Pseudo-Edwardian Underbust corset made from Hair on laser cut leather. Antique bronze busk and grommets. Size 25" waist/36" hip, coutil strength layer, waist tape, mixed spring and spiral 1/4" steels. Matching fan-lacing harness/bolero with buckled strap. Bellow the cut there are pictures on my dress form, as well as some potentially NSFW photos on a model.
( cut )

Hello. Here's a Toile of an 18th century stays on page 38 of Corsets and Crinolines.
Aside from the awful crumpling of the back (the bones aren't secured and aren't on the outer side of the grommets).

How do you feel about the shaping? I think my back panels need widened.
Also, how do you fully bone a corset when the ends don't reach the top or bottom line? Do you bone it before you sew the panels together?



( Read more... )

I enlarged the pattern diagram for the Effigy Stays in the book The Tudor Tailor and made no alterations to the mockup, it fit almost perfectly. The waist was high [I am long-waisted], but that was actually fine since it was more comfortable and to lower the waist would have made the bodice seem less period-accurate [in my opinion].

Machine-sewn, fully boned with narrow reinforced German plastic boning purchased through Farthingales. I used two layers of white cotton sheeting with a high thread count and a top layer of a very thin linen blend [with cotton?]. Edged with cotton bias and eyelets hand-bound with buttonhole thread. Not sure if I got the spiral lacing placement correct, but I dig it. Currently laced with a shoelace for convenience until I can find something better.

Excellent pattern, my only tweak would be to shave off a little of the front piece at the back of the armhole where it joins the back, there is some slight gapping there. I think this is the most comfortable corset I have, and it gives a decent reduction and flattens quite nicely. I made sure to check the length of the front in the mockup by sitting to see if it jabbed my lap [no]. It's not my finest work, but I love it!

My latest corset. This one took me a long time to complete. It was my first commissioned piece and luckily I had a very understanding client/friend. The corset is a 3 layer underbust with heavy bull denim as the structure layer, blue decorator fabric for the fashion layer and thin flannel as the liner. There are 26 bones spiral and spring steel and one center bone that is a splinting bone (it's good to have a prosthetist as a friend). The one glaring mistake I made and didn't notice until I was just finished and getting ready to lace it was that I had mistakenly put one less grommet on one side. I did a slapdash grommet in the top (the only space I had) and called it good. The client loves it and stated that it was the most comfortable and sturdiest corset she has had so far. The total reduction on the corset is about 6.5 inches to a 30" waste. She has a natural hourglass figure so it was a matter of design to accentuate that for her. All in all I am pretty proud of this. Over the time I have done my corset's I have gotten less afraid of designing some pretty severe curves. I am open to critiques.
Drafting technique: 1. Hand drafted with straight lines on paper. 2. Scanned and imported to Inkscape 3. Bezier to create curved lines.

( Pics under the cut )

Marianne Faulkner used the term in the underbust tutorial she wrote for FR recently, and while it certainly conjures up a strong mental picture, I don't want to just assume it means what I'm picturing.

Hello corsetmakers!

I have recently received a chunk of change from a sale and want to reinvest it in corset supplies. But I've never bought spiral steel boning in bulk before, and wondered if you all had any recommendations of where to buy? Just looking to buy 1/4" spiral steel on a roll and wondered where to get the best deal. I'm in the US, which will probably make a difference when it comes to shipping cost. So, where do you guys buy yours?

ETA: Ok, next question: Does anyone have the grommet press from corsetmaking.com with the bone tipping dies? How do you like it? Alternatively, any other cheap-ish presses that have bone tipping dies available?

Hello all,

As most corsetmakers I am always trying to explore new ways of making a corset. For this corset I wanted to make a modern style corset with some historical elements.
So I made a plunge neckline corset with cording, double external boningcasings and flossing. The cording was fun to do, altough I did find it hard to have the boning channel lie smooth over the cording. For the cording I used the zipper foot methode. I put in the cording, and then with the zipper foot I stichted right next to the cord. 

For a flossing pattern I used a new style. They remind me a bit of anchors.

I hope to get the corset modeled this sunday. 

A client asked me to do a corset-top version of my "Nyx" tulle corset design, and I loved the idea. So
( this )
is what she got last week.
Just like my "Nyx"corset, it's a single layer corset made of a very special, sturdy tulle fabric. The bones (spiral steel and flat in the back) are covered with cotton satin and coutil. The lace ornaments are all carefully cut out by hand and then placed on the corset individually.

She seems to be very happy with the result, and I'm so looking forward to seeing pics of her wearing this corset.

Hello, everyone! I have a quick question for anyone who might have experience making fully-boned 18th century stays. I am currently in the process of making a pair of my own, using JP Ryan's strapless pattern, but I am stuck on what to use for boning materials as steel is not recommended. I would prefer to not use reed if I can help it, as I am very rough with my costumes and am worried about folding or cracking the material. However, I am finding that many of the corseting sites out there who sell plastic boning are not terribly specific about what type they are selling. There is a huge price disparity between what Farthingales sells vs the plastic that corsetmaking.com has available. I am obviously more inclined to go after the materials that are half the price, but I don't want to inadvertently purchase the wrong thing.

I have also seen some guides where people have used cable ties, which look great. However, I think that these have unfortunately been for making for half-boned stays using the wider ties. Since fully boned stays require thinner bones, I'm worried that the thinner ties won't stand up to the stress. Any suggestions that anyone have would be appreciated!

So a few people requested that I post pictures from our wedding (I made this corset for it). Here are a few for you!



( More! )

Also, here's a video, just for fun. :) On my birthday, I decided to perform a dance on our local Open Stage. I wore the corset as part of my costume, so this is what it looks like "in action"! (I'm normally a hoop dancer, this was the first time I've ever performed without my hoop, and also the first time I've performed with anything resembling choreography!)