3 Ways To Make A Corset

[Music] all right folks no long introduction let's just go ahead and get started with showing you a three corset construction methods first find a pattern that you would like to work with I have pattern reference P from atelier SIL which is based on a Victorian corset in her collection this is a one-size pattern that of the specific antique corset that she owns which is a little bit unlike most modern patterns which will often have several sizes available all in one package rather than cut up this pattern permanently I'm going to instead trace over the pieces that way I have plenty of wiggle room to make modifications if I need to without destroying my original copy of the pattern for now I'm just tracing the outline seam allowance and waist seam I could trace all of the boning channels and other nitty-gritty details but I'm pretty sure I'm going to need to make several mock-ups before I'm satisfied with the fit so let's just worry about those details later once you have your pattern it's a pretty good idea to go ahead and measure the bust and waist just to check how well they match against your own often a pattern will include the sizing information on the package but just in case it doesn't or you want to double check for yourself you can find the measurements by lining up the waistline in a neat little row don't of course forget to take out that seam allowance and then carefully measuring the total it looks like the waist is just over 12 and a half inches on one side so that'll be 25 inches total I did the same thing for the bust carefully lining up the pieces at the top and measuring the approximate fullest part of the chest and found it to be about 17 across or 34 inches total even when you account for the kind of standard 2 inch gap for the lacing and a little bit of negative ease that is still just a smidge small for my preference I'll add a little bit to the width of each piece and then trim off the excess this is probably too much but it's a good start when the pattern prep is all done find some sturdy fabric mockup Patil is perfect for corsets but I only have a little bit so I'm gonna go ahead and save that for the actual corset and instead use this green canvas you don't have to use either of these but you do want to use a fabric that is not stretchy on either the straight green or the cross green it should hopefully also have a tight weave and I personally really like it to have a bit of heft I know that I have advocated or old worn-out sheets and bed linens for mock ups in the past but this is a garment that would really really benefit from something with a little bit more strength for the first corset construction method we're going to use a single layer corset cut out two for each pattern piece one for the left side of the body and one for the right as I finish each piece I like to line them up together in a row to check that I have all the right parts and that they are oriented in the correct direction if everything is in excellent Order go ahead and start stitching the pieces together using the recommended seam allowance provided by your pattern or if it's a self-made pattern you know whatever your preferred allowance might be when one half of your single layer corset is done it should look something like this so the second half as a mirror to the first one and then iron all the seam allowances of both halves nice and flat ironing over a tailoring cam can help with some of the curvy bits like the bust and hips I do actually need to go ahead and cut out an additional pair of pieces for the bus and if you're aiming for a finished corset rather than just a mock-up like me then you would also want a second pair for the back pieces as well go ahead and mark your seam line on the front edge and then lay the loop half of the busk wherever you'd like it to be and fully mark the front edge and a little bit on each of the side of the loops these extra markings help make it easier to see where you're supposed to start and stop when you're stitching it on the machine do make sure that you leave those loop openings clear you don't actually need to cut the threads between the Soudan sections like I did here but hopefully this does clearly show what areas you need to leave unstitched iron that new seam allowance open and then in the bus loops using pins or clips will help kind of hold the busk in place and keep it from moving around on you if you have one zipper foot will make this next part a little bit easier because you can use the foot itself as a guide to kind of glide next to the bone usually you would probably want to use a matching thread for this so that your gloriously uneven seems like this are maybe just a little bit more visible for the second half of the split busk we need to go ahead and stitch the first panel facing with the usual seam allowance iron and open and then iron it closed again which gives it a really neat and clean finish line up the loops wherever you'd like them to meet on the center front panel and then mark inside of each loop where the post / peg of the second half of the bus is going to go using an awl open the marked spot just enough so that you can get the post through if you aren't able to quite get it through just go ahead and open the hole a little bit bigger but do be careful to only make it as absolutely big as you need to when all of these are in place and go ahead and secure that busk down with a row of stitches the center front is now functionally complete so let's go ahead and move to the center back since this was my first corset mock-up with this pattern I knew right away that there was definitely going to need to be changes so instead of adding grommets to the center back I'm instead just using a lacing strip I will show you how to properly grommet the back later in this video so check the description for time stamp notes if you'd like to go ahead and skip to that for my lacing strip though I do still want to accurately reflect wear the corset closure would actually be so I'm marking away the seam allowance and using that as a reference point for where this lacing strip should start stitch the lacing strip on making sure to sew on the inner edge so that the outer edge remains free you're going to need that open so that you can lace the corset later in order to add some boning I do need to find somewhere for the bones to go a mock-up like this doesn't need to be fully boned to the extent that a final course it might be but I do really really strongly recommend putting in at least a few in the side because it will give you a much more accurate picture of what the pattern looks like on your body then if you try and skip adding bones at all I've added for phoning channels to each half of the corset and I'm now inserting the temporary zip tie boning these are not made for coarser tree but they do work quite well if you are making an actual corset then I would recommend either flat felling your corset seems so that they are nice and strong and neat or stitching the seam allowances towards the outside instead of the inside like I did and then covering them with the boning channels so the raw edges are contained inside those channels or I guess you could add a lining but then it's not exactly a one layer corset anymore which is totally fine you do you lace up the back I'm fond of the bunny ears method but whichever way you like is just fine and then try on your newly completed mock up looking back I think I actually did some really bad math when enlarging my corset pattern panels and hmm have ended up way too large whoops that's okay the overall shape however is really promising so I think I just maybe need to raise the top edge of it this mock-up has done job it communicated some very excellent information to me so now I'm going to go ahead and salvage the bones and busk so I can reuse them back to my table for the second mock-up I'm cutting away literally all of the width that I added to the first one which is you know cool for the second corset I'm going to show a welt construction method normally a welt seam is stitched just like normal and then the seam allowance is ironed over to one side and stitched again for this corset I'm sort of sewing two welts at once so I kind of think of this as the double welt method to start out you're going to need four of each pattern piece lay them out nicely together to verify that you still have all the right parts and then for this one I recommend stitching the busk first so I'm marking the seam allowance with the pencil and then stitching the area between each loops and then ironing seam allowance open so that I can easily and cleanly insert that first half of the bust once the busk has been stitched securely in place with matching green bread this time please go ahead and take two of the next panels and add both of them to the first one on the back and one on the front I'm going to start from the top and work my way down very carefully realigning the pieces as I go iron both of the top and bottom panels forward add these subsequent pieces in the same way double check that you have them facing in the right direction and then put the right sides next to right sides so that the previous panels are sandwiched between the new ones when you've added the last panel you'll now need to stick to the back closed I've done this by folding the seam allowance inward and then I'll top stitch these together if you want to be a bit more precise about it then you can measure and then mark the seam allowance before then carefully stitching as close to that edge as you can that's one half down second half to go I'll start again with the busk I did have a bit of an unfortunate incident with an exploding green pen but at least the ink matches my project I guess iron the seam allowance open and then into its final position line up the new panel with the first half of the corset and mark the post locations and go ahead and open them up with an awl and then install the post half of the busk citrus did you okay the busk is complete now add the rest of the panels from left to right stitching each one on and then ironing it open before moving on to the next panel when you get to that last panel again mark the seam allowance fold it down and then top such to both layers Oh guys it's looking so clean okay so to add boning channels we don't need to add strips of extra fabric like we did with the first method instead I only need to stitch through the two corset layers to create an internal boning channel between them this is a really convenient although it kind of works best for corset patterns with a fairly vertical pattern it's less great for patterns where the boning needs to go across seams while I could go ahead and add the lacing strips again I am kind keen to try out my new grommet kit I used the original pattern to mark the spacing for the grommets and then punched holes using the included kit punch I know that some people like to use an awl to make their grommet holes since you lose less of the material that way but I figured I'd give the punch method a try the only real trick I found with these is that remembering that the side that is currently face up is actually the inside of the corset functionally it doesn't really make a difference I suppose but if you want the nice side of the grommets to face outward then the finish side needs to go down it's it's possible that I learned this the hard way lace up course at number two again with the bunny ears method and see if this is any better than the first one alright this is actually quite a bit better the overall fit is much improved although I do see a few things that I'd like to change like raising the top line all around and perhaps raising the start of the cups fitting something like a course it can be tricky I recommend taking several pictures of different angles all around so that you can look at them later to see how it really looks on your body with a little bit more objectivity than the mirror sometimes provides for the third corset after lengthening the pattern a bit at the top and a few other minor adjustments we are again doing a two layer corset so you'll again need to cut out four of each pattern piece go ahead and sew them together so that you end up with four complete course it haves two for the inside two for the outside go ahead and arrange them with these smooth sides facing each other we are essentially going to bag line these stitching the centre back in the center front before flipping them right-side out starting again with the busk take care to mark the loops and then stitch between them sometimes I find that using pins to mark thee do not so hear spots can be helpful and then Stitch the back seam iron everything nicely and then flip everything right-side out all right insert that busk but do make sure to take the mandated domestic animal attention break is she not the cutest gosh daunting continue inserting the bus adding the second half at the post and then it's stitching them in place just like we did with the first two versions to make the boning channel's top stitch wherever you'd like the bones to go unlike the double welt method you can absolutely use corsets with all sorts of crazy curvy seam lines and gussets and Gore's and you just have so much more freedom with how you want the channels to be shaped in case you want to get up to any crazy shenanigans with this method I kind of had a lot of fun setting the grommets for the first corset so why not I'll do it for this one to add in the boning and then try it on oh we are getting so close I only have a few more things that I'd like to adjust like adding a little bit more to the top of the fourth and fifth panel and I think again raising the start of the bust curve just a smidge more but it is nearly there constructionwise I think I like method two with the double well that seems the best it had the cleanest finish and it was the fastest - so do you have a preference among the three that I covered or maybe an alternate favorite method let me know I love hearing about which styles people use the most I did not cover binding in this video since these are just mock-ups but I have shown that on my seventeenth-century stays video so watch that if you want to see binding especially around some tricky tricky curves and corners

Channel: Morgan Donner

Views: 1,102,164

Keywords: Morgan Donner, Morgan Donner's Sewing Party, corset pattern, how to sew a corset, Atelier Sylphe Corset, victorian corset tutorial, making a victorian corset, corset sewing, how to make a corset, how to sew corset busk, how to make boning channels, how to adjust corset pattern, three corsets, single layer corset, welt corset, double welt corset, bag lined corset, bag lining, 1890s corset, 1890s clothing, corset making

Id: 5CWWyCDTLHM

Length: 14min 45sec (885 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020