SHANNON'Sdresses

Making ofCivil War corset

Using Butterick pattern #B4254, this is my first attempt at corsetry, and so far, so good. It seems like it will be a good fit, and I learnt some valuable lessons on how to attach boning from my pink Georgian dress, so I think we'll be away laughing.

I didn't really follow the pattern instructions and just worked through the corset's construction the way I wanted. Instead of putting the boning on the outside in it's casing, I attached it to the inside of the lining, and then sewed the lining to the corset fabric. This does make it nice and neat on the inside, and probably more comfortable to wear if wearing without a chemise underneath, but I think if I do this next time I'll sew the lining to the corset and then insert the boning, instead of inserting the boning and then sewing the pieces together. The fabric and boning wasn't very much in line when I did this and the lining fabric buckled a bit. So anyway, in this picture, you can see the lining with the attached bones on the left, about to be sewn along the casings to the corset fabric on the right.

Here you can see the middle part of the corset lining with the bones already attached has been sewn to the outside of the corset, and the resulting buckling in the fabric. It looks fine on the outside though. From this picture all I need to do is finish attaching the lining, sew some ribbon to the top and bottom, and attach some eyelets down the back opening.