New Project- 1890 Corset

Since I have handed in my final projects I have decided to improve my corsetry skills through making a 1890 corset which pattern I found in Jill Salen's book, Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques.

Khaki Corded Corset, Hereford Museum, 1890- 1900. SALEN, J. Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques p.62

Making this corset is really going to help in developing my corsetry skills, since I have never inserted cording to a corset before. I will also be able to improve my fitting and pattern sizing up skills.

Symington, Leicestershire County Council Museum, 1875.  SALEN, J. Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques p.2

I have decided on incorporating the quilt pattern from this corset also found in Jill Salen's book, Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques on to the corset I am making to reduce the amount of cording on the corset. This is due to this corset being my first attempt at cording.

I started with sizing up the pattern to fit my measurements and making a toile. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the toile fit at the waist and hips so only the bust needed adjusting. Since the back piece fit nicely I decided on not taking in the sides but the bust gussets instead, making them smaller to fit my bust size. I did this through adding darts.

1890 Corset Toile

After I adjusted my pattern I cut new bust gussets for one side of the toile so I could make sure my adjustments are correct. The alterations were successful.

1890 Corset Toile- Adjusted

So that I know how much cording and the length of the boning I need, I marked the channels for the cording, busk and boning on the toile using an ink pen. I also tried the toile on again to make sure that the channels I marked were sitting in the correct places.

Toile with marked channels

Resources
SALEN, J. (2008) Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques Batsford. London