s much less painful to ask for help than it is to go without a corset (and look frumpy, get bruises from the weight of your clothing, and suffer an aching back) or spend your hard-earned money on an ill-fitting, uncomfortable corset that has the potential to fail in giving you the period correct shape and support and also, much more seriously, actually physically harm you!

Stay corseted, my friends! And… to my male friends, there are actually historic corsets for you too, if you choose to wear them, so, that goes for you too!