The Mina Sebille’s Patent US39964 appears to be a quite basic corset pattern (available at https://www.google.com/patents/US39964). The pattern is comprised of only five pieces per side; one basic shell, made of two pieces, that wraps around the body, and gores to fit the hips and bust. The patent is filed for the shape and construction of the gores – the hip and bust gores are made of quilted fashion and lining fabric, with batting in between the two outer pieces. This is to provide additional structure to the hips so that they could support the substantial skirts of this time period more comfortably. The early 1860s silhouette focused on huge round skirts and often exaggerated sleeves to create an optical illusion that the waist was quite small. I think that this is partly why the bust gores are also quilted – adding a bit up top would help the illusion that the waist was skinnier (or as Ms. Sebille herself writes, they “have the effect of setting out the corset”).

To get a feel for how a historic corset would have been made and worn, I like to look for examples of antiques from this time period. The concept of quilting corsets was not innovative when Ms. Sebille filed her patent - Salon of the Dames shows a gorgeous example of a hand quilted corset dated to the 1830s, and the Manchester galleries holds several quilted gored corsets as well; a black cotton satin one from the 1840s-50s and a red one from 1860-1870. I’ve also had the chance to see some pieces of Melanie Talkington’s at the Surrey Museum and Musee des Beaux Arts Decoratifs, and they incorporate quilting, too.

Some very skilled modern corsetmakers have also done interpretations of antique corsets, such as Kelly Cercone who posted an intricate white quilted corset, based on 1840s style lines. Katherine combined this patent with the embroidery patterns of the red corset in the Manchester collection, linked above, and created a beautiful piece. Marta Poletek has also done an article here on Foundations Revealed that has a very similar look to this one, although the gores are corded, rather than just quilted.

This crinoline style gown would be worn over a corset similar in shape to Mina Sebille's patent. Paris January 1860. Toilette de Mme de Dardel. Fritz von Dardel, 1860 - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0038389 Public DomainAfter reading the patent text, I don’t see any specific indication that the main body of the corset was batted (which is different than the interpretation from Katherine’s that I linked to!). I based this on Ms. Sebille’s description; “the gores cc and hip-pieces dd are to be formed of two or more thicknesses,” as I think she might have specified that ALL pieces were to be quilted, if that were the case (although it’s very possible that she didn’t mention it specifically because batted torsos were so common that she assumed everyone would do so!). Also, the lines in the drawing for the patent appear to all be boning channels, not quilting, and I thought it would be strange to bat the torso, but then not quilt it, and the gores clearly show quilting stitches. I acknowledge that extant corsets appear to have batting throughout, so that there is historical support for the entire corset having batting. But since my interest is in making modern corsets based on historical patterns and patents, but not strictly adhering to historical precedent, I will be batting only the gores that will be quilted.

As this patent drawing didn't show the pieces as nicely laid out as the previous patent I did, I couldn't just enlarge a photocopy to make a first mock-up. I wanted to draft the corset to my measurements, which will require taking a few liberties, as I am quite full-figured! I thought it would be easiest to just draw out the pieces, “eyeballing” the curves and edges while using my measurements. When I re-create a historical patent, my main goal is to get a feel for the construction and shape of the garment. If it fits well, that is excellent and is almost an added bonus. When I make historical patents, I fully expect to do more mock-ups than a plain six-panel underbust! I’ve found that if I fret too much about getting it too perfect in the first mock-up, I procrastinate and never get around to actually DOING. This was a quick and dirty mock-up to get this patent together and see how it sits on a real human body, so that I could refine it on a future mock-up. I made a few mistakes that I'll outline at the end, so please read this entire article through prior to trying to copy this!

I wanted to make a few adjustments from the beginning. I knew that I would need to heighten the corset over the bust, as unaltered busts usually end up as a demi-bust on me. Something we sometimes forget when drafting for full figures is that the girth is vertical AND horizontal -- adding gores can accommodate more flesh, but the flesh needs to be covered up and down, too, especially since I won’t be wearing the final version of this with a chemise to catch any nip slips!

I measured my natural waist for this initial mock-up, as even though I can corset down a fair amount in a conventionally drafted corset, this corset has very minimal boning - and I hadn’t worn a corset with boning ending at the waist before, which I’ve heard is much more uncomfortable. 

So, to adapt this patent to fit my quite curvy figure, I took the following measurements:

• Bust,
• Underbust,
• Waist,
• Hips,
• Underbust to waist,
• Waist to apex,
• Waist to hip,
• Apex to apex straight across,
• Front Bust,
• Back Bust,
• Back Hip,
• And also jotted down the following preferences: waist to “decent coverage at front” and “decent coverage at back”.

To draft the corset, I sketched out the corset draft on a grid. I drew the two halves slightly larger than I would need (the left was half of my front bust measure, and the right was half of my back hip measure). Although the pattern won't line up with the side marked, I can keep the two parts separate in my head and thus find it easier to visualize if they won't overlap.

 

For the front panel, I measured ¼ my waist measurement, and marked it out from centre front line (108cm/4 = 27cm) along the waist line. As my underbust measurement is slightly smaller than my waist measurement, I used my french curve to create a gentle curve up from the waist, to where the bust will be. The original patent appears to be fairly straight up and down in the flat line drawing, but I felt that the curves of the 3D drawing, combined with my curves, would be best served by drafting this with a slight curve. The bust on this draft measures 28cm - as ½ my bust measurement is 37cm, I’ll need to create two bust gores that are 9cm total. (And this is where I made my first mistake! More on that at the end!).

To draft the bust area on the main front pattern piece, I took one half of the apex to apex measurement (11cm), and marked it out from the centre front. I centred the lines for the gores 2.5cm on either side of this line. In the patent drawing, the two slits for the gores are quite close together - however as I am fairly ample in the bosom, I thought it would be a good idea to give a bit more space between the two gores. This will allow me to put in at least two ½" wide spiral bone channels here, for as much support as possible.

I started the lines for the bust gores 4cm below the bust line, so that they will have space to flare out under the bust, so as to not squish the lower part of the breast. The lines extend 20cm total, as that's the measurement from my underbust to the point of coverage on top. This creates quite a dramatic curve on the paper, but on the body, it should give a fairly gentle sweetheart bust line. (And this is the second big mistake that I address at the end!)

Down at the bottom of the front panel, I measured down 17cm from the waist, to mark the bottom line that would give me sufficient "coverage" at the base of the corset.

I then drafted out to the right, so that the curve starts at approximately the same point as the first bust line, and drawing the curved line to the waist point at the edge of the pattern piece. I didn't use any specific formula here - this is part of the organic part of corset making! I looked at the drawing in the patent and tried to approximate the lines as closely as possible.

For the back panel, I measured ¼ my waist measurement, minus 5cm for lacing gap (108cm/4 = 27, 27-5cm = 22cm back waist). I copied the curve from the front panel, arriving with a back bust measurement of 24cm. Although this is slightly larger than my measurements, I'm going to leave for it the mock-up, as the back area is often an area of "concern" when fitting, so having it a bit larger can minimize that "muffin top" effect. For the bottom of the back panel, the indent for the hip gore is about ½ of the panel, and goes up to the waist, so I estimated the distance and drew this in.

For the bust gores, I measured 20cm straight line, and then used the french curve to draft a curve near the bottom of the gore. Although the gores in the patent appear quite triangular, I thought that I should add more volume at the bottom to accommodate the larger bust. (Again with the second mistake!)

For the hip gore, I measured the vertical portion of the indent on the back panel, and drew a line that length on an angle to mimic the lines of the patent drawing. Again, I drew the rest of the gore organically - measuring to ensure that lines 1-2 match 4-5 on the back pattern piece, and points 2-3 match 5-6 on the front panel. The patent indicates that curved top of the gore (points 1-2-3) is slightly longer than the space between points 4-5-6, so that the gore will be gathered or fulled as it is inset. Thus, I added a centimetre on each end of the gore - I don't think it will gather very much, due to the bulk of the wadding and top and middle layers, so I didn't want to add too much and have it look weirdly gathered. Finally, I drew a curved line along the bottom of the hip gore, again mimicking the drawing in the patent.

I traced pattern pieces off of my draft and cut out the fabric. For this mock-up, I used non-stretch sturdy denim twill fabric for the main part of the corset. For the gores, I used a layer of denim on the top, two different types of quilting batting, and a cotton broadcloth for the top layer. I bought two types of quilting batting, to use one type on each side to see if there was a difference in the construction. I didn't feel or see any difference in the polyester versus the cotton product. If you're going to be wearing this a lot, I'd suggest the cotton over the polyester for increased breathability, but the cotton was also three times the price, so there's that to consider, too!

 

I cut the front panels as one piece, planning to place additional boning at centre front to mimic a busk, as I usually do for mock-ups.

I cut the batting and top fashion layer larger than the actual pattern pieces, as my experience doing chenille quilts is that even with a walking foot, the many fabric layers will shift slightly over the course of the lines. I cut the denim layer the same size as the pattern, as I was going to quilt the layers together with the denim on the bottom, and the bottom layer doesn’t experience that distortion the same way. Image 3 shows the batting and lining larger than the denim layer.

 

I did very basic line quilting for the mock-up, using the walking foot’s edge to line up subsequent rows of stitching. The bust gores are all quilted diagonally, while for the hip gore, I followed the line of the top of the piece.

 

To minimize the movement of the fabric, I basted the three layers together along the line of the pattern that I’d be starting the quilting lines from. So for the bust gores, I stitched the three layers together along the straight side, just at the seam allowance line.

 

To try to minimize the fabric creep, and ensure that I stitched a consistent line, I stitched one started line at a 45 degree angle, and then stitched to either side of it.

 

For the hip gore, I stitched just at the seam allowance of the top of the gore pieces. One all of the quilting was done, I trimmed the pieces down to match the denim layer, which I confirmed matched the pattern pieces.

 

I also took this moment to mark the point 2 on the hip gore, that would line up with point 5 on the main panel pieces (basically, where the side seam should be hitting the hip gore).

I started putting together the mock-up by inserting all of the bust gores, as I find it easiest to do the finicky work when there's as little extra bulk as possible. This is where I realized my first mistake! I had forgotten that the main front panels would be slit, and have seam allowance turned under, to create a clean fold. Although I’ve made corsets with bust gores before, the gores were set into a seam, rather than a slit in the fabric, so I failed to visualize the full process for this particular garment.

This means that the front panels were each about 3cm smaller than planned!

There are a few different ways of inserting gores, and Lara Loft has a great tutorial here on Foundations Revealed. To insert the gores, I marked the two lines on each side of the front main panel – I marked these by basting them over fabric crayon marks, as I find stitching much easier to see, and more precise, than pencil marks. I then stitched a rectangle 3/8" of an inch all on either side of this line, meeting the bottom of the line.

 

I used a basting stitch length for most of this line, but used a quite small stitch length at bottom ¼ of each line, and the bottom end of the rectangle, to reinforce it. (In a final version of this corset, I’d either use the method that Lara outlines in her tutorial, or this method, and I’d remove the stitching on the fold higher up. For both techniques, I’d add decorative flossing or stitching on the bottom of the gore to reinforce this area).

After doing this for all four bust gore lines, I cut down the marked line, stopping about ¼" shy of the end, and then cut to each corner of the rectangle, taking care to not snip the stitching!

 

Then I very carefully pressed these flaps under, with the fold at the stitching line.

 

On each gore itself, I already had the row of basting stitching on the straight edge, and I stitched a basting row on the curved vertical seam as well.

 

Then I positioned the gore inside the gap, lining up the bottom point of the gore with the bottom of the gap (another mistake I made here – the gore was pointed in the drawing, while this gap results in a more square shape at the bottom!). Then I pinned these pieces together, lining up the folds with the seam allowance (SA) line on the gore, and then topstitched on the edge of the fold on the main piece, reinforcing at the bottom with backstitching.  

 

After inserting the four gores, I attached the back pieces to the front piece, pinning right sides together, and stitching and pressing the seam open. I stitched down each seam to serve as a boning channel at the side. I took the main piece and sewed in the 5/8” SA from the edge of the fabric, along the edge where the gore will be attached. At the back corner, I again used a small stitch within a ¼” of the angle, to reinforce this area, pivoting and sewing the back vertical line. I then snipped this corner right up to the stitching line, and pressed the SA back along this stitching line, just as I did for the gores. I pinned the hip gore in, pinning at the front (points 3 and 6 on the patent), seam line (points 2 and 5) and back (points 1 and 4), and easing the extra top volume in between these points with lots of pins. I pinned the back vertical line, and topstitched the entire thing about 1/8” away from the edge of the fold.

 

For boning, I cut strips of the denim on grain, and stitched them down on the inside of the panels to mimic the placement shown on the patent. As mentioned above, I’m a larger gal, so I put in additional support at centre front, using ½” wide straight spring steel. I used two pieces of ½” wide spiral steel on each side between the two gores, and these pieces each travel on a curve to the centre front bottom, rather than going “down” vertically through the hip gore. I used a single ½” wide spring steel piece on the outside of side bust gore, and this also curved along to the lower centre front. I put in two pieces of boning at each side seam, ending this boning at the top of the hip gore. On the back, I applied temporary lacing strips along the edge of the SA line, so that I could lace it up without the time and expense of inserting grommets into the mock-up. I set the temporary boning channels in one inch from the edge of the fabric, as I could tell from holding it up around myself that it was going to close at the originally intended space.  I didn’t do the diagonal upper back boning that shows on the original patent, as I didn’t think that it would affect the fit of the mock-up. I didn't take photos specifically of the boning placement, as I was stitching it on, as I figured that it would show in the photos on my body much better! Image 17 shows the placement along the lower front quite well.

 

I can finally lace it on and test this out!

I can see immediately that the mock-up is too big in general, as it’s meeting in the back after I’ve worn it for ten minutes!

 

The side seams are at the correct area on my side (thought definitely crooked!), I will adjust the size at the side seam and centre back. This will require some adjustments to the length of the hip gore, too. Image 19 shows just how crooked this side seam is! Part of this is due to my natural pelvic tilt (by which I mean I tend to stick out my booty), but if I can make this point vertical through drafting, that would be ideal.

 

Image 20 shows the front on fit, and it's clear that the bust gores are too long vertically, and too small horizontally across the chest. I think that these two aspects of the ill-fit go hand-in-hand – because the corset bust is too tight, it squishes up the breasts like an Elizabethan bodice, and doesn’t follow the curve of the bust as I’d planned it to, so there's less space taken up by that curve.

 

The patent indicates that in this corset, “the hip itself is not confined by the corset, but is free to move in walking or changing position of the body” and that the hip-piece should “set out from the corset as a curved segment, and in use this sets above and around the hip, allowing ample room for the hip, and making the skirts set out handsomely". The hip piece follows the shape of my hips quite closely here and is even a bit snug, so this will have to be altered a bit in the next mock-up to loosen it.

This corset is fairly comfortable to wear, overall. As the corset has a conical rather than hourglass shape, I can definitely feel pressure on my ribcage as I’m wearing it, but it’s much more comfortable than I’d expected from just looking at the patent!

 

Changes for next mock-up

• Add additional width to gore pattern pieces to make up for the seam allowance on main front pieces. I also want to add some additional space at the apex of the bust, to allow it to follow the curves of my chest closer.
• Raise the base of the bust gores by approximately 2cm, so that it sits closer to the start of my breast tissue at my underbust.
• Lower height of the top of the corset by 3cm across the two gores and bust area.
• Square bottom of gore pattern to match the square bottomed slit in the fabric, or use a different technique for inserting the gores.
• Cut and spread the hip gore slightly to allow for an additional 3cm of space on each side of the hips.
• Take out 3cm from each side at centre back on each side, to bring the corset.
• Correct the angle of the side seams, so that they run vertically

 

The next installment of this will show how I altered the pattern to reflect these changes. I'm also going to experiment with more modern quilting techniques for the gores on the next mock-up, to craft a more modern aesthetic.

 

 

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