Truly Victorian corset

[elizabeth_mn]

All I managed to get photo-wise were a few really quick ones with my street clothes just before the corset was whisked off to work for display.



Reading about jenthompson's issues with wrinklyness in her corset, I should probably be ashamed of myself for calling this done, but I just don't have time in my life to make it (or anything, ever) any better than this.  That being said, I'm pretty happy with it!  It gives me a 2" waist reduction, the bust support is good, and the overall shape is nice and curvy.

I used the Truly Victorian patter which I redrafted a little for more hip room and better bust support.  The fabric is cotton twill in "PFD" white.



The waist was slightly ambitious, so the lacing gap is larger there.  The back edges really aren't uneven, that's just a piece of loose binding I fixed later, at work.



I took a tip from the_aristocat and bent my busk for a softer, curvier front shape.  I only bent it a little because I feared it might snap!  But it makes a nice difference anyway as you can see.



As you can see, there are about 4 fingers of room at the hips on each side.  I will probably devise some semi-permanent pads I can tack in to fill this out.  And this photos shows how my square ribs strike again!



Not bad, not bad at all.


And one on the dressform at work.  It's the smallest one we have, so the waist size worked, and we padded her bust with shoulder pads (two pairs!) and her hips with a piece of fleece batting.

Comments

[reine-de-coudre.livejournal.com]

wow, that is beautiful! what a fantastic shape! i don't see any major wrinkly-ness at all :)

[ashamanja-babu.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I do quite like the shape.

[jenthompson.livejournal.com]

It's gorgeous! And it is WAAAAYYYYY less wrinkly than mine was! I'd be thrilled if mine was this smooth!

[ashamanja-babu.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

Whoa, that looks *really* good! I particularly like the side view. Excellent idea on bending the busk! I think I'll do that on mine!

[ashamanja-babu.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I totally got the bent busk idea from the_aristocat. I did mine as a last-minute idea but it probably makes more sense to do it in advance. That way if it snaps you're not out of luck.

[anemone-cottage.livejournal.com]

It turned out great! Maybe the waist-hip-ratio will even out if you wear it a little longer?
How did you like the new assembly method? Is it worth a try?

[ashamanja-babu.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I loved the assembly method. I admit it makes it MUCH harder to rip back mid-project, which I had to do once, and there is some slight extra seam bulk, but it's soooo tidy and the layers line up so much better than the sandwich method.

[undycat.livejournal.com]

It looks great! well done!

[ashamanja-babu.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[the-aristocat.livejournal.com]

It's beautiful!! Great shape! I'm tempted to try that patten now myself someday. And I always have wrinkles on mine too. Yours are hardly noticeable.

[ashamanja-babu.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Your corsets are so inspiring! The last two you made really made me want to achieve more curves.

If you try this pattern, just know that I did make a few alterations. The biggest one was making the hip curves convex instead of concave for a better shape.