Wrapup: Part 1, the Corset

I can see now that it'll be worth it to split the remaining blog work on this project into two parts.  The previous entries have ALL been about the corset, so I will finish it.  I"ll write up the jacket in a separate entry; it was easier as it didn't take such elaborate fitting, and was built on a commercial pattern.  I'll also write a post summing up the experience and looking forward.  It's a new year, with much to be done.

I had to go back and look at what the last post was.  It's been ages - for which I apologize, gentle readers.  (I'll go into what went wrong with that in the wrap post.)  Last I left you, I had constructed the back panels and joined all the pieces.  What I didn't have for you was the pictures, or the critique of that work.  Well, better late than never!

The front looks good.....

More behind the cut....

Uh oh.  Not so good in the back.

 The back had some fit problems.  I couldn't tell you why. In the photo you'll see we've had to pull some of the boning partially out; having it run all the way down the gore was weird-looking, so I decided that I would cut the bone and stitch the casing closed.  That corrected that problem... but the back was just plain too long, and too large.  I think I may have mis-calculated the seam allowances for the gores.  To fix the issue, I simply shortened the back a full eyelet and changed to more of a princess-line.  This eliminated the areas that were too full.

The corrected corset hemline, pinned in

All that was left to do was trim at the new hemline and add the binding.  Cutting off that piece of corset was a little scary!

The trimmed-off piece from the back hemline correction.

Being who I am, I did a stitch off of the binding; I used the scrap I cut off the bottom of the corset as it would exactly emulate the corset body itself.

Binding stitch-off

That looked very good, except that my stitch length was a little short; that corrected, I went ahead and stitched on the binding.  I had to look up how to go around the inside corner at the center front on the internet.  The advice found put me on the right track, though the reality was just a teeny little tuck in the binding tape.  When stitching the top binding, I went off a bit on the inside and the tape was not properly caught in the stitches.  That was an easy fix, though, and not one worth taking the bias tape off the edge for.  Instead I planned (and did) whipstitch it down after completing everything else.  There were a few other similar little voids on both the inside and the outside, all of which were carefully hand mended on the finished corset.

Missed section of the binding, top interior

The pictures of the finished corset flat on the table are rather unimpressive - so here is what I know you've been waiting for, a couple of pictures of me wearing the garment!

Finished corset, front

Finished corset, back - awesome!