How to make a corset
It's a monster write-up, I know, but I don't know how else to fit all the necessary information in.
This isn’t meant as the
endall and
be-all of
home corset making. I don’t know enough to tell you how to make proper
period outfits, and I don’t have enough experience with
lined corsets to tell you how to make them – though it seems usual to make them as two separate corsets until you start putting in the
hardware and hemming it.
If you already own a
corset, you may want to check out
-the rest of
corset
-
When to wear a corset
-
wearing a corset
If you want to make a corset, read the directions a few times before you seriously attempt it. It’s good to have an idea of what you’re getting into. If you spot any problems, or you have any questions, feel free to /msg me or e-mail me (christiane5_3@yahoo.com).
There’s a great deal of good books on the subject out there, and I’ve included a list of reference places at the end of the write-up.
Happy sewing!
Materials:
- Store-bought pattern OR t-shirt, duct tape, permanent marker, scissors.
- About a yard of nice, sturdy fabric for your first try, 1-2 yd fabric in general.
- Grommets (size 00 recommended), preferably with setter.
- 2 three-yard-long laces (skate laces, sturdy ribbons, etc.) They may need to be shorter, they may need to be longer, you may need 4. It’s an experiment.
- Lots of hooks ‘n’ eyes OR hook ‘n’ eye tape OR a busk OR none of the previous items.
- 1/2” boning tape (7-8 yards, more if you’re making the corset extra-long, less if you’re making a waist cincher).
- Boning, quite a few pieces. See section below on boning for more details.
- Chalk or colored pencil
- Time (from five to 20+ hours)
Make one out of Duct Tape:
First, find a fairly tight t-shirt (or
tank top, if you don’t plan on adding straps to the corset) that you don’t mind sacrificing to your
cause. Put it on. If you plan on wearing a padded
bra under the corset, wear it. If you don’t plan on wearing any bra at all,
make sure you aren’t wearing one.
Break out the duct tape. Wrap it around the t-shirt fairly snugly, like a
tube top. Cover the t-shirt in a
couple layers of duct tape. Be sure to go as far up as you want the corset to go. Go as far down as you want the corset to go. Put
straps over your shoulders if you want a pattern with built-in straps.
Grab a permanent marker and a
three-way mirror or a
trusted friend. Draw where you want the
seams to go. The way I usually place them is
- One down the very center of the front of the corset
- One directly over the spine
- Two down the front of the body, passing directly over the nipples
- Two at the outside of the ribcage in front (Hold a finger or two at your shoulder in front. Trace directly down. The seam will probably run right about there.)
- No side seams directly under the arm
- Two at the outside of the rib cage in back (same sort of placement as in front)
- Two midway between the spine and the outside of the ribcage (this is where a trustworthy friend is especially helpful.)
- If you put shoulder straps on, draw seam lines running along the highest part of the shoulder, or just go with there the seams are on your t-shirt.
Cut yourself out (very
carefully!) at either the middle front or middle back seam.
Shrug the duct-taped shirt off and get dressed in
something a little more comfortable.
Straighten the seam lines where necessary. Get them as symmetrical you can, given the inherent
asymmetry of
the human body. Draw where you want the edges to fall, or just cut off the excess tape. Make the straps look better (e.g. sexier, curvier) by cutting off tape and/or adding additional tape.
You’re sure everything’s
perfect?
Label all the pieces so that you can tell what’s what (e.g. left center, left center front, 1a, 1b,
whatever). Draw
interesting little marks across the seam lines so you can see where they meet up. Cut the thing apart on the lines. Voila! You have a pattern!
Well, you probably have a pattern. If the pieces don’t lay (mostly)
flat when you put them on the table (or other level surface of your choice), you may need to make some small
adjustments. This is usually only an issue for corsets with built-in straps.
Lay the piece that’s bubbling up flat as you can on a level surface. Eye the bubble; figure out where its lines of symmetry are and which edge it’s closer to. Cut from the closest edge along one of the lines of symmetry. Cut to the center of the
bubble or so, then see if it lays flat. It won’t be perfect, but if it’s still pretty
hideous, cut a little farther. If you end up having to cut all the way across, make sure you mark where the two pieces lined up when they were whole so that putting it together isn’t as much of a
hassle.
Finally, how much of a
gap do you want in the back of the corset? If you want it to lace closed, you’re probably done. If you want a great gaping amount of
flesh at the back, you may do well to
discard the center pieces in the back and straighten out the seams going down from your
shoulder blades. Otherwise, if you want a two or three inch gap, just
shave some off the edges of the center back pieces that face the spine (be sure to do it
symmetrically).
Key points
- Are you absolutely sure you’ll always want to wear your best padded black lace bra under your corset? Are you absolutely sure you’ll even have the bra for as long as you have the corset?
- Patience, young grasshopper. While you can take back a cut you’ve already made, and everything is fixable, it can be very frustrating trying to put your new 3-D jigsaw puzzle back together so you can figure out how to line it up properly.
- Even if you suck as horribly at this as I did the first time, you can always buy a pattern.
- Are you absolutely sure you marked everything before you cut it?
Buying a pattern:
Simplicity 5726 is my own personal favorite, though there’s a good variety out there.
When you’re figuring out what size you’re going to make, don’t go by which one “seems
closest” to your own. Buy whatever size it takes so that none of your measurements are bigger than the measurements specified on the pattern. For example, I have no
waist, in addition to having no
breasts. I bought the size that is perfect for my waist, even though it’s too big for my hips and far too big for my bust.
It’s much easier to take in than it is to let out.
Fitting a pattern
Cut the pieces out carefully.
Trace the pattern pieces onto the fabric you’ll be making your
mock-up corset out of or pin them to the fabric and cut around them.
If you trace them, make sure you copy the various marks (
witness marks) that indicate where the pieces match up. The mock-up corset can become a “
real” corset, but you’ll want to make it out of a fairly tough material like
denim so that it’ll stand up to repeated
sewing and seam-ripping.
Label all the pieces appropriately, then cut them out. (Yes, I know I’m a “
type A,” thank you for noticing.) You may want to increase the seam
allowance before you cut, just in case.
Sew them together as indicated in the pattern directions.
Put the corset on inside out. Make sure that the undergarments that you have on are what you’re planning to wear with the corset.
Rig some way to strap the unfitted corset together in back and in front. Large
safety pins can be highly effective.
Pin and mark every seam that needs to be taken in.
Look at your very sexy self in the
mirror. Grin.
Take the corset off, and adjust the seams as needed; try to keep it symmetrical.
Put it on again, and jury-rig it as before.
Adjust seams again, if needed.
Once you have it right, mark exactly where the seams are. Take your newly perfect corset apart (make sure the chalk or pencil labeling the pieces hasn’t worn off).
Either cut the pieces exactly along the seam lines and use them as patterns for
evermore, or figure out a way to transfer the location of the seam lines directly onto paper.
Voila! You now have a corset pattern!
Sew it all together
If you bought a pattern and fitted it, you know how to do this already.
Go forth and conquer!
If you made the pattern out of
duct tape, it’s easy. Really. It’s just a bit time consuming.
Break out the chalk! (or the colored pencil)
Trace the pattern pieces onto the cloth. Unless you made new pieces with a built-in seam allowance, you’ll also have to put in the seam allowance. To do this, find something as wide as you want the seam allowance to be. You can buy one of those
spiffy little
rulers with the
slider, aka a
seam gauge; it's
cute, it's adjustable, and it's pretty
easy to work with. Alternatively, figure out how deep you want the seam allowance to be (5/8” is standard, 3/4” is easier to measure, 1” tends to be a bit
excessive). Cut out a circle of cardboard with a diameter equal to the seam allowance, or cut out a square of cardboard with sides equal to the seam allowance. Draw the appropriate seam allowance all around all the pieces as you trace them. (Yes, this is a
pain in the ass, but it is necessary, and worth it.)
Find the pieces that go in the center of the back and/or the front.
And/or? If you only want your corset to lace up the back, just find the pieces for the back; if you want it to have a front closure and lace up the back, find all four; mix and match as necessary. Lay them down on the
fabric t-shirt side up. Trace the top and bottom edges, and the edge that was the center seam. These pieces will be the facing (what you see on the underside of the “gaps” in the corset, and what helps keep the lacing and fastenings intact and well-reinforced). You’ll want them to be around three inches wide, and both edges should be straight. That is, you’ll want three-inch-wide strips that look like the three inches of the actual corset pattern piece that
abut the center seam.
Cut out the pieces. (Are they labeled? Are they labeled?)
Start sewing! If you just want one opening, you’ll end up with one long
strip of corset. If you want two openings (one opening and lacing, whatever), you’ll end up with two halves. I find it helpful to lay everything out in the proper order and oriented correctly. Pin almost everything together
right sides together, and sew along the seam marks. (
"Right side": a lot of fabric has a right side and a wrong side. The right side is the prettier side, the one you want to see on the outside of the finished garment.)
When I say almost, that’s what I mean. You need to put the hardware on the bits directly adjacent to the fastenings (busk, hook ‘n’ eye closures, lacing) before you sew them to the rest of the garment. Get everything else put together
properly, we’ll hit the hardware.
You may want to make a
felled seam to make the corset feel more finished. This is more of an issue if it’s unlined. For a felled seam, trim one of the seam allowances to about a quarter inch at each of the seams. Take the other seam allowance, and fold it around the narrower one. Press everything down towards the shorter side. If you
cross-sectioned it, the wider piece of cloth would be looped around the
narrower piece and back under, so that the raw edge is underneath and against the seam. Pick a side and stay
consistent; it’s fairly common to fell everything towards the sides or towards the back.
For the straps, you’ll want to sew them together at the top first, and then finish the edges. This can wait to the very end; it may make the corset easier to work with if you wait.
Hook and eye:
For this, simply sew the appropriate center pieces to their respective facings, right sides together, and iron flat right side out. Mark where you want the hooks and eyes to go (closer is generally better), and sew hooks to one side, eyes to the other. Better yet, you can buy “hook ‘n’ eye tape” at some fabric stores and just sew that to the pieces.
Busk:
Busks are my favorite form of fastening; I think they look better than hooks and eyes (oooo shiny!), and they’re easier to open and close. They look best in front, I think. They usually come as two pieces of boning hooked together by the bits sticking off of them. One half has
studs coming off of it. The other half has
loops.
Figure out which side of your corset gets studs and which gets loops. It usually doesn’t matter much. We’ll say right gets the loops and left gets the studs, for this explanation.
Take the right center piece. Lay the stud half of the busk on top of it.
Scoot the edge of the busk against the seam line and center it between the top and the bottom of the piece.
Mark where the studs are. Use a
ruler to figure out how far the bases of the studs are from the edge of the boning. Mark where the studs will
actually be coming out of the fabric.
Sew the right center piece and the right facing together. Make sure the marks are still accurate.
Use something
sharp and pointy, like a
awl, to punch holes in the center piece for the studs to go through. Put something like fray check around the holes so they don’t
unravel too badly.
Push the studs through, and sew the busk in. It should now be in its own happy little tube, with the studs sticking through the center piece (not the facing).
Take the left center piece. Lay the loop half of the busk down on the center piece with the edge against the seam line and the whole thing centered. Place it so that the loops are going over the seam line.
Mark where the loops are (trace around them and put an X in the center, for example).
Pin the center piece and the facing together. Sew them together everywhere that the loops won’t be. Make it
extra-strong.
Shove the loops through, making sure that there aren’t any
strange bits of fabric sticking through the holes, and then sew the loop half of the busk in.
Again, it should be in a little tube with the loops sticking out into space.
Now just sew these newly metal-filled pieces to the rest of the corset.
Grommets for lacing:
You’ll want to put a piece of boning between the grommets and the edge of the corset to keep the corset from wadding up when you lace it. Half-inch boning is pretty standard, but quarter-inch could work for
lighter corsets.
First, sew the center pieces and their respective facings together, right sides together. Turn them right side out and
iron them flat. Sew a line
approximately 5/8” from the edge. You should have a nice
finished edge with a line of stitching a little ways in, creating a
tunnel.
Note: if you want to use quarter-inch boning, make the tunnel narrower.
Now, figure out where you want to set the
grommets. They should be just in from the boning tunnel, and fairly closely-spaced. Also, you’ll probably want size
00 grommets; smaller ones seem less likely to
rip out, and they generally look better. For size 00, around 1.5 cm from center to center works pretty well. It helps to experiment on a scrap before you make a solid decision.
Mark where you want them to go. Make sure it’s right.
Set those
suckers in. It helps to have some sort of
setter and a
hammer. Go slowly; it’s nearly impossible to take them out once you’ve set them.
Sew the pieces to the rest of the corset.
Boning:
First off, it’s a little less frustrating in the long run to figure out what lengths of boning you need at the onset and buy them before you even
start working on the corset. If you bought a
pattern, it’ll tell you in the
instructions. If you didn’t, you just need to do some measuring.
You’ll need one piece of quarter-inch boning along each seam line, not
counting where you put the busk, hook-and-eyes, or grommets. You’ll also want one running directly down each of your sides, right where the seam of a tank top lies on you.
If you made the cuts on your duct tape pattern like I did, and you’re doing front and back fastenings/lacings, you’ll be buying 10 pieces of boning for the seams plus 2 more that sit just inside of the grommets (both the same length; half-inch boning will be sturdier than quarter-inch boning). That’s 12 in total for a corset with lacing in back and fastening in front. If it just laces in the back, you’ll need
13 (one more quarter-inch at the center front). If it laces in front and back, you’ll need 14 total (probably four of them half-inch).
Horribly
confused?
Great!
As for the type of boning, don’t use
nylon. Just don’t. It’s annoying to work with, the ends have a terrible tendency to rip out and
poke people, and it
kinks, which puts nasty
creases in your pretty new corset.
Steel is good.
Spiral steel (the
woven type of boning) is quite flexible, and it won’t kink. Spring steel is a little bit less
flexible, and it will kink if you really
force the
issue. You can buy boning of the appropriate lengths, already tipped, or you can buy
continuous boning, cut it to size, and tip it yourself (Note: tipped means the cut tips of the boning are finished somehow, either
covered or
coated.). Just remember to tip it, as it is
hella sharp and impossible to work with if it’s got raw edges. You can buy little tips to put on spiral boning or
fluid to tip spring steel boning with at www.corsetmaking.com.)
Now you’ll want to sew the boning casing in. This can just be
heavy cloth tape you sew securely to the fabric, or it can be pre-sewn
tubes. Half-inch tape or cloth casing works best for quarter-inch boning. Either way, center the casing over the seams, pin it down, and sew as close to the long edges as possible. Follow the same procedure for the boning at the center of the side pieces, just make sure to mark and
pin them carefully so they end up symmetrical.
Slip the boning into the casings. Get it
centered in the casings and hand sew the casing closed just above and below it.
You now have a gorgeous corset, except that the top and bottom edges are a little vulnerable to
fraying.
If you have
straps, this is a good place to sew them together at the
shoulders, then you can
get to work on hemming them.
Hem the top edge. Hem the bottom edge. You may want to turn the edge down almost to where you want the hem line to be, then turn it down again so it’s folded over and there are no
raw edges.
It can be nice to do this by hand. If you don’t want to, just remember to be careful not to sew through your nice new metal boning. Most
sewing machines are not too
happy when you attempt this.
Take a deep breath.
Put it on.
Get ready to wow them, you
sexy beast, you.
References:
- http://www.softcom.net/users/unicorn/corset.htm : How to make a Victorian corset
- http://www.waisted.com/index.html : Corsetry at Waisted.com
- http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/18corset.shtml : How to make an 18th century corset
- http://costume.dm.net/corsets/ : The Elizabethan Corset Page
I usually buy my supplies from www.corsetmaking.com. Their service is generally fast, and their prices are decent. However, I would also encourage you to shop around, especially if you live anyplace other than North America or you know any European languages (German, for example).
Many thanks to evilrooster and bane221 for helping me out on this node.
I need all the help I can get. ::grin::