1880s Corset Progress!

Hello, world. Long time no see? Anyhow, I have been working on a Victorian corset based on Truly Victorian's 1880s corset and is in going wonderfully. I started by altering the pattern and it took only six variations of the back piece to get it to fit, ugh...
But, it finally did fit and it was all worth it. Corsets are fiddly and difficult but when you stick with it, it will fit you...eventually! I am using white coutil from http://corsetmaking.com/ for the project.

Look at all the back piece variations!

I started by inserting the busk and OMFG it took me so long, I think an hour or two. I had never inserted a busk before and I did it wrong the first time and my machine was also bird nesting and going crazy, which was soooooo much fun. It hates 100% cotton thread for some reason but loves poly thread which makes me so sad as a historical seamstress, pure cotton thread is my jam (but apparently not my sewing machines, anyone had this issue with a brother machine?)

 But I finally got it work, so, yeah!

Next was cutting and attaching all of the pieces. This went relatively smoothly. I had to re-cut a few pieces and I encountered a few issues but it generally went well, it just took a long time.

And after much deliberation, I ended up with this!
 It's coming together, slowly but surely!

Next up is the boning, flossing, and bias-tapping!
As a quick side note, I am also making a pair of 18th century stays. The 18th century is my FAVORITE, FAVORITE, FAVORITE for fashion so I am SOOOOO happy! I also got the fabric for this at corsetmaking.com. The fabric is a cotton/viscose mix so it is not entirely historically accurate but it does have a beautiful floral fabric, so...
I ended tea dying it pink with hibiscus tea! Here are some photos of the process. The tea dying did not end up perfectly, it is uneven in some areas but I am going to be strategic when I cut the pieces out so that the color is even on the real thing. I ironed the fabric today so it looks much better than it does in the photos! Stay tuned for a post about my stay making process soon!



XOXO, Ella





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