Fair warning: this was a huge project and there are LOTS of pictures in this post lol. This project honestly put a big snag in my regular posting because just writing this post felt like such a big undertaking. But today is the day! Let's break this project down, shall we?
Back in July I decided to officially take the plunge into historical sewing and begin a Regency era project. This took a lot of mental fortitude since I knew it would be a much bigger undertaking than I had ever done before simply because I had to start from the underwear and work my way out. The corset (actually called stays at this time) was the most daunting, but I had already purchased the supplies months before and just needed a pattern, which was easily obtained, so I eliminated all my usual excuses. I knew this was going to need a toile, so I just grabbed a random fabric I had on hand that I liked the idea of. I was given a big pile of 1 yard cuts of this canvas with a toile design printed on it, and I just loved the idea of making a toile toile, lol. I thought it was hilarious. So this was my outer fabric. I decided to go with the Laughing Moon Regency and Romantic Era Corset pattern because I had heard good things about it, it has historical and theatrical options, it has long and short options, it includes a chemise, it was inexpensive, and it was easily available to print out. There are other patterns out there, but they don't have the versatility of this one for the price. So I printed it out and traced off by my measurements. I traced a size 20 at the bust and a angled to a 22 at the waist.
Since I had so much of this toile fabric, I used it for my initial mock up of my mock up, lol. The frustrating thing about making stays of any kind is that you can't just tissue fit it to yourself. You really don't know how it will fit until it is essentially made and it requires boning and everything to get an accurate idea. I knew I needed to practice the techniques anyway, so I just started making it as instructed by the pattern. I went with the long historical option to get a smooth abdomen since that is my most self conscious area and an empire waist dress does nothing to hide that. For my lining, I grabbed a blue cotton broadcloth left over from my failed shirt I was making to use my Irish crochet pieces. It was just enough and coordinated well with the blue in the toile print.
I started off with the back pieces. Since this was to be the lining of a mock up, I traced the cording lines on the fabric using yellow wax paper which does not come off (*foreshadowing*). I stitched the lines, which was very enjoyable, actually. As I started the top stitching, I realized that I included an extra seam allowance in the front center that the pattern had for a different version of the pattern, so I had to sew seam there to make it the right width. I top stitched the seam allowance down so that the busk wouldn't get hung up on the fabric, and this all worked out just fine. When I saw how cool the lines looked on the blue side verses the toile side, I was pretty disappointed that I used the waxed paper because you can still see the yellow. I liked the look so much that I contemplated making the blue the outer fabric, but in the end I decided that I could at least make it reversible very easily. So I started stitching the lines with the blue side up since that is where they are most visible. I LOVE the result. It looks so precise and cool. It turned out much better than I thought I could make, honestly. I then corded the front and back pieces between all those lines. This was a part that most people seemed to think was awful to do, but I really enjoyed it. I used a blue colored cotton crochet thread (I believe it was size 3, so thicker like a twine) and a darning needle to thread it all through and then just cut the ends close and went about my business. This was one of the parts I enjoyed the most.
Next came the gussets. I had never sewn gussets at all before and it really went just fine. Because I misread the pattern and didn't put the gussets in before the cording lines, I couldn't get the gussets to line up exactly like the should and I wound up with spaces in the points of the blue side. I knew I could cover that with flossing, so I kept going. The only true snag turned out to be the canvas weave of the toile fabric - it looked good initially, but as I was working on the project the toile side literally unraveled at the gusset seams. I had to go back and fray check the daylights out of the ends and hand sew it all in place as one of the final steps of this project. The gussets also made me have to come to terms with the shape of my body, lol. I am very small busted and usually just wear a bra I feel gives me enough added oomph to get a silhouette I'm happy with (very historical, ironically). Corsets are designed to fit your actual body and since I had no idea how to do padding on something like this, I just went by my actual bust size, which required the smallest gusset piece available in the pattern and they are still a bit loose. Incidentally I used the smallest hip gusset pieces as well, which just confirms that I am build like a lego brick.
Since this was a mock up, I decided to use plastic boning at the back opening, but I went with flat steel bones at the sides since I wanted the added stability. I purchased a roll of this boning and cut it myself since I had no idea how long my pieces would actually end up needing to be. I cut them with tin snips, had my dad round the edges with a dremel, and then coated the ends in melting plastic to soften how the metal would rub against the fabric.
When I got to the point that it was all together, I added machine eyelets just to be quick and try it on, and everything seemed to fit fine, so I proceeded with this project (*more foreshadowing*). After the body was assembled, I added the straps.
The straps turned out to be too short even though I cut out the longest size thinking I would shorten them as needed. I had to recut the strap pieces adding 2 inches to the length of these, which in truth is not entirely surprising. As I learn to fit myself better (always an ongoing endeavor), I know that I have a longer upper bust area than most, yet because my boobs themselves are so small in comparison the darts still usually hit me correctly. So it makes sense that the body is still properly positioned but the straps needed to be longer. In the end, I also need to have the strap angle in more. They wound up being very wide for my shoulders (another non-surprise based on my modern sewing projects), so next time I make this pattern I will probably follow the angle of a smaller size to prevent them from wanting to fall off my shoulders.
After all the pieces were assembled, corded, and boned, it was time for the binding. I used 1 inch wide twill tape for this since it was a good color match for the toile side of the fabric and I had a huge roll of it on hand. I hand stitched the entire binding on because I was not about to figure out how to maneuver that through my machine and manage to cover everything I wanted to on the edges at the same time. This did take some time, but it really wasn't too bad. I did make machine eyelets on the inside edge of the binding as I was adding drawstrings to the top of the bust. The string is just baker's twine and I secured it in the side seam with my sewing machine before hand stitching the twill tape binding to make sure it was very secure, then I just kept it in position as I hand stitched the area closed so I didn't have to thread it through.
After the top binding was done, I put all the boning and the busk inside and then stitched the binding on the bottom. Everything was enclosed completely except I left the busk area open so I could remove it to wash if need be. My busk is a paint stirring stick, which worked out great. I had to cut a little bit off and sand it smooth, but it slides in and out perfectly. The seam allowance inside creates a nice flap to hold the stick in place and then the binding covers that up so it looks completely sewn shut. I also had planned to do actual flossing at my gussets, but the gaps I had from the incorrectly ordered gusset insertion meant I needed to focus more on covering the gaps with embroidery than any fancy stitches. The toile fabric kept unraveling as I embroidered this area, so things look a bit wonky on the e,broidery side, but it's fine.
The eyelets turned out to be the hardest piece to obtain. I had a vintage eyelet kit that I got at a thrift store, but when I opened them up to install them I saw these were 1-piece eyelets. There was no applicator tool and the ones I had just mangled these eyelets. It was very confusing, but eventually I figured out I just needed to buy new ones that I knew how to install. I just ordered an inexpensive kit from Amazon knowing this was just my practice run and they really seem pretty sturdy, so that's nice. I used the same baker's twine to lace this up since I didn't want to order expensive cording for this one. This way I could cut an incredibly long piece to lace it up and then just tuck the excess inside. Once the entire thing was done, I put it on and discovered ... it's actually too big for me, lol. I didn't pull it quite as tight in these photos as I did when I tried it on, but I can easily make the back panels touch and it's not uncomfortable. This was the part that really took the wind out of my sails. I was totally into this project when I thought it was fitting at least decently - in my mind I had changed his from "mock up" to "wow this could actually work as a legit corset and I don't need to make another one", so to discover it didn't actually fit like it should was very dejecting. I also have a wrinkle at my waist, which means that my hip gusset needs to be bigger than I made it, so I truly am more pear shaped than lego brick shaped in the end. So that's nice, lol. So I will need to make another set of stays eventually if I want to fully go for it with the Regency project, which I do. The changes i need to make are:
- Size down on bust and waist area
- make hip gusset wider
- bring angle of straps in
That's really not too bad a list of changes, which makes me wish all the more that I had caught it before I did this entire project. Oh well. I truly did enjoy making this so much more than I anticipated. I watch a lot of historical costuming people on YouTube and the consensus has always seemed that corset making is a necessary evil for a historical outfit, so I was thinking it would be a bit of a drudgery. Apparently I enjoy very technical sewing! This is the most involved and complicated thing I've ever sewn when you add in the idea of getting it to fit, and for my first try this turned out pretty great.
Summary:
Fabric: 1 yard toile print cotton decor weight - Free, 3/4 yard blue cotton broadcloth - Free
Pattern: Laughing Moon Regency Era Corset - $7.95
Notions: thread - $1.00, crochet thread - $0.25, 3/8 inch boning - $1.00, twill tape - $0.50, metal eyelets - $4.00, Lacing cord - $1.00
Time: 1 week
Total Cost: $ 15.70
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