Past Patterns 708 take 2--Red Silk Dupioni

This corset is looks orange. It isn't. It's red. VERY red.

I'm nearly finished. All I have left to do is place the grommets for the back lacing. They should be arriving in the mail soon...

Finished!

Past Patterns #213 Victorian Corset

I started making this a few months after having my son. I underestimated how quickly my figure would change and by the time I finished it I was several sizes too small to wear it.

This was a lot of fun for me to make. The body of the corset was very, very quick to cut out and sew together; I did it in one of my son's rare 2-hour naps. I was also able to cut out the 40 strips of fabric used to make the stay casings during this nap! After the basic body assembly, the casings were simple and wonderfully tedious to sew on. This is a VERY good project for someone like me who has a great deal of very short breaks throughout the day. Each casing is first basted on which done carefully, only takes about 2 minutes. I basted all of the casings here-and-there over the course of about 2 weeks. Sewing them permanently is a snap after that.

I also like this pattern because you assemble the hardest parts first: The center busk. Every time I've done this (a total of three times) I am reminded of what an incredible Pain in the Ass it is, not to mention very hard on the fingernails. Perhaps I'll illustrate why on my next project.

I will be making this again with the following adjustments: reduce waist by 5", reduce back/neck length by 1 3/4", reduce bust by 2", reduce hips by 4". Overlay fabric in black silk or silk-satin, reduce the number of bones by about 10. Double-sided grommets instead of eyelets.

Dress-form isn't flexible. The pictures show the basic shape of the corset but do not accurately examine the garments shaping possibilities.

Simple Skirt and Top

Another outfit I made shortly before I became pregnant.

I wore the skirt a lot and often, the shirt is still unfinished and laying on my fabric stack :D

Ironically, the shirt was too big in the bust and too little in the waist when it was constructed. Now the opposite is true. A little tweaking and It'll be ready to wear by summer.

Tweaking to do: finish fitting top seam, finish edges and place zipper, add straps

Past Patterns Corset 708

Not bad for my first corset. I have wanted to make a corset since I first began seriously sewing but was too chicken. In fact, it was this exact pattern that first fired my imagination. I was loaned a catalog of Saundra Altman's Past Patterns and drooled over them for a very long time but knew I wasn't skilled (patient, really) enough to tackle anything in there, and it wasn't for many years that I had $50 to spend on something that might go terribly wrong.

I'm happy to say, I completed my first corset and it was a marvelous project. Ironically, I became pregnant soon after it's completion and that was that. It's OK though because I made the corset directly from the kit and did not correctly measure my back-to-waist length and so it never fit very well. Too long of a corset tends to shove your boobs up (this is great) and out at weird angles (not so great).

Aside from the bad fit, this corset is very comfy to wear. It has only three bones per side and so is pretty flexible. The hardest part for me was putting in the gores (the little triangle insertes on the bust and hips that make the corset flare out). Took awhile to figure out.

Keep in mind that the dress form is not flexible so it's hard to get an 100% visually correct interpretation of how this corset fits and shapes.

Retro Butterick (B4790)

This dress truly belongs in 1952...Cute Idea, unflattering results. It looked better on my sister so I gave it to her.