Mind The Gap

Seen at a local fabric and craft store by yours truly.

Original Pattern

So here’s the original pattern for the corset, readily available at your local Joann store…or from Butterick’s website directly.  When I bought this, it was on sale for something like 2.99 or 5.99.  If you sew a lot, it’s definitely worth signing up for their emails so that you know when the website has these kinds of sales.  We’re basing our work off of view C from this pattern.

The pattern is pretty straightforward, with 6 pieces for each side of the corset.  The pattern intends for a front busk closure, but in this particular case I’m just stitching the two halves of the corset together at the front and having a solid front panel with lacing in the back.

Alterations for Fit

The pictures below show the original corset after I made some alterations for fit.  I’m a bit too tall/long-waisted/high-busted for the pattern as it’s designed, so I lengthened the waist.  As I suspect this may impact some other folks too (the pattern seems like it’s designed for very short people), I’m going to explain how this was done just in case it might be helpful to anyone that stumbles upon this.

To make this sort of alteration, first find where the waistline is marked on the pattern (in this case it’s on the front panel), using a ruler or similar implement and a pencil, make a horizontal line straight across the pattern piece at the waistline mark.

Now, line up all the pattern pieces, in the order they are sewn together, matching the tops and bottom edges (similar to how they are laid out in the picture).  Using your ruler, continue the horizontal line for the waist across all the pieces.  Cut the pattern pieces on these lines.

To add your length, tape the bottom of a pattern piece to some paper.  Using a ruler, mark the amount of length you want to add at several points (measuring up from the newly cut edge of your pattern piece) across the edge.  Then, line up the top part of the pattern piece with the bottom part and tape it down.  Be careful that the bottom edge of the top piece matches up with the marks you just made so that the amount of length you add is consistent.  Also be sure to line up the left and right edges of the top and bottom pattern pieces.

Now, using your pencil, smoothly connect the lines on each side of the pattern piece from the top half to the bottom half, drawing on the paper you just added in.  Then, make sure everything is securely taped together, and cut out your new piece.  Repeat for all the pieces.

For myself, I originally ordered the pattern in a smaller size with the intent of making a tight lacing corset…then I decided I’d rather make a couple that aren’t so tight until I get the hang of it, so I needed to enlarge the corset a bit.  To do this I just added a bit of width to the front and back side panels.

This affects on the two of the pattern’s pieces.  To do this, tape the pattern piece down onto a piece of paper so that there is extra paper sticking out where the side seam is.  Measure out perpendicular to the pattern edge and mark the amount you want to add, repeat down the side of the piece.  Connect the dots to get the new side edge of the pattern piece, then cut it out.  Remember, the amount you add will ultimately get multiplied by 4 (as you add this amount on both the front side and back side panels, which end up being used on both the right and left sides of your corset) – it’s easy to add too much!  (But, it’s almost always easier to take something in than let it out, for what it’s worth.)

Alterations to Under Bust

Now that those alterations are complete, you’ve got a handy pattern for an over bust corset.  Ah, but we’re working on an under bust corset today, so it’s time to make some more changes.

Converting the pattern to under bust is really pretty easy.  But, you don’t want to cut up your original pattern, so take a break and trace each of the 6 pattern pieces onto some freezer paper, and label them appropriately (mark the grain lines too!).  Cut out the new pattern.

Holding the new pattern front up to yourself, decide where the top of the corset should stop, and mark it in pencil.  Now, using a ruler, mark an even horizontal line across the pattern piece at this mark.  Lay out all the pattern pieces, matching top and bottom edges like you did before, and extend your horizontal line across all of them.  This will make the new top edge of the pattern pieces — cut each piece along the line and discard the tops.

One last thing to check — if you find that the edges of the front pieces (where front meets middle front, in particular) are curving outwards towards the tops, just trim them up a bit to make straight vertical edges — this will help make the front of the corset nice and flat.

Your pattern is ready to go!

And now: Cutting, Interfacing and Assembly

This is the beginning of long-winded documentation of a corset I made, that hopefully may help others interested in making corsets.  I offer no guarantees that my approaches, opinions, etc are any good at all.   But hey, maybe they’ll at least be more fun than a dentist’s appointment, eh?

Overview

This blog-o-rama corset min-series is intended to accomplish the following two goals:

• Walk through basic alterations of an easy-to-obtain corset pattern to adjust fit and convert to under bust.
• Walk through the process of constructing a corset from the altered pattern.

Materials

The following materials are used in creation of this corset.

• Pattern
  • Butterick 4254, view C
  • http://www.butterick.com/item/B4254.htm??tab=costumes&page=4
• Fabric of choice for the exterior of the corset
  • 3/4 yard
• Matching thread
• Heavy Canvas or similar fabric
  • 3/4 yard
• Lining fabric, if desired
  • 3/4 yard
• Spray baste or spray adhesive
  • To hold the layers of fabric together during construction
• Lacing Material
  • What you use depends on personal preference and the size of the eyelets you will have
  • Suggested materials: boot laces, strong ribbon, or satin cording
  • Amount: 4-7 yards, depending on how much you’ll need to loosen the corset to get in, and how much extra lacing you like to have to tie it up with.
• Metal Eyelets
  • How many you need depends on how you want to space them and length of corset
  • This corset has 18 eyelets total
• Eyelet setting tool
  • Looks like a cross between the leather punch and a pair of pliers
• Tailor’s awl, ice pick, or similar implement
  • To make holes for the eyelets
• Fray check
• Heavy duty buttonhole thread or top stitching thread
  • Pick a color that matches or coordinates with the outer fabric, this will be visible
• Appropriate needle for the heavy duty thread
• Binding
  • Double fold 1/2″ bias tape
  • One package should probably do it
• Grosgrain ribbon
  • 1/2″ to 5/8″ wide
  • At least 8 yards (2 packages should cover it)
• 1/4″ boning
  • About 8 yards
  • If using metal boning, remember to get the tipping fluid or tip covers as applicable
• Tailor’s chalk
• Measuring tape
• Dress pins

Wooo!

Next up: The Pattern

So, in the days prior to the election, we had 3 separate obama yard signs stolen.  On election night, after the 3rd one was stolen, I made a home made sign and put it up.

Surprisingly, this sign has not been stolen yet.  Today, upon coming home from lunch and errands, we were met with an even more pleasant surprise than just seeing our 4th sign still there:

Someone actually put one of the proper signs in our yard.  I’m amazed.  I’m still postulating as to whether someone gave our sign back, or gave us their sign…I suspect the latter.  Either way, I think it’s adorable.

Today I made an overskirt without a pattern! Tricky, but fun.

Here is a picture of what I was mostly going for: http://trulyvictorian.com/catalog/328.html

And here are pictures of the finished overskirt (with coordinating underskirt): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2011096&l=345d5&id=1151202334

As for construction, it is pretty straightforward actually…compared to how it looks. Notes for anyone interested.

• Get a piece of 45″ wide fabric that is 3 yards long (a bit less if the fabric is thicker, else the gathered portion would be too thick).
• Take a strip about 3-4″ wide off of one end (resulting in a piece that is 3-4″ long and 45″ wide) and set aside for the waistband.
• Hem the two short sides of the big piece of fabric, then hem the long side that will be the bottom of the overskirt.
• Prep the waistband by interfacing it, pressing a crease down the center longways, and folding under about 1/2″ down one of the long sides and pressing to crease it. Also trim the waist band to be about 2-3″ longer than your waist measurement.
• Figure out how much of the skirt on each side should be flat (not gathered) by measuring from the middle front to wherever you like (I went to about where a side seam would usually be). Measure and mark this distance on each side of the big piece of fabric.
• Gather the top of of the skirt in between the marks you just made.
• Pin the skirt to the waistband, right sides together, pinning the top of the skirt to the edge of the waistband that wasn’t previously turned under. Pin each side where the skirt isn’t gathered, then adjust the gathers so the gathered section fits in the middle.
• Baste, then stitch, the skirt to the waistband.
• Flip the ends of the waistband so the interfacing is outside, sew across the ends, trim, and flip right side out.
• Pin the waistband down such that the edge you previously folded under now covers the raw edge of the skirt. Stitch down.
• Add button/buttonhole, hook/eye, whatever, as desired.
• Add some pleats to the front edges, if desired (measure and use tailor’s chalk to mark so that the pleats are even on each side).
• Trim skirt edges as desired.
• Add a ribbon loop to the inside of the waistband at center back. The drawstrings will tie to this loop.
• Use wide ribbon to make a horizontal drawstring casing 12-14″ from the bottom hem, across the center gathered portion of the skirt (basically a bit wider than the center third of the width of the skirt should do it).
• Similarly, add two vertical casings on either side of the gathered section, running from about 6″ above where the horizontal casing is, up to 8-10″ from the waistband.
• Add narrow ribbon or cord for drawstrings to the casing.
• Add a tie ribbon at the bottom of each of the vertical casings, pointing towards the center of the skirt.
• Add a tie ribbon just above the center of the long horizontal casing.
• To bustle up the skirt, get a friend to help or use a dress form, so that you can see how everything looks and adjust the drawstrings as needed.
• Pull the two vertical drawstrings, tie them together and tie to the waistband loop.
• Take the tie strings from the bottom of each vertical casing and tie them together.
• These two steps will pull the sides of the skirt back a bit, and will raise the side/back up a bit (very important if you did pleats at the front edges, as this forms the other end of the pannier (sp?) style swags).
• Then, pull the horizontal drawstrings, and tie the ends together and tie to the waistband loop. This should make sort of a long drooping ‘bubble’ at the back of the skirt where everything was gathered back in. If you pull the drawstrings here too tight, or pull them up too high, it’ll pull the front sides back too far, so check for that.
• Grab the tie strings from the center of the horizontal casing, and tie to the waistband loop. This brings the ‘bubble’ back up a bit, without affecting the front sides of the skirt, so that they still lay nice.
• Ta-dah!

Ever since I came to the realization early in the year that it would be too expensive to buy the kind of clothes I wanted for the wedding, I’ve been sewing at every available opportunity.  This has been a fairly immense learning experience, in several ways.

Of course there is the obvious knowledge gained in how to use a sewing machine, and how to cut out patterns.  I knew a bit of that from sewing with my mom and grandma back when I was a kid.  That’s pretty cool, and very necessary, but the really neat part has been learning about how garments are structured, now and in the past.  It’s sort of like architecture that you can wear.  This deeper insight has been a real eye opener, when I started to see the possibilities for altering patterns to get a different result.

I’ve always been fairly artsy-craftsy, but have been decent to good, but definitely not great, at most things (drawing, painting, sculpture, music, etc).  Sewing seems to come a lot more naturally, and I’ve picked it up a lot faster than most other hobbies I’ve tried to pick up.

I’m trying to learn how to make ‘normal’ clothes – things to wear to work, and such.  The main goal there being to realize some actual cost savings and to have things that fit better than store bought.  Really not as much fun, but I’ll stick to it.

What I have really been enjoying is making costumes and more fancy formal-type clothing.  Mostly these have been for the wedding, although I’ve been stewing on a gorgeous purple number in velvet, satin, and pinched taffeta that I’d love to make.

I think sewing appeals to me because it’s so much like sculpture, which I kind of suck at but always wanted to be good at.  I can tell that as I get more and more practice, my mind gets sharper at figuring out how pieces should fit together and what shapes they will make.  It’s really satisfying to go through that process.  Sewing seems to do wonders for my focus and patience too.  Staying calm while having to pick apart seams and then do them over because I was rushing definitely builds the patience, and gives me time to think about paying attention more effectively next time.

The other interesting thing is, I haven’t burned out on this hobby yet, like so many others.  Because of that, I can see all kinds of long term opportunities with the hobby (as I gain enough skills to do them) to make it even more satisfying.  Some things I’ve thought of:

• Teaching sewing classes for children (my mom and grandma helped me out, and it would be cool to help out others who don’t have family members that sew)
• Helping folks one-on-one to design and assemble their projects
• Taking commissions for custom costumes or formal wear (since it’s designing and making the fancy stuff that I like most anyway)
• Learning to draft patterns myself from scratch
• Investing in courses on fashion design
• Learning to do custom hats, shoes, purses, gloves etc
• Writing tutorials and articles and such
• Identifying some common/difficult/interesting types of clothing and doing a video walk-through of each project in several short sessions
• Get all zen and philosophical about sewing, have awesome insights, and share them — like my grandma, only with the internet

Overall, I guess I just would like to continue to get better at sewing, continue to gain such pleasure from it, and share that experience with others so that they can enjoy those same benefits.  There’s just something indescribably awesome about taking a wonderful piece of fabric, and turning it into something wonderful to wear, that makes you feel both pretty and happy at the same time.

Album with pictures.  Everything is now pretty much done except for Russ’ costume.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hmfullen/DragonCon08/

All that is left is to add the hardware to let me pull up the train so it doesn’t drag, which will be needed for the reception.

Still plenty more to go on other bits of the outfit, but now it’s time to change focus to the Dragon*Con costumes.  This skirt took longer than I had anticipated, and a lot of other stuff came up in between, so now I’m on a bit of a short timeline.  Eeek!

Updated shot of the skirt:

The fabric roses I made for decorating the bustle area:

Also, I’m pleased to announce that the Hippodrome has now officially been reserved.

Needed to take a break from wedding sewing and decided to use the time to make this cute little guy.

I was going for kind of a folk art look, so everything is hand stitched with the stitches visible (and they definitely aren’t perfect but that really wasn’t on purposed).