Corset Pattern for 1870-1895 Corset

A few months ago I made the Mantua Maker pattern for a 1880's corset. These are some details I incorporated.                                           I used only one layer of coutil - "diamond coutil" #74-1130-20 and white bone casing tape (thre is a beig one that mathces the coutil, but I wanted my casings to be very obvious.                       This is an interior view of the back, the rust colour is pre-packaged bias that I used to bind the raw edge of the back facing. Notice the two bones on either side of the grommets and close to them.

The top and bottom edges of the corset were also bound with the purchased bias tape and - hard to see here - the seams were top-stitched in rust thread to match.                                                      A single layer of coutil makes for a strong yet thin corset which creates and holds the desired shape without adding bulk. This "diamond" coutil is one of the strongest coutils and is very tightly woven.                                                                                       Sometimes simplicity is beauty.                                                                                                                                                                                          The finished corset has simple lines and has been finished with minimal decoration. 

To find our more about this pattern visit our web site www.farthingales.on.ca and visit the Tips n Tricks section for more information or go directly to the "Buy Corset Supplies" section and check the list for "patterns".  You'll also find this coutil and many others on our web site along with bones,busks, grommets, lacing and bone casing tape.

Latice Corset

I made this corset with a ribbon corset in mind, but I wanted the full coverage of an overbust corset.  I love the look of ribbon corsets - they're feminine and pretty. There's a few things I'll do differently next time to refine the look but I'm fairly happy with how this turned out.                                      I used just one layer of fabric.The fabric is coutil - "bzy floral" coutil in cream. I used mostly spiral bones but did put spring steels down the center back. The busk has gold colour knobs and loops and the grommets down the back match; they're brass. Amazingly I was able to find flat lacing ribbon that matched the coutil to lace the corset up. All of the materials came from www.farthingales.on.ca except the wide pinky ribbon

 To add a bit of interest to the wide pink ribbon I did some machine embroidery using a vine like specialty stitch that my machine happened to have. I just used ordinary thread that matched the coutil.

Corset Making Tip

There are many ways to make a corset and inumerable types or styles of corsets. A detail that had totally slipped my mind has been incorporated by Joan Scheerer. She stitched her two layers of coutil together - (note: this is vintage coutil) and as you can see in the photo she then heavily machine stitched a section above the one bone casing. This area will be under the arm when the corset is complete. The stitching ads support to the corset under the arm but keeps the bone away from the arm pit. If you're shorter than average in the torso you'll know how uncomfortable it can be to have a bone digging into your underarm!  This is a great tip!

Joan's corset will be a simple coutil Victorian shaped corset and she'll be modelling it at the Farthingales Corset Fashion Show during the Creativ Festival in Toronto on October 22, 2010 at 1:00