Dragon's Musings
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Corset Diary, day 2 - finished
Okay, so I actually finished the corset December 25, 2006. That's what, 3 months? Well, not always working on it consistantly. Anyway, I flatlined the linen:
So I was left with two "pieces" of each section, with the muslin/linen as the "good" side and the trigger as the "bad" side. The original Effigy Corset was all one piece, but as I'm losing weight, I didn't want to make another corset so soon, or have this one not fit, so I decided to do it in 3 sections with lacing on the sides to aid in sizing. Anyway, I then sewed the linen to the muslin sandwiching the trigger between them:
And then I had to bone the sucker. Step one was marking where my quilting lines were going to be. I did this on the muslin to keep my linen all pretty. I chose a thread color to work subtly on the linen as the quilting would be apparent on it.
My boning channels made, I opted to use broom straw to use for boning. Reed boning was used in period. Not pictured is me destroying a broom. :) Anyway, before I got to the actual process of boning the sucker, I figured I should put in the eyelets for lacing while the material was still movable. I bound the eyelets by hand, spacing them for spiral lacing. Next time, I need to use a bigger awl or something to get the hole bigger before I start as the holes are pretty small.
So onto boning:
You can see the eyelets and the quilted lines. There's the broomstraw that I clipped to the length I needed for each boning channel. Yes, I boned the tabs. When I sewed the linen to the muslin, I left the bottom open for boning, and I put the reeds between the two layers of trigger:
As a note, the first row of boning near each of the lacing edges, I used springsteel. It's a little more sturdy than the broom straw. No, I didn't take a picture of it.
You will notice that there are raw edges. I personally didin't want to turn under all that fabric and then sew, especially as there would need to be top stitiching. It also would make the outer seams and corners super-thick. Besides, the original Effigy corset had leather binding on the edges. With much color consultation from friends, I opted for a dark purple linen/rayon blend I had on hand. I made bias strips and sewed them on by hand (as I was worried about boning + my sewing machine), first to the linen side:
and then, turning it over and tucking it in, to the muslin side:
Yes, the majority of bias binding the corset happened on a long car ride (6 hours each way). I ended up finishing up the bias binding December 25 in the evening. I currently have some ribbon that I'm lacing it with, though the laces (at least on the front) will probably change in the future.
I then put it on me and took several bad pictures, but you can see the basic sillouhette, and the lacing in the side for sizing purposes:
Subsequent to that, I had a friend help get the side laces to the (current) correct tightness so the corset is properly corseting. It is pretty comfortable to have on, and the boned tabs seem to keep my hips in control, which is a fantastic thing! All in all, it was pretty cool making a corset by hand. :)
Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 13:31
