Plaid Corset Sew Along
This piece was a birthday gift for a lovely friend of mine. It’s an underbust with a whole lot of hip pop since she’s got a body like a coke bottle. The fully closed measurements are 23/20/38, which in itself is a fun challenge.
The Design~
For this corset I came into it with an idea already formed of what I wanted to do, so I didn’t have to do a lot of sketching beforehand. I knew I wanted to play with pattern matching, and I knew I wanted big hip gussets. I knew I wanted an underbust, and a curved front. I did a quick doodle for reference, and from there started drafting pattern pieces.
Starting the pattern pieces with the center front, I roughly form the pattern shapes. Most of the time I will drape muslin for the shapes I want, but I winged it with this one, since I pretty much knew what my pattern pieces were going to look like. Once I’m satisfied with the shapes of the pattern pieces I’ll be using, I draw a horizontal waistline that runs through each panel, and measure up or down to get an accurate length from hip/bust to waist. I mark notches on the pattern where the waistline is, then create the gussets for the hips which will extend from the waist. These will allow me to drastically change the circumference of the corset without having super extreme curves at the seams. At this point I label each pattern piece with a number, including the gussets. Once I have the panels laid out, I measure the width at the waist, hip, and bust. The measurements for this corset, when fully closed, provide a 4 inch waist reduction from her natural measurement, with a 2 inch reduction at the hips. The hips come down quite a bit -about 4 inches below the waist- so I didn’t want to constrict her movement while walking and sitting. This way, even if it’s fully closed, she’ll be able to move comfortably. After everything is measured, shaped, and labeled to my satisfaction, I’ll cut the pattern pieces out and prep my fabric.
Cut and Sew~
There are three separate layers to this corset, and most of the corsets I make. There is a soft lining, a sturdy coutil interlining, and a fashion fabric shell. For the two inner layers, I lay the fabric out, folded in half, and cut two of each piece.
For the shell fabric, I want to make sure that the pattern is even, and that the plaid is matched as well as possible. I start with the front piece, laying it out so that there is a solid line running down the center. Then I move on to the side panels and gussets. As I move along, I lay the previous pattern down on the fabric, pattern matched, and line up the next panel, using the waist markings as a guide. Once the pieces are cut and matched, I stitch the shell together with welted seams.
I’m using a blue thread to match the blue line woven into the plaid.
At this point, I’ll add any lace, applique, or other detail work that won’t be going through to the lining. On this corset, I added some pretty faux bone channels to the side seams. The solid black lines break up the blurry plaid, making sure that the carefully shaped silhouette doesn’t get lost. I also think that the black satin gives it a bit of a classy vintage vibe.
Once the shell is together, I move on to the lining. I flatline the coutil and the lining layers, and stitch the whole thing together as if they were one layer. This gives the corset a flat, sturdy base that won’t shift around. As I attach each panel, I top stitch a tiny distance from my original seam, catching the seam allowance from both panels. This is the same welted seam technique used on the shell fabric. Because there will be a lot of pressure on the garment, the additional seam helps to disperse some of the tension on each panel.
Close up of the lining layers being welted
Once the lining layer is constructed, carefully pin the waist tape to the wrong side of the lining. I use the notches at the waist to ensure that the tape is lying where it should.
A quick check to make sure the waist tape is straight and even, and rests at the same points on either side:
Then I stitch a quarter of an inch over from my welted seam. This not only creates the boning channels, but it also holds the waist tape in place at multiple points. On this piece, I added a bone channel at each seam, as well as stabilizing channels next to the gussets and down the center front. These channels were carefully matched and marked before stitching.
Recommendation: do not be a derp and stitch your edges into your boning channels like me.
derp derp derp. seam rip, stitch again.
But then, it's done! Once the lining is complete, it’s time to attach the shell fabric! I love this part because it finally looks like a real garment. This is also a really good stage to do any final fittings, before adding in closures that can’t be removed.
Adding the shell is as simple as stitching the two layers right sides together at the center back seams, pressing, and reversing. Then I carefully pin all the seams together, ensuring everything lines up properly, and sew a basting stitch just shy of a quarter inch from the edge. Then I add the channels for the center back bones and the grommets. I do these channels through all the layers to add extra support for the grommets, and to make sure that the shell fabric won’t twist, pull, or slide when being laced.
I close off the bottom edge of the corset first, using my basting stitch as a guide for my ribbon. Depending on the style, I will most often use a pre-made bias tape for finishing my edges, or cut a ribbon of bias out of the same fabric, but in this case I wanted to match the satin stripes on the sides so I used a 1 inch satin ribbon.
First I attach the ribbon to the front of the corset, then I carefully trim away any excess fabric or seam allowance before folding it over to cover the edge. Because this ribbon was on the thinner side, I opted to stitch-in-the-ditch, catching the ribbon on the inside of the garment using a top stitch over the extant seam holding it in place. If it had been a bit wider, I would have folded it up on itself, pressed it, and hand stitched it to the lining using an invisible slip stitch.
The bones were then inserted, and the process was repeated at the top of the garment. Baste, attach ribbon, stitch in the ditch.
This is the point where I start getting real excited, because the only thing left is closures. Once the bones are in and the edges are finished, it looks like something wearable. My favorite part about making costumes is the journey from a huge swath of fabric to tiny bits rearranged to make something beautiful. This stage is sort of the embodiment of that for me.
Plus I now get to stab and smash things. That’s fun, too.
I carefully measure and mark where each grommet will sit. This corset has equidistant grommets, at 1 inch intervals, but I will often times line them up so that the grommets at the waist are much closer together. That particular technique is useful for tightlacing corsets, or extreme hourglass corsets, where you want to put the most pressure along the waist tape and the least pressure along the hips and ribs. Since this isn’t a tightlacing corset, and isn’t a particularly long line, I didn’t feel that it was necessary.
I use an awl to poke holes in the fabric. The awl separates the weave of the fabric, compared to cutting a hole, which severs the threads making it weaker and thus more likely to tear or loosen, resulting in grommets coming out. It’s more work, and usually my hands get pretty sick of poking by the end of it, but I think it’s worth the effort to avoid lost grommets.
Since I’m poking the holes with an awl, I insert the grommets as I go along, lest the fibers resettle and I lose all my hard work. I set the grommets with a setter and a rubber mallet, irritating all my neighbors with intermittent hammering. These are size 0 grommets, which are large and sturdy, although I also use size 00 when I want a more delicate look.
And construction is complete! Now it’s time to lace!
There are lots of tutorials out there for lacing, but the most important thing is that your laces are consistent. I prefer lacing to have an over/under pattern, so that I can easily pull the "top" ones to tighten it. Some people prefer the lace to come up from each grommet, creating an even pattern all the way up. Either way, with an hourglass corset like this one, you want to have “rabbit ears” positioned at the waist line to pull the corset closed. Much like with the grommet placement, this puts the most pressure at the waist, and the least at the ribs and hips, maximizing both the hourglass effect and the comfort of the garment.
I finish my ends off with a teeny little bow that is actually a good square knot. The ends should only really ever come undone if the laces themselves need to be changed out. All of the loosening and tightening should be done through the rabbit ears. Since this corset didn’t have a front busk, that meant I had to have quite a lot of length for the lacing to open up. I used about 6 yards in total.
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed! I’ll link to some photos of the birthday girl wearing it as soon as I get them. Thanks for following along with me!
