Corset for Elisabeth

Friday 6th May 2011

A friend of mine, Elisabeth, has promised to model for me if I make a corset and a hat in her size.
I received the materials today and thinking about starting this weekend.

This is a series of pictures on how I make my corsets.
Not a detailed tutorial, but a little peek for the curious

Saturday 7th May 2011

Here's some of the materials:

• Busk
• Lacing boning
• Spiral steel boning
• Boning channels
• Rigilene

Also decided which fabrics I'll use:

• Floral fabric from Liberty (80% wool, 20% cotton)
• Bamboo jersey as lining
• Coutil as interlining

The Liberty fabric I only bought half a meter of in Copenhagen.
The idea from the start was making a corset out of it.

The base pattern is Laughing Moon #100.
I made some modifications like reducing the seam allowance from 1,5cm to 1cm among other things.

Done with the cutting!
Testing a rotary cutter and it works wonder!
Especially on the jersey who has a life on it's own.

Now starts the fun

The outer fabric and the interlining was zigzagged together along the edges.
This simplifies the task considerably. Now I only have two layers to work with instead of three.

Lining sewn together.
I'm trying hard to convince myself I need an overlock, but it has been in vain.
It's just fine sewing stretch fabric like jersey with a regular sewing machine.
Even with straight stitches I could stretch is quite a bit (about +50%).

Seam allowance on the lining pressed and top stitched with a wave seam.
It's a little difficult seeing the seam, but it looks like a sine curve

Outer fabric before and after pressing of seam allowance.

The boning channels are now attached.
And that's what I managed today.
Sleep now

Sunday 8th May 2011

The busk inserted

Argh!
I can't attach the eyelets!
Bought a few hundreds black eyelets on Ebay some months ago.
But now it turns out none of my tools fits them.

So I either need to use silver eyelets or order the correct tools from the seller on Ebay.

Monday 9th May 2011

Ha, I managed to find black eyelets in town!
There is a secret eyelet pimp in Bergen I can go to when I desperately need some
A little catch with these are a rather ugly back side.
But in distress anything would do.

Tuesday 10th May 2011

Had my hands full and didn't get a chance to sew much.
Only got time to attach the bias binding.
And bias binding is not exactly a friend of mine.
We tried talking and spending time together, but there are just no chemistry.

Wednesday 11th May 2011

Tonight I've done one of my favourite activities:
Cutting and trimming boning!
So stimulating it almost gives me a bon... hmm.

Friday 13th May 2011

Was visiting my friend Kristine "LilleLeo" today and had a cake and made a hat.
So now the hat is done.
This time with a new fastening mechanism

Saturday 14th May 2011

The corset has been finished for a few days, but I didn't get a chance to photograph it until now.
Still miss the lacing and modesty panel though

From the front the corset doesn't look so bad.
From the back on the other hand there is a gigantic gap
Oh well, I better stark working on plan B

Maybe I can just find someone else who fits in the corset.
Would it be rude if I walk up to a lady and ask;
"Excuse me, would you like to be a lingerie model for me?"

Tuesday 24th May 2011

Was visiting Elisabeth during the weekend and tested the corset plus taking some pictures.
Initially I wanted to shoot the pictures outside, but it was freezing cold that day and it was blowing a gale.

On the bright side the corset fits amzingly well. Much better than I hoped for.
Even the gap on the back wasn't that bad. Only 8cm all the way.
Almost perfect I would say

The first reaction Elisabeth got when holding the corset was; wow, this is heavy!
That's no surprise really. It's over 3 meter of steel boning in it.