A friend asked me to make her a Regency corset. As always, I can't resist a challenge, so I took it on. Surprisingly, the sewing part was rather easy; it was the fitting that took a lot of time and patience. But it came out beautifully, as you will see:
Here is the pattern I used.
There were also a lot of web pages that I referenced. First thing I learned was to use a good sturdy cotton (or silk) fabric that didn't fray very much. I found a nice woven cotton at Walmart that I used for the lining, and a nice cotton twill for the outside layer.
These are the pieces, before I sewed them together.
Do you see that little dip in the top of one of the pieces? That's the underarm piece. It will be important later.
My first attempt at fitting was with the simple lining. Bad idea. Without boning, the fit just never works right! So my 2nd fitting was using 2 layers of the lining, so I could put minimal boning into the corset. That made a huge difference! Then I sewed the pieces together and fitted again. Here are some pictures.
The next learning point was to *not* use metal eyelets! They shred the lacing! And, when I tried to fit at this point, it turns out that those underarm cutouts cause a definite lack of support for the chest. Ah! So in my next attempt, I remade the sides, taking out the cutouts, and put sewn buttonholes in the back instead of metal eyelets. Success! I also put in all of the boning and the busk in front, to help with body definition.
Here are pictures of the back and the front, with boning, and the straps added. All I had to do now was shorten the straps a little, and we were done! The model graciously allowed me to take pictures for the blog.
So now I can honestly say that I have made a Regency corset. It was a fun learning experience!
I don't know why the corset looks so yellow - the fabric really was white! Must be the lighting.
