Victorian Corset

So my corset is to be of the Victorian Era and is inspired by this beautiful blue corset from V&A's Underwear: Fashion in Detail. This particular corset is on page 86-87. So as I'm not fond of the idea of trying to create pattern pieces from a photo as many of my costume-y friends are wont to do I set off to find a regular old tissue pattern that approximates the lines of this corset. What I found was Butterick 4254. And although it doesn't look exactly like the other, I think it will do. The mock up was done in a muslin. Many folks advised me against it, but I'm short on cash and really just want to see if the pattern in big enough to go around me properly and long enough to go from breast to hip. I think that a muslin is the way to go until I get to an actual trimming-down-my-waist mockup. Anyway, Butterick patterns tend (I hear) to come with a LOT of ease and generous seam allowances so after making it up I found that cutting the largest size will probably produce a corset that closes without trimming me down much but is at least 4 inches shorter than I would prefer it to be.

So after tracing out the patterns and adding 4 inches to the length - I've started putting together another muslin. (see why I'm using muslin? I don't feel bad about throwing away the first mock up. I would if I had used twill or gods forbid coutil) I actually have the second mockup halfway done and feel confident enough that I feel that I could start cutting out the twill. But I'm lazy and would rather write a blog post instead of sewing tonight. My guess is that after the mockup is finished I'm going to cut two layers of twill so that I have three layers finished. I plan on stitching each layer together per the recommended seam allowances and take it in as needed.

I plan on the boning placement being more like the blue corset. But I kinda plan on freestyling it as I go mirroring each side. I've tons of spiral boning and tips so hopefully I'll end up with a comfy corset that trims my waist down 7 to 8 inches with an inch of opening in the back.

Good thing I have great costume-y friends that will be easily (hopefully) bribed to come over and pin the final product down to size when I try it on.

Wish me luck!