Measurement of one side (inches):
Front length – 16½”
Side length – 20”
Back length – 18”
Waist – 14¼” (29” total with no lacing gap)
Top edge - 16¾” (33½” total, no lacing gap)
Hips – 22½” (45” total, no lacing gap)

Measurement of one side (cm):
Front length – 41.9cm
Side length – 50.8cm
Back length – 45.7cm
Waist – 36.2cm (73.7cm total with no lacing gap)
Top edge - 42.5cm (85.1cm total, no lacing gap)
Hips – 57.2cm (114.3cm total, no lacing gap)

The only marking on the corset was a printed section under the busk that reads “C.W.S. 118 0827 ‘WONT RUST’”. 

Using Google, I discovered that C.W.S. probably stands for Co-Operative Wholesale Society. The C.W.S. corset factory in Desborough, England  began operation in 1905.

I continued my search for those keywords using Google Patents and Google News Archive, but I didn’t come up with anything else that could help me nail down a firm date for this corset. However, the phrase “wont rust” did result in one possible match from 1917 on Google News Archive, although it was in an American newspaper instead of a British one, so I doubt it was for the same corset. The fact that this is likely to be an English corset makes it a bit more difficult to research using Google tools, although an equivalent U.K. News Archive search tool does exist in a less extensive form.

My only other possible lead came from the fact that the metal part of the stays and busk were encased in a layer of paper, which I had never seen before. I searched on Google Patents to see if this technique could give me any more clues about my corset, but I discovered that the practice of covering corset stays with paper to prevent them from rusting dated back at least to the 1870’s, and possibly earlier.

Although my quick online research did not give me a firm answer about the date, it did result in the discovery of some interesting information about my corset, and corsetmaking in general. Whenever I am researching an item, I always start with Google Patents and Google News Archive first because they are such quick and effective ways to search though historical patents, advertising, and articles. I also love that it is available to anybody without having to access academic libraries or more specialized research tools.

Without any concrete clues to date this garment, I started to become worried that this style of corset was from the later 1910’s or even the early 1920’s and it would not be appropriate for early 1910’s fashions (which is really what I wanted this garment to be used for).

I continued searching though Google News Archive to try and find pictures of corsets with a similar shape and construction details. I was more familiar with early 1910’s corsets that used complicated gores or diagonal seam-lines to create a strongly nipped-in waist. The news archive search reassured me though that corsets with simple, vertical seam-lines did indeed exist, and I found quite a few models from as early as 1910 that closely resembled the corset that I was researching.

The main difference between mine and the early 1910’s corsets appears to be the length of the bottom edge, with the earlier models typically reaching lower down the thigh. That is an easy feature to adjust if desired, but since I had no desire to explore the mysteries of using the ladies’ room in a thigh-length corset, I had no problem leaving it as is. My corset stops around the bottom of the buttocks, which is a much more convenient length to wear.

Warner’s Rust Proof Corset, 1912

Corsets continued to reach the bottom of the hips throughout this decade and into the next one, so that feature alone is not enough to date it.

I also found examples of corsets from the late 1910’s and even the early 1920’s that looked similar to the construction of my example, but I noticed that the tops of those corsets seemed to be placed at the high waistline vs. under the bust, which is where my corset hits. Elastic was also becoming more and more popular by the early 1920’s, so if my corset did come from the late teen’s or early 20’s, it would have been quite an old-fashioned model. 

Miller “Won’t Rust” Corset - 1921

Considering these stylistic trends, my best guess is that my corset dates from the mid-1910’s. The more moderate length of the bottom edge combined with the high underbust top edge seems to be most similar to the styles found in the middle of the decade.

Considering the similarities that I found in the basic shape of foundation garments from the Teens-era, I believe that this corset would work well for almost any historical outfit dating from the 1910’s to the early 20’s. I was comforted to find a New York Times article from 1917 in the news archive that confirmed a lack of major change in corset styles:

Corset manufacturers find themselves up against more or less of a stone wall in trying to put into effect any style changes. The trade feels that something new is needed to spur up the demand, which has been lagging for some time past. The inflexible position of the present styles was outlined by one member of the trade yesterday. “While the war is on,” he said, “I do not believe there will be much in the way of style changes."

C. B. Corset, 1916

I began by pinning the center-front body panel to my base using fine-pointed silk pins to avoid damaging the fabric if possible. I placed the pins so that they went diagonally into my base and all the way to the head of the pin.

I pinned the center-front edge first, then smoothed the fabric to the first seamline and pinned along the seam next to the inside edge of the boning.

I only traced off one panel at a time, so I just focused on getting this one section as flat as possible with no skewing or stretching of the fabric. I checked the grain lines frequently when pinning and used a T-square or L-shaped ruler to help me check the grain and make sure the fabric wasn’t being distorted. 

The next step was to cut out a piece of tracing fabric that was slightly larger than the corset section that I was patterning The fabric that I used was a non-slippery, firmly woven, poly-cotton sheeting fabric with no stretch. Heavy fabrics are not ideal for this job because it helps if you can see the edges or feel the seams though the fabric while working. 

I positioned this tracing fabric over the first section of the corset and pinned it down as well. I don’t use as many pins for this layer because it helps if I can flip the fabric up from time to time to check the precision of my lines.

Once both layers were pinned down, I started tracing the shapes. I used a pencil for my tracing because I find that it is more precise than fabric markers or tailor’s chalk, and it is easier to see than fabric pencils.

I outlined the center-front edge, top and bottom edge, busk hooks, and hook and eyes first. These lines were easy to do with a combination of feel and looking for the slight color change through the tracing fabric. 

By placing my pencil next to the raised edge of the flat-felled seam, I then was able to trace the seamline between the first and second body panels by letting my pencil follow this ridge down the length of the corset.

I was not overly concerned about getting perfectly straight lines at this point, but I did make a habit of flipping the fabric up from time to time to make sure that it was following the correct edge. 

The only tricky part was where the edge of the boning flipped up slightly due to the fact that flat steel does not bend sideways very well.

Since the top of the center-front panel has a flare at the top, this forces the boning to twist if you are pinning it to a flat surface. I just let the boning twist in its casing, and I tried to get everything other than that flat as possible.

However, if you pull the layer of tracing fabric taut across this raised boning edge, your pattern piece will end up being too small. To keep the tracing fabric in complete contact with the corset fabric, I pinned both layers down to the base on the inside edge of the twisted bone, and then I smoothed it along the ridge so that it followed the rise of the boning vs. being pulled across it.

Here you can see a shadow where the boning twists in its channel. 

Before unpinning the tracing layer, I also traced the outline of the busk, the size and position of the hook and eyes, the boning casing, the waist tape, and I wrote the piece number on it.

Then I unpinned the tracing layer, straightened the lines with a ruler or flexible ruler where needed, and cut out the pattern piece.

I always laid the finished pattern piece over the original corset before unpinning it from the base so that I could check to see how well it matched the original and make adjustments if necessary.

After the first pattern piece was complete, I simply repeated this process for the remaining four sections in the side and back of the corset.

To recap, I:

• pinned each piece of the corset down as flat as possible
• pinned a tracing layer on top
• traced the edges and seamlines
• made notations on the pattern
• cut it out
• checked for accuracy.

Although these methods were essentially the same for each piece, I have included some additional tips and suggestions that I made note of along the way.

You can see (right) where I was checking the grain line to make sure it was straight. The line from the herringbone weave dipped below the edge of the ruler on the left-hand side, so I unpinned that side and raised it until it was straight. 

Here (right) is a cut-out pattern piece for the top side section.

As I was double-checking it, I noticed that the top edge was too high on the left hand side, so I re-traced this edge with the correct angle and cut it down to the revised line.

It is much easier to trim off extra fabric than add more back on to a pattern piece, but if you find that you have made a piece too small, you can extend it with a piece of duct tape and then retrace and recut your line.

It may not be pretty, but it gets the job done. 

When tracing the edge of the boning casings, I once again made my marks by feeling for the edge of the casing though the fabric, as well as by flipping up the fabric from time to time to look for the seams.

However, the casing edges are not as easy to feel as the edges of the body pieces since there is no raised seam edge on the front side of the fabric.

For the long straight sections of boning casing, I would make 2 or 3 marks next to the edge of the boning casing , then line my ruler up with these marks and complete the line with the ruler. This resulted in a much neater pattern drawing, and it was much faster too. 

It is important to mark the direction of the grain on your pattern pieces as you are working.

My method began with me placing the completed pattern piece back on top of the section that it was traced from.

Without moving the pattern piece, I then folded part of it down and adjusted the folded edge so that it would line up with the direction of the grain.

I then finger pressed the tracing fabric so that it would hold a crease from the fold and then opened it back up again. 

Next, I used my ruler and traced a line where the crease was.

Using a T-square, I then drew a line perpendicular to the crease and marked the grain notation with arrows at each end.

You could also use a L-shaped ruler or even the corner of a book to mark the perpendicular line.

This process would be much harder to do with a regular twill or satin fabric, but you could use the back side of the corset to mark grainlines if the outer fabric of a corset did not have an obvious grain.

The most difficult section to trace was the side-back piece, which contained the most hourglass-shaped edges.

The side-front piece avoids this problem by dividing the panel into a top and bottom section, but this piece was cut all in one.

Once again, the flat steel boning does not bend side-to-side very well, so I started by pinning the part below the waist only and leaving the top fabric free. 

I traced the bottom half of this section, then placed a row of pins along the waist so that the tracing layer would not shift when I moved to the top half. 

I then removed the other pins from the bottom half of the corset so that the boning could move freely, and I flattened the top half of the corset and pinned it to the base. 

Even with the bottom half of the boning free from pinning, the wide flat steels still tended to twist a little when the top half was pinned flat.  

Like I did with the center-front section, I pinned the tracing fabric down next to the inside edge of the twisted boning, and made sure that it stayed in contact with the corset fabric while I was tracing. 

I completed this section by connecting the lines to what I had drawn in the bottom half, and then I carefully double-checked the edges once the pattern was cut out and the corset was unpinned from the base.

Commercial patterns include notches to help you make sure that your pieces are even when you are sewing them together, so I created my own version of these notches by drawing arrows that can be lined up during assembly.

The side-front panel had a seamline at the waist, so I drew arrows on the adjacent pattern pieces to point to the spot where the seam hits its neighboring piece. 

Although it was only necessary to take a pattern from one side of my corset, I double-checked the accuracy of my pieces by laying them on top of the corresponding sections on the opposite side to make sure there weren’t any noticeable errors.

When I was completely finished, my pattern pieces looked like this when laid out together.

Here is the Teens_corset_pattern.pdf and the pattern notes