Laughing Moon 100 Victorian Corset

Older project:


As the summer drones on and I have been posting my projects past and present, I think it's a good idea to put them on my blog in case my hard drives crash again and therefore I can store my images here.

Well, I did this project back in 2008.  As it was in those days I was a couple of pattern sizes larger than the present day and this corset is probably too big for me right now, so I would have to start again from scratch as corsets are a HUGE pain to alter.

Anyway, prior to making a Victorian style corset, I have made 3 others that includes two 18th century stays and a Regency (Jane Austen era) stay all courtesy of the Corsets and Crinolines book.

Now, as a beginner, my first set of 18th century stays were not that pleasing to look at.  It takes a lot of patience to get the channels sewn in straight lines and hand sewing the binding also trys your patience.  But with 18th century stays, the heavily 'whaleboned body' shape was en vogue and a heck of a lot of channels to sew.

Here is a general guide line for supplies that I used for my projects:

18th century stays( ca1730-1789):

1. Purchase plastic whalebone 6mm wide 2.5 mm thick from Farthingales
2. Use 2 layers of fabric.  Be authentic as possible.  I use silk taffeta or heavy cotton twill and linen lining
3. Sew channels 9 mm wide to accomadate the Wissner boning (6 x 2.5) square mm
4. Purchase up to 40 m of boning depending on the pattern
5. Single laced spiral zig-zag (offset) lacing holes were common
6. Hand sew eyelets in the back for authenticity using overcast stitch

!8th century heavily whaleboned body shape with whale baleine was so popular back then.
Amen to the use of plastic these days

19th century Regency stays( ca1798-1825):

1. Use Hemp cord for thin channels
2. Use the Wissner boning as in the 18th century stays
3. Use heavy cotton twill or use coutil if you want and linen for lining
4. Single laced (offset) lacing holes authentic lacing techniques.
5. Has removable centre busk.  I bought a permanent sewn in metal busk.  Somewhat flexible

Regency stays have a lot less boning material than previous century

Victorian corsets ( ca1835-1900):

1. Use metal spiral boning and straight white metal boning (1 cm wide channels)
2. Cotton twill, silk taffeta, linen lining
3. Metal busks
4. DO NOT use plastic boning.  Not tough enough
5. Frilly lace for edging
6. Criss Cross lacing with "bunny ears" in the middle for waist tightening

So, a Victorian corset can use metal boning as is quite authentic and products these days don't rust.
For a beginner, Laughing Moon #100 is a good starting point.  I found it to be rather straight forward and the instructions were quite easy to follow

*** Do not use any man-made fibres for your corset.  Your skin needs to breathe and the fabric is generally not strong enough***

Here are my pictures

I used a tan coloured silk taffeta and linen lining:  worked well

Front Busk installed

Corset sewn with channels without boning 1 cm (10 mm)
wide channels



Looks like it fits with metal boning



Finished front. I left out the centre waist reinforcement..Just cuz

Finished grommets and lacing. See the bunny ears in the waist area?

Now, the fit with the metal boning looks as though some boning is too short for my channels.  I bought these in pre cut sizes, so I tried my best.

****This is very important for sizing the boning for each channel*******

Measure the length of your  unfinished channel eg 25 cm

Subtract 2 cm from the total length.  This is the length of boning needed for your channel. (23 cm)

Why do this? 

Well, think of your closed channel as a propane tank.  NEVER fill a propane tank 100%. There needs to be air space for expansion just like a corset boning channel needs some space for the boning material to move, otherwise, it contorts out of shape and can poke out of your channel in awful ways that can ruin your corset. Plus, the boning material can dig into your ribs or hips that can make it sooo uncomfortable.

Know what a proper fit looks like (Hard and fast rules):

When your corset is tightened enough without hurting, the gap in the centre back should be 2 inches or 5.08 cm wide.  Give or take a 1 cm , that should be a good fit.  If tightened and the gap is too wide, your corset is too small.  When tightened, and the gap closes, and your corset shifts slightly, it's too big.

Yeah, I know I would rarely wear these things except for Halloween and such, but it is such good practice and a challenge to get skills down right for any future projects that makes anyone a more experienced sewer.
Anyway, a quick post but more's coming...

Karin