Corsetry part 3: The Photoshoot

A heck of a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this corset. Literally and figuratively. It took a long time to finish it. Many hours patternmaking, sewing up muslins, seam ripping, fitting, and repeating were necessary for my first corset. In theory corsets are simple because it is a lot straight stitching for the boning, but in reality, fitting a corset to a curvy body to make it supportive, sexy, and pretty all at the same time is a tall order. One of the people at the school describe cosetry as part sewing and party blacksmithing. I agree. So I decided I totally earned a professional photoshoot for this labor of love (oh and I finished finally sewing the binding on Valentine's Day). I made some accessories to go with the corset; a mini top hat and red skirt with a black tulle overskirt. Then I enlisted the help of Christina to make my vision of the transformation of the librarian who "lets her hair down"and becomes a vixen. Christina was my make up artist as well as the photographer. She's awesome!!! Another big thank you to sweetpea of King's Books for the gracious use of his perfect bookstore!

Want to see the progression of my corset? Check out this post here

The finished corset post is here

My lovely photographer Christina's post is here

Corsetry Part 2

I'm finally finished with my first corset! Truly a labor of love. This custom pattern required at least 4 separate fittings and many adjustments along the way. I learned a lot about my body, pattern making, grading, fitting, and handling power tools. As Dr. Whaley, Provost of the New York Fashion Academy says "making a corset is part sewing and part metalwork." I also learned you need a lot of hand strength to make a corset...from cutting coutil to setting the grommets to cutting the boning oh and hand sewing through 6 layers of coutil while trying to keep dotted material nice and even, I realized I need to work on my hand strength. Anyone have any exercises?

 My corset has a gentle sweetheart neckline and a v-shaped lower silhouette. Red and black tapestry patterned coutil make up the outer part of this lined corset. The lining is red polka dots on a black back ground. The corset has a 7 closure (extra long) busk in the front and laces in the back with metal tipped polyester lacing. I believe there are 22 grommets on each side. The edges of the corset are bound with the polka dot coutil. The over the bust bones are spiral and the rest are medium weight steel bones. If you want any other details just ask!

Without further ado, here's my beautiful corset. Want to see the progression? Check out the in progress pics in part 1. Professional pictures coming soon, so stayed tuned.

Front of corset

Back of corset

Corsetry

Canvas mock up

Stitching up mock up

Fitting #3 with lace up strips

Fabric selection

Final custom pattern

Preparing lining for cutting

Figuring out layout for fashion fabric

Grommets set

Laced up!

Only the binding is left to finish

To be continued....