Lace and Lacings

The current Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge is Lace and Lacings, which has given me the impetus to finally finish the purple satin corset (aka the Evil Purple Satin Corset From Hell).

Finally! The completed corset

So where was I up to, the last time I bundled it back into its box in disgust?

Previously, in the saga of the EPSCFH . . . . . The corset was started on a one-day course in November 2009, and is based on the Laughing Moon Dore corset pattern. It is made from black coutil covered with purple duchesse satin, and therein lies the root of much of its evil-ness. Knowing nothing about corset construction at the time I chose this as the outer layer, not realising just how many problems I was storing up for myself.

On the course I had got the basic shape of the corset made, and the busk inserted. In October 2012 I picked it up again, stitched some of the boning channels, discovered that the tutor's take on the pattern had omitted about half of the boning channels, redid some of the existing channels and added the missing ones, then added a waist stay, set the grommets and added a modesty panel. All of these gave me endless problems trying to work on the corset without marking the satin.

And now  . . . . . Fishing it out from its hiding place last week, I was pleased to see that I'd attached the binding to the top edge, something which I didn't remember doing. Unfortunately it was downhill from there. I soon discovered that although all the boning channels were attached, not all of them were wide enough to get the bones through. Stitching had to be unpicked which, having been in place so long, left yet more marks on the satin.

Marks where stitching has been unpicked

There was also the problem that I didn't want one side of the channel to be stitched through the waist stay and the other not, so where possible I left that portion of the channel unchanged. As a result in several places the width of the boning channel varies dramatically.

Boning channel disasters

I wasn't happy with the centre edges of the busk, either. Because the satin had only been attached to the front panels and not the facings, a line of the black coutil showed at the centre.

More than just a shadow - the black coutil visible at the busk edge

I got round this by cutting bias strips of the satin and attaching these to the facings.

The satin facing

The advantage is that the coutil doesn't show. The disadvantage is that the bulk of the fabric has made the busk loops slightly smaller, so the corset is harder to fasten.

No black visible

About the one thing I was happy with was the way the edge binding turned out, although again the thickness of the satin made the ends rather bulky once the raw edges were turned in.

The completed binding

Despite being pleased with the binding, I decided to cover it by trimming the corset with black lace. (I know, I know; I spend ages covering up the black in one place, and then add black somewhere else - there's no pleasing some people!) I couldn't find any suitable lace, so did this by attaching two laces and slip-stitching the straight edges together. Directly below the top binding I applied a wide lace, and then stitched along the shaped edge to hold it in place.

Top lace - part one

Then on top of the binding I added a narrower, denser lace, and again stitched along the top edge to hold the points down.

Top lace - part two before the upper edge was sewn down

I also attached the narrow lace to the bottom edge.

One problem with using a wide lace was how to handle it at the back, where it overlaps the grommets. I really like the way the Jen of Festive Attyre dealt with this; on her corset she attached the lace first and put the grommets through the fabric and the lace. Unfortunately when I set the grommets I hadn't even thought about trimming, so I just cut the lace away, following the edge of the pattern.

The shaped lace trim at the back edges

Anyway, the EPSCFH is finally done (hurrah!). On top of all the problems I've already mentioned, when I came to photograph the finished item I noticed just how prominent the waist stay is. See the first photograph above for proof.

Also, flash photography highlights some 'interesting' lines across the satin from the grommets, which aren't that visible to the naked eye.

Pull marks to the left of the grommets

While I'm pleased with the fit on the hip, the fit around the bust is a great deal better on the dressform than on me; there is some strange wrinkling going on there.

Better at the hips, worse at the bust

Despite the added modesty panel, and the front top coming well over the bust (very different from the original pattern, not sure how that happened), the battered state of the satin makes it highly unlikely that I'll wear it over rather than under other garments. Although if I ever do make good my vague plan to create my own version of the Rate The Dress Victorian Batgirl costume, it will certainly come in handy.

Side view showing just how high the front is

In the almost four years since I started this corset I feel that my understanding of corset construction has come on enormously, from a wide variety of sources, including of course from The Dreamstress herself. So here are my Lessons Learned:

1 - Never use satin as a top layer for a corset

2 - Decide on the construction details before you start; waist stay, top line, trim etc. Then give careful thought to the order in which these things should be done. A lot of my problems came from the piecemeal way in which the corset was made; I frequently had to unpick work I'd completed successfully, because I hadn't considered something I'd want to include later.

3 - If you definitely want to use a certain fabric, this will to some extent dictate the style of corset you make. For example, if you are mad enough to use satin for a top layer, external boning channels are a far better choice; as demonstrated by The Dreamstress's entry for this challenge.

4 - Always make a toile, unless it's a pattern that you have used before and you are confident that you haven't changed shape. It is far easier, and cheaper, to alter a mock-up.

5 - Did I mention that using satin for the top layer is a Very Bad Idea?

The small print:

The Challenge: Lace and Lacings (challenge 13, halfway through!)

Fabric: Black coutil and (sigh) purple duchesse satin. Looking at the photographs above there are a variety of different purples on show, but for UK readers, the satin is the colour of a Dairy Milk wrapper.

Pattern: Laughing Moon Dore and Silverado corset pattern

Year: 1838 - 1899

Notions: Busk, flat and spiral steels, corset lace, two styles of black lace for trim

How historically accurate is it? The pattern is historically accurate, this interpretation rather less so, especially the top front

Hours to complete: Too many to want to think about!

First worn: Just now, to take photos

Total cost: Unknown, as I didn't keep a note of the initial costs

Grrrrrr!

It's been a frustrating week.

The purple satin corset continues to find new ways to annoy me. Despite carefully marking the positions of the eyelets, somehow a few of them ended up distinctly out of line. One of the eyelets didn't set properly, but nor could it be removed, so more hammering was needed to at least smooth it down a bit. Oh, and inserting eyelets can now be added to the (very long) list of Things Which Make Satin Ripple.

Wonky eyelets

I bought my own copy of the Laughing Moon pattern so that I could check where the boning should go, and this confirmed that there should be bones both on the seams and partway across the panels. Meanwhile someone who had been on the same course a day later than me lent me her completed corset to inspect, which proved that the tutor only intended us to bone the seams. I've ordered some more spiral steels from Vena Cava Design, but discovered that not all of the boning channels on the seams were sewn wide enough to get the bones down, so will have to be redone. Again.

Where the bones SHOULD go

While I wait for the bones to arrive, I thought I'd tackle another challenge. Stretch fabric is a bit of a mystery to me. I've used it to cover bras for dance costumes, and to make simple things like belts and arm pieces, but I've never tried anything more structured. A calamity with a dress over the summer (I'll post about it sometime, when I've recovered from the trauma) convinced me that I need to start from basics. Kwik Sew pattern 2632 (now out of print) includes a wrap top, and as I fancied a change from the black top I wear for class and rehearsals, I thought I'd begin with that.

Pattern for a wrap top

Constructing the top went reasonably well, apart from a slight ripple in one sleeve. Unfortunately finishing off the raw edges was another matter. I used a wide zig-zag stitch, but despite using a suitable needle for stretch fabrics it skipped a lot of stitches, so I had to go over some parts again. The result looks fairly messy, so clearly I need to experiment a bit more to get this right.

The finished top (don't look at the edges)

The third piece of frustration came from my stash. We always have a Ya Raqs end-of-year girls' night out, and this year we are going to a 'Vegas Night'. Of course, for this I need a suitable dress. My plan was to use Vogue 1302, and I had the perfect fabric; a brightly printed satin with a dark background.

My dream fabric

When I took got it out however I discovered that it has quite a stiff hand, almost like a taffeta. As the dress requires something soft like charmeuse or shantung, the fabric almost certainly won't work. I need either a different pattern, or a different fabric.

After all of this, finally some good news. Along with several of the other Ya Raqs girls, I recently went to JoY, a middle-eastern dance weekend. In the souk and in workshops we noticed a new type of hip belt; made from two long pieces of stretch fabric sewn together either side of the hip, with the ends hanging loose. I decided to tackle stretch fabrics again, and have a go at making one.

I bought a remnant of a fine knit fabric, and drafted basic pattern pieces for the part which fits around your hips, making the back piece deeper than the front.

Belt pattern, front and back

Then I pinned these to the middle of the fabric, cut roughly towards them from each side, and then cut out along the top and bottom of the pattern pieces. I used woolly nylon thread to overlock a rolled hem on all of the raw edges apart from the top edge of the pattern piece, stretching the fabric as it went through the overlocker to give a 'lettuce leaf' effect. Finally I made a loop of elastic to fit around my hips above my skirt (I still prefer a circle skirt to trousers, very old-fashioned!), and attached the pieces to it.

Colour co-ordinated belt, wrap top and circle skirt

If I make another one (and I probably will), I'll make both pieces a bit longer. Finally though, a success!

UFO Corner - the purple corset

I don't tend to have a big UnFinished Objects pile. Sadly this isn't down to super efficiency on my part, just that I'm more of a USO* girl. There are lengths of fabric and piles of patterns stacked up in my workroom, waiting to be used. Some of the fabrics and patterns even go together! Once I do start something though, I usually tend to finish it reasonably quickly.

Projects just waiting to be started!

There are always exceptions however. This corset was started on a day course a couple of years ago. Unfortunately most of us on the course didn't get anywhere close to finishing our corsets. Even more unfortunately, immediately afterwards Mr Tulip and I were going on holiday, so I didn't carry on with the project straight away. Occasionally I'd take a peek in the box where the bits were stored and consider trying to finish the thing, but the longer I left it, the scarier it looked.

I came across the box again recently, and having made the 1911 corset earlier in the year, suddenly it didn't look quite so scary. Then I realised that next month it will be a whole three years since I did the course, so I decided to get the corset finished before its third anniversary.

So what was I starting from?

We used the Laughing Moon Dore corset pattern, and before the course the tutor had cut out the pattern pieces for us, based on measurements we had sent her. She provided coutil, bones etc, and all we had to provide was fabric of our choice for the outer layer. Knowing nothing about corset construction, I chose a purple satin, not realising quite what a bad choice this was for a beginner.

On the day we cut out the coutil and fabric, tacked the fabric pieces to the coutil, cut out and attached the front facing, inserted the busk, sewed the pieces together, did the first fitting and made any necessary alterations. Actually that's not bad for one day, but a long way off a completed corset.

I didn't think to take any pictures before I started work again, but this was taken after I'd finished the seams and put in a couple of the boning channels.

More or less what I came home with, three years ago

The only instructions I had were a few scribbled notes on finishing the seams. These were to be covered with bone casing tape, although now I'm not sure why this was used, as there were only enough bones provided for the boning channels marked on the pattern, not for boning the seams as well. Once I'd completed the seams, I noticed that the thread I had used to sew around the busk three years ago was very different purple from what I had just sewn with, so I had to take out the busk stitching and redo it. Cue first lot of heavy sighs.

The boning channels gave me my first inkling that satin had been a Very Bad Idea. I wanted them on the inside of the corset, but if I worked with the coutil and tape uppermost, the sewing machine feed dogs marked the satin. Instead I had to tack on the casings, sew with the satin side uppermost, and hope that I didn't miss the edge of the tape. Sadly I did miss it, quite a lot. Cue second lot of heavy sighs, lots of unpicking and a few rude words.

Then I discovered that I didn't have enough casing tape to do all the casings. I had to unpick the tape from the longest seam, over the bust, and replace it with ordinary seam binding. This took several attempts to get right, and when I finally managed it I discovered that on one side I had managed to catch the waist stay into the stitching, at completely the wrong angle. Third lot of heavy sighs, more unpicking and some very rude words indeed.

All this unpicking left a few marks on the satin, and the rows of stitching for the casings and to finish the seams provided more evidence of why satin had been a poor choice. What had previously been a smooth and glossy top layer was now very wrinkled, and the shine of the fabric really emphasises any lumps and bumps.

Smooth without boning channels, wrinkly with them

Adding the back facing made me realise that flat lining the coutil to the fashion fabric had been another Very Bad Idea as it made no allowance for turn of cloth, so the coutil is now slightly bunched up on the inside. I had however finally got something resembling a corset.

On the way to a finished corset

There is one plus point to all of this frustration. When I made the 1911 corset, cutting the holes for the grommets took ages because I simply didn't apply enough pressure. When it comes to hitting this one very hard with a hammer, I don't think I need worry about holding back!

Grommet holes marked, pass me the hammer!

* - UnStarted Objects, in case you hadn't guessed