Finished Project: 1910s Corset

First of all, THANK YOU for your sweet comments on my blog post yesterday about my finished 1930’s dress!

I can’t believe I have two projects to post in a row! That almost never happens!  I had been working on this on and off, and just had a few finishing touches to put on it last night.  My husband helped by doing the grommets for me, so today I have another finished project to share.  Remember how I mentioned that our weather was warm and spring-like yesterday?  Well, today it’s quite overcast and gloomy, with expected rain.  Ah!  So not good for picture lighting, but I was excited to share proof that this project was complete.

The dress form and I are different measurements than one another, but you can get the general idea!  I’m still debating putting garters at the bottom, and do need to put a large hook and eye at the bottom of the “skirts” at some point, but other than that she is ready to go!

This corset was made using Jen Thompson’s 1910s corset pattern she has available for free on her website, Festive Attyre.  I really loved it- it was very simple to make for a corset and her instructions were wonderful. She even gave suggestions for resizing!

I did make a few changes, but they were minimal and based on my personal fit with the exception of the length of the corset. I did shorten the length, as I am planning on going to a few 1910s era dances this year and wanted the extra movement. In fact, I was inspired by a particular corset on a 1910s image posted on the Bridges on the Body blog,  who is doing a 1910s corset sewalong right now,  for a corset which is shorter in length than what I generally think of for 1910s corsets.  Although mine does not have as sharp curve that the second image from the left on that post has, I think the shorter length will be a bit more comfortable for dancing.  I do, however, want to go back and make another one at some point in the longer length, and next time I plan to use more boning.  In this corset I only used boning at the seam lines, even though the pattern called for more in the middle of each section. Meh, I got lazy.  But now I think it would actually have helped.

This was the second Edwardian era corset I have made. My previous corset was made with a lot of help, and this is the first one, with exception to my last set of Regency stays and Regency short stays, that I did without any in-person help- though Jen was very nice to answer some of my silly questions along the way :) .  For some reason corsetmaking has always intimidated me, but I gained a bit of confidence with this project!

I used a single layer of domestic corset coutil for this project.  The top and bottom are finished with store-bought bias binding, and then I attached some French cotton laces to the top and bottom, and added silk ribbon through the beading and in a bow trim at the front.  The laces and ribbons were left over from when I made my Edwardian wedding trousseau, so they will match all my other Edwardian underthings.