corset steels shopping list

This morning I worked out what steels I needed, and went through my stash.  I've got more than half, and I could use all spirals, but I'd prefer flats at the centre front, and either side of the grommets.


I also put my pliers somewhere "safe" so I've added replacements to my shopping list.  I have PLENTY of 6mm spiral and enough end caps for a couple of corsets at least. But no pilers to put them in place. Oh, do I have the dies for my American Tag press.

slow progress on my edwardian corset.

Only the binding and casing had to be bought so far and part of me wishes I'd waited til I got home & checked the stash for cotton prussian tape. Though it's heavier than I know is available in Japan - a herringbone cotton "Damask Tape"  that I have from a fashion designer who's business closed.  The Damask Tape isn't wide enough for this task.  From stash, I've used coutil, busk and some of the steels and I have a choice of white lacing cord too. So that's great.

Tomorrow I'll go & buy a list of the steels I need to finish it. So here's so far - it only needs the steels inserted - am measuring & counting them right now.  Hmm maybe I should give it a steam press before I insert the steels.


I really do like the bias binding. Thanking the now retired quilt binding person who produced so many delightful ones to choose from.



I've recently been diagnosed with non-anaemic iron deficiency and I just run out of energy far too quickly. Still hopefully it'll resolve itself easily.

Progress pics as procrastination

The bobbin ran out of thread so instead of instantly re-filling and stitching I ran away from the machine.

I'm probably going to find out why grosgrain ribbing isn't a good choice for corset boning cases, but meh it was there and it was cheap. Instead of basting i pinned it. A LOT. first I folded it in half and finger pressed it so I could see the middle as it's double boned with 6mm, not wider steels.




Then I started stitching - was in early days of the either-side-of-centre stitching when it ran out.


And as you can see I can't bring myself to use plain white for everything. the waist tape is, but the casings aren't, Neither is the pure cotton bias binding I got for top & bottom edges, along with some nylon type lace which I'd normally avoid like the plague but it's quick and cheap and so is this corset.  The coutil wasn't even listed in my stash catalogue. Oopsie!


As you may have noticed, I love stripes.

Starting a new edwardian corset - TVe

 Is your brain spinning around - cos mine certainly is!


My corsets are uncomfortably too small :(   The 1880-90 is a small amount too small but it's brocade fashion garment and not suitable as underwear.  With garments on the outside perhaps making wear patterns on the brocade.  My c1903 is that bit smaller again, and the larger gap at centre back moves the side back steels to the wrong spot on me and so they're trying to twist rather than not even being noticable. Too rapid a curve in & out for flats.

So, I need to make a quick & dirty corset, or I'm dooooomed.  I raided my corset patterns & supplies.  I was going to make Ageless 1288  as I love the design lines of it, and its in my stash.

I traced it off, adding to each panel to get it to my new stouter measurements.  And thought, hmmmm this is going to take too much altering. The waist to top edge is too long to fit my shortwaistedness, and the waist too hip edge too short for my preference. Too much futzing around for a timecrunch. So I spent the last of that evening and a day at work with my brain flip-flopping between slightly enlarging (simple) the panel corset or taking a little more effort and the Truly Victorian edwardian corset.  I love the back shape on both, but the TVe slightly wins the race cos I like the front of it that little bit more.

Here's a poor quality photo of me in the black corset I made with it in 2012.

So I decided that I'd leap to the side of the edwardian, so long as I made a couple of changes. So after work I managed to get the pattern pieces photocopied onto larger paper and just cut out the size i want to use.

The changes are to make the lower back 1 size larger than the rest of the corset (the waist squish has to move somewhere) and, and instead of cutting the top edge down 1" (as I'm short-waisted) that I'd more properly take that 1" from between waist & bust. I takes a whisker longer but provides the correct width at upper edge.

Lastly, most importantly, raise the point at which the bust gusset is inserted by 3cm. It meant reshaping the Centre Front & Middle Front pieces.



Which also meant changing the bottom half of the bust gusset the most - I got lazy and will infill the lower section as I cut.


Because I also had to take 1" from the top half of the gusset, I took that from two half inc slices and it now looks like


Now I'm about to cut it out from white coutil. Yayy for stashbusting as I have the coutil, a choice of 3 busks and assorted steels.  I also have a roll of 6mm spiral steel somewhere. I likely put fabric on top of it, so need to find it before I can finish. Unless I buy some precuts at Metro Fabrics next Wednesday.