Comfort at Home

Another Historical Sew Monthly challenge completed! This time it's the March challenge, Comfort at Home, and I chose to make my 1911 corset (something which would only be seen in the home) more comfortable.

This was my very first attempt at historical sewing, way back in 2012. It was made as part of a sewalong to create the 1911 corset from Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines. I remember that Jo, who ran the sewalong, provided lots of information and was very generous with her time and expertise to answer any queries as we went along. But I realise now that there were a lot of beginner's fit issues with my completed corset, mainly because I didn't know what questions I should be asking.

If I were the same shape as this dressform, all would be well - but I'm not

I tackled the problems with the corset top in 2020, and this made it more comfortable to wear - so long as I was standing up. If I sat down though, it wedged itself uncomfortably under my ribs. Through reading this post by The Dreamstress and the associated comments, I discovered that the cause was actually the lacing bones extending too far down the back of the corset: they were pushed up when I sat on something, and took the waist stay with them. The bones either side were also too long, which didn't help. I bought some new flat steels and set about dismantling parts of the corset. Again.

I unpicked the bottom binding, very carefully because it was satin and snagged easily, took out the original bones, replaced them and redid the flossing. I also had to take out an eyelet at the point where I wanted to cut off the excess.

It really was much too long

The original plan was to remove 2½" all round the bottom. But I had seen some teens era corsets where the bottom edge goes up at the centre front, and wondered about trying that. However, I couldn't end up a raw edge longer than the original binding, as I have no more of the pink satin.

Testing out the intended bottom edge

The coutil I had used for the corset is quite soft and feels oddly loosely-woven for a coutil, and I was concerned about eyelet hole being so close to the new edge of the corset. The coutil I had used for the boning channels is far more rigid, so I used one of the cut-off scraps of it to patch the hole from inside the lacing panel.

I machined over it, and cut off the excess

I had also noticed that because of the length of the corset, the fronts pull apart quite a lot at the bottom of the busk. There was already some damage to the soft coutil, and it seemed inevitable that eventually the busk would tear a hole in it. I had some larger offcuts of the stiffer coutil, so I unpicked the lower stitching both sides, slipped a folded piece around the bottom of the busk, and machined everything back in place.

Reinforcement around the bottom of the busk

Then I reattached the binding and the suspenders. I did worry that the front ones might not be long enough, given the new shape, but fortunately I had allowed plenty extra when I originally made them.

Thank goodness for foresight

Then came the acid test. It passed with flying colours!

#sewnshownseated with a difference!

The small print:
The Challenge: March, Comfort at Home
What the item is: Removed excess length from my 1911 corset
How it fits the challenge: A corset would only have been seen inside the home, and being able to sit down in it definitely makes it more comfortable!
Material: Coutil for the corset, synthetic satin for the bias trim
Pattern: 1911 corset from Norah Waugh’s Corsets and Crinolines, slightly modified
Year: c 1911
Notions: Cotton eyelet lace for trimming, flat steels, steel busk
How historically accurate is it? The pattern is from an actual corset albeit subsequently modified, and the materials are accurate apart from the synthetic satin, so I would say 70%
Hours to complete: About 10, a fair amount of which was unpicking stitching and removing two eyelets. This had to be done carefully to minimise damage to the garment and make sure that the materials could be re-used
First worn: Just for photos
Total cost: £7.20 for the new, shorter, steels, everything else was reused

The corset is now wearable, but it still has some fit issues. I'm not sure how many of these are down to my inexperience when I made it, and how many are due to the passage of time. My body has changed a lot in 14 years, not least through menopause. The lacing gap is now wider than is ideal for any corset. But the waist stay doesn't actually fit to my waist all the way round: there is a definite gap at the sides where the corset goes straight from ribcage to hip while my waist curves in. My original plan was to make this corset wearable so that it could form part of my 1915 ensemble, and it would still work for that. As The Dreamstress pointed out in the post referenced above, historically, plenty of women would have got by in corsets which were a less than perfect fit. But ideally, I think I need a new corset. I have the Rilla pattern from Scroop, and one of the other Historical Sew Monthly challenges is 'Bones' - watch this space!

Historical Sew Monthly - Re-Use

Because I had my graduation outfit to complete for the 13th, and I was meant to be going on holiday for a week after the ceremony, I had decided that I needed something quick and simple for the Historical Sew Monthly this month. So I chose February's challenge; Re-Use. This is defined as "Use thrifted materials or old garments or bedlinen to make a new garment. Mend, re-shape or re-trim an existing garment to prolong its life.". This seemed the perfect fit for a job that's been on my to-do list for ages; fixing my 1911 corset.

I made this corset way back in 2012, as part of a sewalong run on the now sadly defunct Bridges on the Body blog. The pattern is taken from Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines.

The completed corset

At the time I didn't know much about corset making. I didn't blog about the making process in much detail, either, so I don't have any clues as to why I chose to have many of the bones ending some way below the top of the boning channels. The diagram in Corsets and Crinolines shows the bones coming to the top of the corset.

Corset pieces and bone placement

The bones end far below the top edge

The effect wasn't obvious when the corset was on the dressform, but when I wore it to photograph my Wiener Werkstätte ensemble, the unboned section buckled and rolled down. It was uncomfortable, messy, and clearly wasn't doing the corset any good.

Initially I planned to take the trim off the upper edge of the corset, cut it down to the tops of the bones, and re-apply the trim. Fortunately, before I could get round to doing this, witness2fashion wrote an excellent series of articles on the changing corseted shape from 1907 to 1914 (click on the links here for Part 1 - 1907-1910, Part 2 - 1910-1912 and Part 3 - 1912-1914). This was how I discovered that the shape of the corset wasn't the problem, it was the length of the bones.

I carefully took off the binding and trim as planned, unpicked the top flossing, and removed the bones (they were all flat steels).

This shows how the fabric had bunched up

I then measured the boning channels from the bottom flossing, and ordered new steels. Most of them were around 2.5cm / 1" longer. These were inserted and flossed, and the binding and trim sewn back on. In the picture below it's just possible to see the marks where the old bones ended.

The replacement bones in place

Please excuse the poor quality bathroom selfies which follow, and the fact that I'm wearing a tee shirt rather than my chemise underneath. I had foolishly put my tea in the oven once I'd finished sewing, and then realised that this didn't leave me much time to take the photos! Despite the quality, they show that the fit is much better.

Front view

Side view

It was only when I dug out the original images from 2012 for this post that I realised that I've sewn the eyelet trim back on wrongly - the pink satin bias underneath should be visible at the top, not the bottom. So guess what tomorrow's little job is going to be?! Despite that, I'm very pleased to have finally fixed this.

The small print:
The Challenge: February, Re-Use
What the item is: Fixing a poorly-fitting corset by replacing some of the steels which were too short
How it fits the challenge: Left as it was, the corset would wear through due to bunching and rubbing. All the existing trim was re-applied once the corrections had been made
Fabric: Coutil for the corset, synthetic satin for the bias trim
Pattern: 1911 corset from Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines
Year: c1911
Notions: cotton eyelet lace for trimming, flat steels
How historically accurate is it? The pattern is from an actual corset, and the materials are accurate apart from the synthetic satin, so I would say 80%
Hours to complete: 8, a fair amount of which was unpicking. Partly because when I sew something, I don't intend for it to come apart easily, and partly because I was making sure that the materials could be re-used
First worn: Not yet
Total cost: I am only including the cost of the new steels, not the materials for the original corset, as the challenge was to fix it, not make it from scratch. £11.47.

1911 corset - p.s.

I just couldn't leave well alone. When I was editing the photographs of my 1911 corset, I noticed that one of the bones had moved up its boning channel, and was now sticking out at an ungainly angle. I could have just pushed it back into place but no, having noticed it, it had to be fixed properly.

The offending bone

I'm not sure why the sew-along suggested only flossing at the bottom of each bone. Corsets are normally flossed at both the top and bottom, as shown in this example, photographed on the Foundations Revealed visit to the Symington Collection last year.

1900 corset for sports wear, with machine flossing top and bottom, (c) Leicestershire County Council Museums Service; Symington Collection

I felt that flossing the tops of the bones in the same mixture of dark pink threads that I had used at the bottom would look too heavy so close to the trim, so instead I worked with the palest of the pinks, combined with several strands of white floss.

The completed top flossing

I also reversed the direction of the stitches, as I felt that this gave a more balanced effect.

Different directions, top and bottom

Finally, writing a second post about this project allows me to include a couple more photographs of the (now completely) finished item.

Back view

Inside view, showing the boning channels and waist stay

Better late than never

Since the start of the year I have been taking part in the Bridges on the Body 1911 Corset Sew Along. The Sew Along actually ended in early March, but a broken sewing machine and wedding dress alterations (more on that soon), plus a serious rework of the corset itself, all got in the way. As a result, I have only just finished.

Finished at last!

 The Bridges on the Body blog follows the process of making all the corsets in Norah Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines. For the 1911 pattern Jo invited other people to make the corset with her. Although the book provides scale drawings of each corset, plus a line drawing of the finished item, there are no instructions. Instead Jo posted regular, detailed, step-by-step instructions of each stage as she completed it, along with wonderfully clear photographs, interspersed with illustrations of corsets and dresses of the period like these.

As if this wasn't enough, Jo was also on hand throughout to answer any queries posted on the blog. Thus we all learned how to scale and resize the pattern, make and fit a mock-up, add a waist stay and facings to the real corset, insert the busk and bone casings, and make garters

Up to the point of lacing and trying on the corset, I was pretty much on schedule. Unfortunately this was the point at which I realised that the fabric I had used for my mock-up, although a fairly sturdy cotton, had a lot more stretch in it than I had thought. The gap when the corset was laced was far too wide; so much so that the lace I had wasn't long enough to lace it, and I had to tie two laces together!

After so much work I didn't want to abandon the project, or start again from scratch. I posted a plaintive comment on the blog, and Jo came to the rescue with the suggestion that I could open up the side seam and add a panel there, along with an extra bone.

The pattern. Jo suggested adding the extra panel between pieces 3 and 4

This wasn't entirely straightforward; because I had added a waist stay I had to unpick part of each bone casing and the facings to remove the stay and replace it once the panel was added. Also, I didn't have any more of the brocaded coutil I had used, so had to make the panels from plain coutil. It was interesting to see how what started as a rectangular strip became a curved piece in the finished corset. I'm tempted to follow the flowery language of corset advertisements of the time, and describe this as "a firm side panel imparting a smooth line to the hips", rather than something which rectified an error!

Side view showing the inserted, now curved, panel

I made the garters a dusty pink satin, and bound the edges of the corset  with bias strips of the same fabric. In keeping with the illustration I added a broderie anglais trim along the top edge. Even with a further bias satin strip threaded through the eyelets I felt that the trim was too stark, so I overstitched some of the embroidery  with shades of pink embroidery silk, which I then also also used for the flossing.

1911 corset - illustration

Finally it was down to the finishing touch. The illustration shows a large bow on the corset, but while I loved the exuberance of this example from Metropolitan Museum, when I tried to make a bow from some spare bias strips, the practical side of me worried that it would ruin the line of whatever was worn over it. I definitely wanted something to finish the top edge off, so settled for a small rosette instead.

Top detail - the embellished trim and the rosette

There are a few things I would do differently next time. First, and most obvious, I would be much more careful what fabric I used for the mock-up. Second, I would wait until the mock-up was made before ordering the coutil, bones etc. Although you may think that you know what you'll need from looking at the pattern, it is only when you have an actual garment to try on that you can be really sure.

The whole thing was great fun to do, and having the schedule to work to really helped me to keep focussed, and not let other projects take over. Finally a huge, huge thank you to Jo for all the hard work, time and help she put into the Sew Along - when's the next one?!