SHANNON'Sdresses

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CIVIL WARVictorian corset

2007

This was my first attempt at making a corset - and the result probably shows. Well, I shouldn't really be too hard on myself, but it didn't really turn out how I had imagined. I thought the pattern I had bought would be a perfect shape and fit for what I was aiming for, but in the end it didn't seem to give much shape to the waist at all. But nevertheless, I learned from making this, so it still deserves to be here.

For starters, I decided to go through a crazy method of inserting the boning, which ended up being a mistake. I sewed the strips of boning onto the inside of the corset fabric, and then tried to sew on the lining over the top. Thinking that this was going to line up perfectly was wrong. Lesson #1: attach your boning to the inside when the body of the corset is finished. Secondly, I only used two layers of thickness for the body of the corset, which didn't make it very strong, and consequently couldn't hold a very nice shape when on in the first place. And lastly - I forgot to add a piece of boning to the insides of each row of lacing eyelets, so now when laced up it is very mishapen and puckered. Go have a look at my second go at a victorian corset. I did a slightly better job on that one.

Click here to see the making of this corset

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