Silk Satin & Antique Lace: Making A Romantic Corset And Petticoat From The Pattern That Finally Fits

Okay, i apologize it's getting dark and it literally sounds like it's about to start raining, but i need to get this filmed. Okay. Then i've been making courses and stays or trying to make them for a long time now i have made every mistake and slowly course corrected over time, but with my most recent corset, the foundation piece for my just breathe, dress project. With that corset, i felt, like everything was finally turning out right. Every curve of the pattern, the length the tightness at the waist, the roominess for the bust and breathing. It wasn't a perfect corset, but the pattern was so close to perfect that i was immediately tempted to try it again. Last week i intended to spend entirely on the breathed dress, getting the silk underskirt made. However, i ran into some issues with my fabric and had to order more disrupting my work week. I really felt like i needed a win and i also needed a project for this week's video, so it seemed like a great opportunity to make that corset. The goal is to make something that will replace my old linen special occasion: wear corset. It doesn't really do anything for waist reduction, but i wear it beneath fancy dresses for the good strapless bus support it gives me and for the improvement in my posture, which makes anything i wear over top look nicer. I made this corset years back, maybe in 2014, as part of a never to be finished costume. I would have used a different color if i'd known how much i'd end up liking the fit it's made from a single layer of bright red, linen with plastic boning. Aluminum eyelets and a bust padded with fuzzy socks, i'm mentioning all of that as an encouragement, a reminder that even a rough cheaply made amateur corset like this can still be perfectly functional. When i made it, i had no idea what i was doing, so it was definitely a fluke that it turned out as good and as comfortable as it did. When i tried to remake it nicer later, the fit was horrible and i could never stand to wear it. I'Ve been wanting to try it again for years now, and i finally get to oh what what complainy bird for fabric i have chosen a selection, the body of the corset, will be this herringbone linen from burnley and trowbridge. It is very, very soft. It'S very sturdy feeling and because of the weave, it has a lot less of that meshy shiftiness of typical linen. So i think this will be very, very good for the body of the corset i'm going to cover it with this silk satin that i have left over from that puffy sleeve blouse i made last fall. I purchased this on etsy. I will show a link. This is some antique lace that i also purchased on etsy a long time ago. I'Ll show the shop. I don't think this there's an actual link to this lace anymore, but it's absolutely beautiful and i think that it will pair really really well with this silk they'll. Be really pretty together and then i have linen tool tape, also from burnley intro bridge that i will use inside the corset for the boning channels. As i mentioned, i'm using the pattern for my breathe corset. However, i will be altering it slightly. I started by tracing out the pattern pieces to fresh paper. Then there was only one small area that i was unhappy with on the breathe corset and it was right here there was a tiny bit of puckering at the center of the bust. I shaved just a tiny bit off of the pattern pieces at this spot, hoping to correct it this time around. Then, if you remember, i made the center back panel of the breathe corset much wider than a typical corset because of the boning and the wing harness this corset doesn't need that. So i'm going to readjust the piece and add the excess back onto the penultimate panel. Now to adjust the neckline, there won't be a strap, so the back doesn't need to go up nearly that high. I just trimmed it down. Knowing that i would probably refine it later. Then i pinned the pieces all together just at their tops. They are all rounded at the top to fit around the bust, but i just need to match them up at the very edge. I just took that and started freehanding a curve. I tried several lines, but none looked exactly right until i realized that the original bust line curved down and i wanted to curve it up into a sweetheart neckline. So i added a bit of paper, and here it is then i started separating all of those pieces and trimming them down along the new neckline. I had to add a couple little bits to fill in the seam allowance along the extension, but after that we're ready to go. I cut it out of the linen layer. First then i folded the pattern pieces along the waistline and traced it onto each piece. This will be helpful later for lining up the pieces and for placing the waste tape. Then i cut it out of the silk i've learned through too many errors that pinning through thin silk and cutting the pattern pieces out. The same way i would cut out basic cotton is just a bad idea. Instead, i used pattern weights and then traced around the pieces with a water-soluble marker. The pieces all still shifted around a little bit as i cut, but it's better than the alternative to start stitching. The center piece will be a little bit different from the following pieces for the seam. I want to stack all four pieces up right sides together, so that when i open them, the silk will be on the outside and the herringbone weave will be on the inside. With the seam allowance, pin them together and stitch, i took that seam and trimmed it down to just under a quarter of an inch and then ironed it open. I cut a length of tool tape to cover it, but before sewing, i pinned in my waste tape. It'S a different type of linen tape, one where i had a length just barely long enough to use up. I marked the center of that tape and lined it up with the center seam of the corset and then placed the seam tape on top okay, now watch closely, i'm going to sew the tape down on this side. First, so i'm going to lift the piece and fold that silk side out of the way get it, i'm folding that silk outer to the other side. Now i can stitch the twill tape to the linen lining and none of it will be visible from the outside of the corset after its stitch. Take it back to the ironing board and fold both pieces of silk to the other side. Now you can sew that side. This is a needlessly complicated operation. It is just as good and way simpler to simply topstitch through both layers sewing the silk and linen together. I wanted to do it this way, because it allows me to quickly machine stitch. The corset without the stitching showing through to the outside best of both worlds, the next seam i sewed, developed a problem, the top layer of linen warped and stretched pretty badly, and it wound up super uneven. I seam ripped that out and then realized that i needed to do just a little bit of basting. So for each piece i lined up the linen and the silk and pinned together just the inner edge, the edge facing the front of the corset, not the edge facing the back. Oh, my gosh, a little chicken found the jackpot. So here's what it looks like now with all of the pieces basted on one side now, i'm lining up piece number: two: with the center front or piece number one pin along the seam making sure that the silk and linen of piece number one are lined up And laying flat, it probably would have been better if i'd pinned the edge of number one first and then laid out number two on top either way. But then i stitched that seam and here's what it currently looks like fold. The waste tape out of the way and then trim down that seam cut another length of tool, tape to match the seam and then take it to the machine sew down. One side of the tool: tape, placing your seam right on top of the previous stitches. Now, to sew down the other side of the tape, i'm going to open the seam and iron over just the linen layer, leave the silk sitting off to the side and out of the way, now stitch down the other side of the tool. Tape making sure that the waste tape is sitting correctly across the markings for the waistline. Now it looks great from the back and when you turn it to the front, you can iron the silk down over top the linen and line up the edges. You could baste this seam now if you want the extra security, but i didn't bother again. This is an unnecessary, complicated construction method. You don't have to do it this way, i'm mostly doing it this way, because i get bored easily and need each project to be some sort of challenge or test some new theory. One negative of this construction method is that it really doesn't give you room to adjust the fit later, so i'd only recommend sewing it like this. If it's a pattern, you've tried before and are very confident in the fit of, but you are going to carry on with this series of steps, adding one piece at a time until you get to the very back. That is just a little tragic. Okay, the corset body is done and i did get this piece reversed. If you can see that the texture is a little bit different and it feels a little different um. But oh well, whatever it's about 2 30 now, so i think i'm going to take a lunch break, go, do chicken chores and then hopefully get it finished. Hi turkey, turkey would like a snack. Are you sneezing on your water, hey goose? What is she doing over? There, let's give him a good old cucumber or maybe two got a ton out here. Uh-Oh got a cracked one. No, you may not have my eggs, you may not have them. You can have a cucumber, though okay back on it we're doing good. So far with one day's work to finish the back, i'm going to start with a basting stitch down the center back fold line. Then i had intentionally cut the silk to about a half inch longer in the back forgot to mention that earlier i folded this down over the linen and ironed it. Then i folded the back along that basting stitch, pinning it in place. Then i pinned down the edge, and here it is at the sewing machine. I stitched first along the edge, then another row a quarter inch in to form a boning channel. Then a final row a quarter of an inch from the fold line for a final boning channel. Okay, backside done, and that was pretty easy. Next, i think i need to work on the lace. I think i should do that before the boning. Yes, always do everything you can before the boning. Everything gets harder once you bone it to add the lace. I'M starting in the center front lining up one scallop with the seam. Then i'm going to work my way out, giving the lace a little tuck at the v of the neck so that it will fit correctly. When i reached the back, i wrapped the lace around the edge and cut it with a little bit of excess. This might have been neater if i'd sewn the lace down before finishing the back placket, but it's not a big deal and certainly not bad enough to warrant seam ripping. But here it is, and you can see that i added another tuck where the lace had to curve around the underarm. Now i'm going to very simply machine stitch, this top edge down the stitching will get covered by the binding. So there is no reason to hand stitch it. Then i started pinning down the lower edge of the lace. This, i absolutely do have to hand stitch one because it'll be a lot more visible, but two because i need to be able to skip over the boning channels where it curved over the bust. I had a lot of tucks left over. I just flattened them out as evenly as i could and pinned them for the hand stitch, i'm just whipping around the edge it's pretty simple, but it doesn't need to be super strong or sturdy. I was careful when sewing over the boning channels to keep the needle. Only going through the silk layer to make sure that it didn't interfere with the boning later i do sort of wish i'd sewn down the folds of those tucked sections i ironed them later, which helped them lay smoother, but still next binding the top edge. I like to do this with corsets bind one edge, then bone. It then bind the other. I ripped a one inch wide strip from my leftover silk. Yes, technically you're supposed to use a piece of fabric on the bias for this, but i don't have enough leftover, not if i want to make a petticoat, i ironed it and then turned it over and ironed down a quarter of an inch along one side. I trimmed down the roughness from the neckline of the corset so that it would at least be even then. I took it to the machine and stitched the binding on doing my best to keep the edges lined up with the edge that i just trimmed and attempting to sew right. On top of my previous stitching around curved edges, it sometimes helps to manipulate the curving piece with one hand and to hold the straight piece steady with the other hand, but it takes a bit of practice to do this right. Fair warning. To finish the other side of the binding, i folded it over and started pinning it down. I quickly realized that i didn't love the look of it at a quarter of an inch wide. It just looked thick and bulky, so i trimmed down the neckline of the corset again and the binding ended up being just barely over an eighth of an inch wide, a small qualm, but i think it looks nicer this way. Then, on the back side, i whip stitched the binding down. This was easy, mostly because i wasn't too worried about sewing through the silk, since the lace would be covering it anyways. Okay, so done with the stitching, and it looks lovely. However, the silk is incredibly thin and i'm just not sure that this is going to hold up very well. So i do think i need to add another row of just machine stitching, like top stitching. Maybe i can kind of stitch in the ditch um. Although i kind of feel like, maybe it should be a little bit lower just to give it a little bit more space between the tip of the boning and where it's going to be pushing and then the edge of the fabric. If i have to have visible topstitching, i might as well make it interesting. This is my chain stitch machine. I'Ve been saving its formal introduction to this channel for the breathe dress. Since that's the project that finally gave me license to purchase one but it'll be good for a nice little bit of decorative and functional top stitching on this corset so stitching on the back side, i could feel the ridge of the binding and followed along it all Right, i think that is much better. It still is liable to fray in the future, just because of how thin the silk is and how narrow this edge is. However, the fraying will not be accelerated by the bones pushing up into it, so you know, i think it was definitely worth the extra 10 minutes um. What are we down to? I think next, i need to insert the boning okay. The boning is in - and i didn't film any of that, because inserting boning and pleating are two things that just take forever and are impossible to get good, clear camera angles and actually show what i'm doing so. Whatever um, i boned the entire thing with spiral steel, i had some plastic that i was going to use if i ran out, but i didn't run out um. I like it, because it's just the only boning that also been side to side which really helps with movement. The only downside of it is that it's just substantially heavier than plastic, like one little strip of it, doesn't feel like it weighs much but like when you bone in an entire corset like this one has 15 channels of stainless steel. It does start to add up and it kind of increases the weight which it's fine for me for this project, i'm just like letting you know. Okay, so i took a break for dinner last night and just kind of quit for the night, but that's okay, because it's been a long work day anyways. I do just adore the way it's coming out, though it is simple. It'S a lot simpler than some of the stuff i make, but it is very fine and very feminine, like in the best ways, so i'm really happy with it okay, eyelets in, and that was a pretty quick project. This side definitely turned out way better than this side, but that's because i realized i was using the tool upside down, but it's all right, it's very secure. It looks very neat and i'm happy with it before i try it on. I think i'm going to go ahead and pin in my bust pads, i'm not making bus pads today, because i found one more pair already in my stash. These actually came from my grandma stash, so i imagine that she made them. You can see they're pretty simple. The outer layer has a slight curve here so that it can be a little bit more rounded out on the inside. There is a very, very fine layer of. I think this is cotton batting the outer layer is just regular, polyester batting and then in between there. You can see a thick layer of cotton batting and i think there is a thick layer of cotton batting filling about this shape right here and then i think there is an inner layer kind of just inside this center, so yeah. If you want to make a pair of these for a corset, they are very, very simple to put together and you don't have to use this polyester batting for the outside. You could just make the entire thing out of cotton batting if you're going for a 100 natural fiber project. Okay, i just tried it on and it looks awesome. I'M super excited because with corsets i always just kind of jump into them like yeah, so confident and then i don't really do try ons while i'm making them and then, as i get towards the end closer and closer, i get more and more worried like what. If i have missed something big, what if this is horrible, what if i put in all this work - and it's just not going to even be wearable - and i tried it on and the fit is amazing - it's super comfortable. This is probably the best course that i've ever made in terms of just wearability um. So that is a very big thing to me, because i made a lot of corsets and most of them are not very good. Since everything looked good, i decided that it was time to bind the lower edge and at least finish that off. I traced out a line along the bottom, since it was slightly more uneven than the top. Then i prepared a strip of silk for the binding, exactly like i did with the top. I stitched it to the corset using that blue line as a guide for where to line up the edge of the silk. Then i trimmed down that edge, then folded and pinned it to the inside this one. I am leaving a little bit wider than the top edge. A quarter inch doesn't look that bad here, not without the delicate silk. As an immediate contrast now, one last thing, since i'm not planning to wear this corset with a chemise or shift or anything, it will be right against my skin and i would rather not have the polyfill batting against my skin right there. So i am going to cover the inside of the bust pads with silk. Before i sew them to the corset i just folded the edges over and whipped them down. Then i ironed around the pads to flatten the silk down a bit and to give it a crisper edge. I pinned them onto the bust of my corset and then i whip stitched around each one. I kept these stitches smaller and i was very careful when stitching below the line of the lace to only catch the linen layer. I did have to pull out stitches a few times when i noticed that i'd caught a few threads of the silk which made it pull very obviously on such thin silk. But here is what it looks like at this point: okay, the corset is done and it looks absolutely lovely. However, i have two strips of leftover satin, so i have a small secondary project in mind to make a petticoat, i'm first going to sew the sides with french seams, so i'm lining them up wrong sides together and stitching them pretty close to the selvage. Then i trimmed that edge down to less than a quarter of an inch then ironed it flat. Then i folded the edge to the inside and ironed it flat again, then i sewed a quarter inch seam. This is where i love: silk. Working with anything other than straight pieces on the straight grain can be a nightmare, but silk on the straight grain handles very well, and it loves to iron, nice and crisply. Now i'm going to cut it in half to open up the center back. Why didn't i just use one of those side seams for the back, because i didn't want a seam up the center front, i'm going to do a funky thing, i'm going to narrowly hem those two center back seams individually. Now i'm lining up the back seam right sides together, pinning it and then using chalk to trace a line, two inches from the edge at the top. I also marked a line: nine inches from the edge which will be left open for the closure stitch along the chalk line, stopping and back tacking at the closure mark now take it to the ironing board and iron both sides to the same direction. The reason i've made such a deep placket is because i don't want to sew snaps or any other actual closure to it. I want the overlap to be deep enough to stay mostly closed on its own, and this is meant to go with a corset, so i want it to have a bit of size, flexibility to match the opening of the lacing at the bottom. I'M going to go ahead and iron up a narrow, hem ironing those two overlapped extra wide seams into the fold at the sewing machine. I stitched the hem, but i also sewed lace onto the hem. At the same time, this didn't end up looking the absolute neatest, but i still haven't thought of a better alternative method. I could have gone with. I didn't feel like tacking up. The hem, like i usually, would would have been strong enough with the lace if it caught on anything or got pulled and it's super thin silk. So i couldn't have invisibly stitched it like. I would have with a wool skirt, so i don't love it. But i'll stand by it then for the top edge. I cut strips of silk at 2 inches wide, i'm getting low on scraps, so i will have to piece it a bit. I ironed down one edge of the waistband to make it easier to whip down the inside later. I stitched the ends closed then began to pleat the skirt to it. I'M radiating the pleats all in the same direction and not worrying about super fine neat or even pleating. This is an underskirt. After all, i stitched the pleats to the waistband, then folded down the other side and at the two places were also in the hook and eye i tucked in small bits of densely woven, linen tape. Basically, i should have interfaced the waistband or done some kind of reinforcement here i forgot, so this is just kind of my last minute fix, but with those in place, i stitch the waistband back down by hand and for the closure. I used a simple skirt hook and eye and see that linen tab did come in handy, since my waistband wasn't quite wide enough for the hook and eye trying it on the mannequin. I realized that i'd made one miscalculation i assumed i wouldn't have enough leftover satin to make a petticoat or that i would have just barely enough. So i didn't trim the length or even bother to measure it but trying it on with one of my dresses over it. I realized that it's actually several inches too long. I could fix this by seam, ripping off the lace trimming the hem, shorter and re-sewing it, or i could leave the lace and hem alone and instead add rows of pin tucks to use up the excess fabric. That'S what i decided to do and in the end i had to add four quarter: inch pin tucks to use up the right amount of length. I'M actually really happy with the look of the pin tucks. The skirt just felt a bit plain compared to the corset, and this makes the two pieces feel a little more balanced. Also if the skirt lifts and the petticoat does show well now, it just has a little bit more texture and visual interest. So thoughts about this project and i've got a few one. This is straight up the best corset i've ever made in terms of fit comfort and it actually giving me the shape. I intended i especially like the shape of the neckline, how it is a sweetheart neckline, but it's a bit wide and low. This will be practical, because one problem i had with my previous corsets was the way the bright red edges had a tendency to peep out from dresses with lower necklines two, the only thing technically wrong with it is that the silk satin is way too flimsy. The wrinkling and rippling is pretty bad. This may be exaggerated even more by the silk not being cut perfectly on grain, but even getting that right is ridiculously hard to do with silk satin. So it's annoying, but i'm not too hung up about it. Three, i figured out something about bust patterning. Remember how my previous corset had that pucker. So i trimmed this pattern, a tiny bit thinking that that was the problem. Okay, the pucker was not caused by the pattern being off. It was caused by the bust pad being too flat. It was too flat and when i tried to shove it inside that curve, it didn't fill out the space properly or smoothly. I figured that out because this other bust pad, which i didn't make this one - had a seam in the front. The seam gives it room to actually curve and be a 3d shape and therefore to fill out the bust cup evenly. I guess i just thought that the batting was more moldable than it actually is, but i'll definitely have to remember this for next time, your bust shape in general can be manipulated through a combination of factors. The more curved your pattern piece is the more room. You'Ll leave for your boobs inside the corset, the more you straighten that curve out the more squish you are just forcing up and out. This is useful to know because if you have a larger bust, giving yourself more space, lower down will help distribute and minimize your bust. If you have a small bust, forcing it up will make it look larger. Keeping it lower and rounder will also give it a more modern shape, but make it how you want. The same principle could also be applied to other corset patterns like a corset with gores over the bust. They could be made as straight vs, or they could be rounded out. It all depends on what you're going for, in addition, having more seams will increase the roundness and three-dimensionality of the bust, but having less seams will reduce that and having no seams will eliminate it and there we are back in the 18th century. Four last one, the construction method i used, it was sort of unnecessary for a corset or any foundational piece that will only ever be worn underneath other clothing. However, it could be a very useful construction method for boned, bodices and other pieces where you might want to build the structuring into the final piece without having boning channels or other scenes showing through now i didn't size, my breathe corset pattern or put it up on Patreon, just because it seemed like too specific of a design for most people to ever need, but this one is much more versatile, so i will be getting it graded and put up on patreon within the next week or so so i'll see you next time. Do you