Corset remake / Steampunk!

Well, hello, folks! Remember my green corset of fail last fall? I had made a ~1870's corset drafted to my measurements using this guide, but failed to take into account the amount of squish moved from my waist (and lower) into my hips (despite reading several posts about this very problem from more experiened seamstresses, so it's my own fault, really), thus ending up with a corset that did the opposite of what it was supposed to do: it reduced at the hips and added at the waist, giving me a form more tubular than my natural body. 

Just a reminder. Also: Help, I've lost my
Corset Dropbox Folder?

I was ready to chalk it up as a complete failure and move on, but then the nice people over at the HSF Facebook page encouraged me to add in hip gussets. It took me some time to do it, since there was more things to fix then just the hip-width (plus the thought of taking off an reapplying the binding an the bottom swallowed up all of my motivation) but recently I got fed up with studying and took some time to fix what I could. First, I redid the front opening (still hook and eye tape, sorry) because it was a b*tch to close and easily getting in an out of the thing would be necessary to try it on for the changes. But after moving the eyes from between tell layers to on top of the binding, I must say I'm really happy with the closure.

Thusly encouraged, I went on to insert some hip gussets. I didn't want a bone right ontop of my hip and there was a side panel in any case, so instead of opening up a side seam I cut a slit in the middle of the panel from the bottom to my waist (this took several cuts as I was very careful not to cut too far and tried it on in between cuts to see if I had hit my waist yet. I think I could have gone still a bit higher, but I thought better safe than sorry).

Corset with the slit. You can already see the
difference it makes to the shape

Better look at the gap :)

Then I put a piece of scrap fabric on my hip were the slit would be, put on the corset on top and marked the outline of the gap on the fabric. I used this shape as a template for my gusset (after addin seam allowance, of course). I snipped a little y-shape into the top of the slit, folded all the edges inward, pinned the gusset in between the layers and back stitched into place (the execution of that last sentence took several hours, don't be fooled by its shortness!).

After again setting it aside for some time (still dreading the binding) I felt like sewing again I realized that I had just enough black ribbon left over to rebind the bottom edge, so that's what I did (in an easier and prettier way than before, so yay me). After that I figured I might as well go the whole way and crochet some lace for trimming, and after finding this very easy pattern, I went and did just that. I'm pretty sure the crochet was actually the least time consuming part of this entire remake... 

Anyway, now that it gives me more or less the shape I wanted it to and even looks pretty, I'm actually very happy with it! There's still some things I can't fix without taking the whole d*mn thing apart, but I think for a first try, that's tolerable.

I learned a couple of things while working in this (twice), so I feel ready for a "real" corset now. It's gonna have an actual busk, spiral bones, gussets and flossing, and I even have an original pattern if I can figure out how it works. I won't show any pictures until I can, though ;)

On a final note: out of curiosity, I measured the bottom width of the gussets, i. e. the width I would have needed to add to my hip measurements to make this corset work from the start. It's 15cm! I couldn't believe it! I'm starting to think that I miscalculated or measured wrong at some point, because there's just no way all that squish could have come from my waist... O.o 

Anyway, I'm very happy I stuck with it, I can't believe how good it turned out after my disappointment last fall!

Update:
 I've been sitting on the post above for a while now, waiting for an opportunity to get some better pictures of the reworked corset. Well guess what: I'm going to a steampunk party! I knew I'd have about a day to put something together, because I wrote another exam yesterday and will go snowboarding tomorrow, with the party tomorrow night. (Wait, this feels familiar...)
So I took out my finally wearable corset and paired it with several shirts, blouses and even my regency shift until I decided on my black Dirndl blouse (yes, I own a Dirndl. Please don't go around assuming every German owns one, the first time I actually wore a Dirndl was in Canada, but since I live in the south and literally on the border to Bavaria, I bought one last summer. Works great as a Little Red Riding Hood costume, too :) )
To add yet more steampunk flair, I decided to give this video a trial:

Hey, it's Threabanger again! Or at least Corinne from Threadbanger... :) 
I have 10m of black polyester taffeta in my stash, which I bought some time ago simply because it cost 14€ (the entire piece. So, like, 1,40€ per metre. Sometimes my impulse control is not the best :D)

I cut all the pieces, changing the measurements a little (when my fabric's width is 1,40m I'm not gonna be particular about 10cm more or less), making the panels a bit longer and narrower, but I don't think that changes the look very much. Also, I didn't have any lace to sew around the edges, so it's just pinked :)

Because I need a yardstick to cut in a
straight line when I can't rip fabric

Biggest Panel

The video really tells you all you need to know, so here's the only thing i did differently: To tie the outfit together, I wanted to have some of the green fabric of the corset repeated in the bustle. I decided to put a band of gathered trim on the smallest panel, So I ripped two strips of 6cm * 1,50m fabric and sewed them together. I didn't bother with finishing the edges because I liked the ragged, rough look for steampunk and sewed to gathering lines at 2cm in from the edge. (ran out of bobbin thread about 3/4 through on the second line. Didn't feel like taking it out and redoing it, so I restarted the line about a cm further and tied the top and bottom threads each in a knot. Yeah, that's how I roll.)
Pinned on, sewed (along the gathering lines) and again followed the video to make a waisband.

To top it off, I retrimmed a tiny hat my mother bought for carnival years ago, pretty sure it's from H&M. Of course, I forgot to take a "before" photo, but here's the ugly trim I took off:

Luckily for me, it was mostly sewn and hardly glued on, after I snipped all the threads I could just pull off the glued bits with no residues. Finished result:

And on me:

 That hat kept wanting to fall off my head. I need to fix this if I want to wear it for dancing tomorrow night...
Anyway, I'm off to bed now since I neither want to fall asleep snowboarding nor dancing in steampunk attire. See you all next time :)

I almost forgot...

that I had some pictures to show you! I finished the green corset. And while working on it, I figured that I had finally something to enter into the Historical Sew Fortnightly! (For those of you who don't know what that is, click on that link, read that post and every other post in her blog that has to do with the hsf - it's just amazing!)
I've been ogling all those fantastic creations forever without ever having something to enter myself, but here I go.

No shift, no self-timer (took this on my
phone because I couldn't find my camera)
and waay too little hip

The Challenge: #19: Wood, Metal and Bone

Fabric: Green Cotton and and some unaccountable, probably synthetic, but very sturdy lining fabric from Ikea

Pattern: This.

Year: The pattern says late 1870's...?

Notions: Hooks-and-eyes-tape, satin(?) ribbon, zip ties for the boning

How historically accurate is it? uhm... it is called a corset and corsets were worn in that era, but other than that not at all. I could overlook all the wrong materials if it would at least give me the proper support and silhouette it's supposed to, but it doesn't. Well, better luck next time :)

Hours to complete: never timed it, so no clue.

First worn: for the pictures

Total cost: maybe 10-15€ for the zip ties and the hooks-and-eyes-tape, everything else was from stash. Yay, at least it's a cheap failure ;)

Oh - and it's currently laced with bright blue and green shoelaces because I didn't have anything else, but I don't know under which point to file that info ;)

At least it looks nice from behind :)

I have an idea of ripping up the side seams up to the waist and putting in some hip gussets for some more curving (and to have somewhere for that squish to go, as the Laced Angel puts it).
Does anyone have any ideas if that will work at all? Or should I just go with making a new, improved version all together? After all, this was only supposed to be a trial run?

This was supposed to be a "finished things" post...

...but I haven't really finished anything recently! Well yes, I finished the yellow minion (weeks ago, before I even came home) and the stole (also weeks ago, when I went to my grandparent's) but I just didn't get around to blogging until now. Also, I don't have any nice pictures of the minion since I conveniently left it in my apartment, so here's the only snapshot I took before hurriedly packing my things and leaving for my parent's:

I gave up on finishing the purple one before Lilly's birthday, but I made a "free-hand"-amigurumi minion for one of the kids I worked with:

That's a thermos and my mother's laptop behind
him, just to give you an idea of the size

I also finally got around to taking pictures of my stole, I like how it turned out although I would have liked it a bit longer - I just gave up when my third ball of yarn was finished.

I really like how it looks from behind

Well, that ought to have caught you up to what I have finished so far. I would have loved to show you the finished green corset, but guess what: I'm about one seem away from finishing it (and have been for about a week now) but still haven't done it. Want to know why? I have two brothers and the three of us share a car, or rather a van. So when my older brother wanted to fix up the car to take it to a camping trip to Spain, of course his siblings jumped in, and since I'm not that good with the technical stuff (we have a bluetooth-connectable stereo in our twenty-year-old car, yay!) I offered to take over renewing the curtains. My brother ordered the fabric and I set to hours and hours of ironing, sewing, and ironing again. Did I mention I was ironing a lot? So, in order to pretty things up a little (and motivate myself) I created even more work for myself by deciding that every tie for the curtains had to have a little crocheted flower attached. Yay for flowers! 

Pretty little daisies... :)

My younger brother was against the flowers (probably not manly enough for an eighteen-year-old ;) ) but my older brother and I liked it, so we kept them. But crocheting, and then sewing each of the flowers onto the tie and then the tie onto the curtain by hand took time, and afterwards I didn't really feel like sewing some more for my own amusement, hence the lack of progress.

BUT!


Some progress there was, and (even if I can't show you the finished result) I'd like to show you some pictures. Before risking bright green checkered nightmares, I worked on my darker green corset. The last thing I told you was that I made one row of eyelets, here's how I did it:

I made the holes with a stretcher I usually
wear in my ear...

...then widened them with an awl i found
in my father's toolbox.

I then stitched around the holes using a thicker, dark green thread I found in my grandmother's sewing box, I think it's supposed to be used for mending socks, but I find it quite handy for lacing- or buttonholes. I put in the hooks and eyes - I know, I'm cheating -

- and tried it on. In hindsight, I really should have listened to The Laced Angel and put in some more room at the hips, but for a first try, it's not that bad, I think.

Phone-camera in a badly lit hallway...

...where could that ever go wrong?

Now all I have to do is finish the top and bottom edges, and then it'll be wearable! :) But as I said, motivation for that last seam still eludes me. Bear with me, it will get done! (someday ;) )

Decisions, decisions...

I have two projects I'd really like to tell you about, but only time for one short post. Hm...
First of all sorry for not writing for so long, I had some exams to write and then my laptop broke down just in time for my arrival home, plus I just started an internship which takes up a lot of my time, so I didn't really get any sewing done despite being in close proximity to a real sewing machine for about a week. Until today, when I decided to finally get some work done on my corset.
I found a really neat technique for constructing corsets online (I'll post my sources as soon as I have time to find them), it goes like this:

Starting with pieces one and two, (shown are three and four)
sandwich fabric and lining of the first piece between the
fabric and lining of the second piece, respective right sides
together

A peek at piece three ;)

Then just sew a seam along the side, press, open, press both sides flat, repeat. It's a quick and easy way to construct corsets and you don't even have to worry about finishing any raw edges :)
Bonus: you can very easily add boning channels, I did one for every seam, we'll see how that works out.

Stitching a boning channel, finished one on the right

As I said, I'm using zip-ties for boning, feels pretty good so far, we'll see how they look and feel when wearing the corset.

Preparing the boning: I clipped of the closures and smoothed
the clipped ends with some sandpaper

I put another boning channel into the back edges and marked where I wanted my eyelets to go.

Looks pretty good so far, what do you think?

I did the eyelets by hand since I don't have any grommets lying around and it is much quicker this way than going to a store, buying some and then spending the evening in the basement hammering them in. I got one row done while watching TV with my mum tonight, and I'm sure I'll have the other row finished soon enough.
I still need some hooks and eyes for closure, though (I know, I'm cheating again) so I'll have to go to a fabric store soon in any case.
This weekend I'll be at my grandparents, so no sewing and no blogging, although I'll probably get some work done on my stole (almost done now!) and my minion, I'll keep you updated on those projects. When I come back, I'll post a tutorial on how to fix ripped jeans - the other thing I finally got done tonight ;)
Have a nice and productive weekend, everyone, I'll see you soon!

Victorian Corset

Have I ever mentioned that I'm a big fan of steampunk? As this is only my fourth post, probably not, but now you know. After recently talking to a friend about the subject, I decided (once again) to try to make a steampunk-costume. Any steampunk-costume needs a proper corset, and mine's going to be in dark blue brocade. Some day, anyway. For now, as I've never made a (good, working) corset before, my trial run is going to be in green cotton. I may be able to use it as simple victorian underwear, if I ever get to make a victorian gown ;)

First time pinning and tracing. I numbered the pattern pieces so I wouldn't confuse them later on

I drafted my own pattern, using this guide.  After cutting out my mock-up and pinning it together, I was surprised how well it fit me. The only adjustment I did so far was reducing the back panel by 2cm for to have a gap there at all - I could close the mock up edge to edge.

I don't have a dressform here, so this is the best I could do to try the fit

I then used the mock-up as pattern pieces on some rough black fabric I spontaneously decided to use as flat-lining (only because the white linen I had intended for that purpose proved to be too small) and cut that out.

Second time pinning (but no tracing this time ;) )

On the green cotton that is to be the outer layer I used my paper pattern pieces again.

Third time pinning and tracing. Are you noticing a theme here?

I cut once more and then had to connect the green fabric (which was still pinned to the paper pattern-pieces) to the black fabric (still pinned to the mock-up, which I'm probably going to use as my inner lining, by the way).

This pile of pieces will hopefully turn into a beautiful corset :)

More unpinning and pinning until I was ready to stick my pins into the arm of the friend who gave the idea, had he been there. Lucky for him (and our friendship, I guess) I finally got done and won't have to do too much pinning anytime soon.
The next step will be to connect all the green to all the black pieces using a basting stitch (that's flat lining for you, I hope I got it right ;) ) and then I'll be able to start to sew the respective piecces together. That'll give me enough time to buy some boning (I will try to use zip-ties, as I've read AmericanDuchess do, but I'm not sure if they'll be any good since she only boned 18th century stays with them, to my knowledge).
As I still have to go to universtity in my free time, I will leave you with this, and go to bed. I'm very excited about this project :)