Silverado Corset

 

Project Description:
Motivation: My victorian corset has been in sad need of replacing for quite some time; eyelets are falling out, some of the boning has worked its way through the fabric, and it's just plain too big.  With Costume College coming up, and two outfits that will need this type of corset, I decided that this was the perfect time to make a new one.  While I did like the pattern I used for the old one (Past Pattern's Late Victorian), I thought that Laughing Moon's Silverado corset would better serve my current needs (that, and I've read rave reviews about it and wanted to give it a shot myself).

Muslin 1: The measurement chart looks to be pretty good, although I probably could have taken their suggestion to cut one size smaller.  I sewed up the muslin with half-inch seams and only have about a one inch gap at the waist and hips; not bad, but I'll probably go to 5/8th so I'll have more spring.  The bust gores presented a bit of a problem, though.  I cut out a C, which is what I normally wear, but I ended up with a couple of inches of overlap at the bustline.  Since I'm happy with the fit in the waist and hips, I'm going to just switch out the gores with the B size and see if that will solve the problem.

Muslin 2: Changed out the bust gores.  I didn't think the B would be small enough so I went with the A.  The fit was a bit better, but it still worried me.  Went on to muslin 3.

Muslin 3: I made the corset up in the next size down with the B gore.  Much better fit overall, but still had less gap at the bustline than at the waist and hips.  I'm hoping that  increasing my seam allowances slightly will solve this.  (The rationale is that since there are a few more seams at the bustline due to the gores that more excess will be taken up there than in the waist and hips, serving to even out the gap a bit.   Sounds logical, right?)  At any rate, I've decided to go ahead and move on to the actual corset and have cut out the two layers.

Corset fabric: I've hit upon a combination I really like: a medium weight brushed cotton twill, and cotton sateen for the lining.  So far, these have been sturdy enough for the type of wear my corsets get (laced fairly tight for up to six hours at a time, but not very often).  The major benefit is that the two fabrics combined still cost about half of what coutil would set me back.

Making the corset: It went together well, but once I got it pretty much finished and tried it on, it was still a bit too big.  I was a little frustrated, I mean, after all, I cut out about a size and a half smaller than my measurements.  I guess I should have anticipated this; I know that I squish a lot so I should have just cut another size smaller, or taken larger seam allowances.  Anyway, I decided on a quick fix which will also allow me to let it out easily (although, I hopefully won't ever have to do that).  Where some of the side back boning was placed in the seams, I just folded the corset over and stitched near the boning.  I'm not sure how period that is, but it solved the problem.

Another problem I ran into was in the boning I have.  You may remember that my latest order of boning was a little heavier than normal.  This is normally a good thing, since I feel a bit more comfortable with the added support.  But in this case, the boning at the bustline was resulting in some odd shaping of the busts.  To solve it, I exchanged the heavy boning in front for the lighter boning at the center back.  The lighter boning will do a better job of accentuating curves rather than eliminating them.

Upon Further Reflection:

Now that I've worn this corset several times, I'm not so happy with it. So, here is the deal:

1. The bust gores are still wrong--should have gone with the C. The mock ups really didn't not give me a clear picture of how this whole thing was going to fit. (Note to self: always use a heavy fabric for corset mock ups--muslin just doens't work.) The B gores lift and compress just a little too much, giving me a little of the spilling out look.

2. I guess I also am not fond of the overall shape. It is very straight line, and would benefit greatly from hip gussets (which I vaguely seem to recall someone mentioning there were directions for in the pattern, but don't hold me to that statement).

Overall, I think the problems I have with this corset are primarily my own fault, not the fault of the pattern itself. This observation is confirmed by the vast number of people who absolutely love this pattern. That said, I'm not sure I'll use it again, or will at least experiment with some other patterns before coming back to this particular one.

 

©2005 by Teresa Shobe. Unless otherwise stated, all text and images are the property of the webmistress. This page may not be copied or reproduced without permission.

 

 

Motivation: My victorian corset has been in sad need of replacing for quite some time; eyelets are falling out, some of the boning has worked its way through the fabric, and it's just plain too big.  With Costume College coming up, and two outfits that will need this type of corset, I decided that this was the perfect time to make a new one.  While I did like the pattern I used for the old one (Past Pattern's Late Victorian), I thought that Laughing Moon's Silverado corset would better serve my current needs (that, and I've read rave reviews about it and wanted to give it a shot myself).

Muslin 1: The measurement chart looks to be pretty good, although I probably could have taken their suggestion to cut one size smaller.  I sewed up the muslin with half-inch seams and only have about a one inch gap at the waist and hips; not bad, but I'll probably go to 5/8th so I'll have more spring.  The bust gores presented a bit of a problem, though.  I cut out a C, which is what I normally wear, but I ended up with a couple of inches of overlap at the bustline.  Since I'm happy with the fit in the waist and hips, I'm going to just switch out the gores with the B size and see if that will solve the problem.

Muslin 2: Changed out the bust gores.  I didn't think the B would be small enough so I went with the A.  The fit was a bit better, but it still worried me.  Went on to muslin 3.

Muslin 3: I made the corset up in the next size down with the B gore.  Much better fit overall, but still had less gap at the bustline than at the waist and hips.  I'm hoping that  increasing my seam allowances slightly will solve this.  (The rationale is that since there are a few more seams at the bustline due to the gores that more excess will be taken up there than in the waist and hips, serving to even out the gap a bit.   Sounds logical, right?)  At any rate, I've decided to go ahead and move on to the actual corset and have cut out the two layers.

Corset fabric: I've hit upon a combination I really like: a medium weight brushed cotton twill, and cotton sateen for the lining.  So far, these have been sturdy enough for the type of wear my corsets get (laced fairly tight for up to six hours at a time, but not very often).  The major benefit is that the two fabrics combined still cost about half of what coutil would set me back.

Making the corset: It went together well, but once I got it pretty much finished and tried it on, it was still a bit too big.  I was a little frustrated, I mean, after all, I cut out about a size and a half smaller than my measurements.  I guess I should have anticipated this; I know that I squish a lot so I should have just cut another size smaller, or taken larger seam allowances.  Anyway, I decided on a quick fix which will also allow me to let it out easily (although, I hopefully won't ever have to do that).  Where some of the side back boning was placed in the seams, I just folded the corset over and stitched near the boning.  I'm not sure how period that is, but it solved the problem.

Another problem I ran into was in the boning I have.  You may remember that my latest order of boning was a little heavier than normal.  This is normally a good thing, since I feel a bit more comfortable with the added support.  But in this case, the boning at the bustline was resulting in some odd shaping of the busts.  To solve it, I exchanged the heavy boning in front for the lighter boning at the center back.  The lighter boning will do a better job of accentuating curves rather than eliminating them.