You can view and download the patent as a PDF here.

Getting Started

My first step was to analyze all of the information in the patent and do some research on corsets of the period. One quirk I noticed right away was that on the illustration of the corset there is a bust gusset on the right side, but not in the left or in the pattern itself. I decided to omit the possible gusset. The pattern has nine panels. Based on other corsets of the period, I assumed the pattern to be low-bust (almost underbust) to mid-bust at most.

 

The Pattern

After trying (and failing) to get my small wall projector to work, I decided to use digital means to scale up the pattern (Adobe Illustrator - AI and Photoshop - PS). If you are unfamiliar with either program this will unfortunately probably be a lot of gibberish - but if you are familiar, or want to try, then this is my quick and dirty way of sizing up a pattern... and remember if you mess up hitting control/command-Z will take you back/undo one or as many steps as needed!

I started by opening the PDF in PS and cropping out everything but the pattern. Next I opened that file in AI and traced the sections of the waistline using the pen tool (you will need to draw each section separately; draw, deselect, draw, etc.). Moving all of the waist sections to the side, I rotated (select black arrow and turn until level) and joined the segments (white arrow, highlight both points at line end and hit command-J).

Go to your top menu and click 'View' and then 'Show Rulers'. You should now have a solid line that represents the finished waistline of the pattern and a ruler to measure it with. Select (black arrow) both the waistline AND the pattern image, then scale them up together until the line measures half of your desired waistline. Make sure you drag from a corner and hold down the shift button as you scale, as it prevents warped scaling. If you want,you can also measure the center front, side and back lengths at this point.

Since I like doing most of my pattern manipulation on a paper copy, at this point I printed out the pattern (using 'tiled' printing format) and taped it together. Please note: if you want to try further digital manipulation I suggest reading some of the articles I link to at the end of this page.

The seamlines of this corset pattern do not match-up, and in some places the difference is almost 1 inch (25mm)! My guess is that the 'pattern' image submitted with the patent was not really intended to be a pattern at all, but more of a technical artists drawing of the pattern being patented.

Tracing off a fresh copy of the pattern allowed me to easily true-up all of the seams, while preserving the original for future reference. I also straightened out the waistline, as in the original it went at an almost 45 degree angle where it hit the front of the corset.   

On checking all of the pattern measurements, I found them to be an exceptionally good match to my own vital statistics, meaning I only had to make small horizontal adjustments. After adding notches, I was done and ready to sew the mock-up. On all pieces I placed the grain line perpendicular to the waistline. This gave the greatest stability at the waist, and on some of the curved panels it provided a little bias over the hips.

The Mock-up

The mock-up fitted me very well, in fact, the only area were I made big modifications being the bust. I decided to raise it slightly and to increase the 'cup' area to provide more support for my bust.  I did this by slashing the fabric, then laying in some scrap, and then pinning and trimming (see pictures below).

This is what the finished pattern, with my changes, looks like with the new height and width taped on:

I also did a 'sit test' to help me determine where the finished lengths of the bones should end throughout the corset.

Construction

I chose to make the corset from an outer fashion fabric of brocade coutil, lined in standard coutil. For support I used 16¼” (40.6cm) spiral bones, an 11” (27.5cm) standard busk, a ½” (13mm) spring steel underbusk, and 13” (32.5cm) lacing bones. The planned decoration included flossing, fancy lace elastic garters with sliders and matching lace at the bust. The finished waist measures 24" (60cm) and was made to fit me with a modest 3" (7.5cm) reduction.

Because of the length of the corset, I barely got away with using one yard of each type of coutil. If you want to make your binding match, or you are plus-sized, you will probably want 1.5 yards (137.5cm) to be safe. For the garters I only needed 1 yard (92cm) of elastic, and a pair of garter findings. If you plan more than two finished garters, then double the amounts I've quoted - although to be honest, unless you shorten the rear of the corset, it’s so long that back garters become useless.

This corset gave me the perfect opportunity to try out a construction method I have wanted to try. When making modern corsets I typically use the 'sandwich' method, but looking at the patent, the 'section-turned-over-section' method seemed more appropriate.

I started by fully inserting the busk into the front, then top-stitching the fashion coutil and lining coutil together along the other side (being careful to catch the waist tape in the right spot). Next I picked up the fashion and lining coutil of the next panel and sewed, right-sides together, through all layers. After clipping and pressing, I top-stitched one side at 1/8” (3mm) away from the seam, and the other side at 1/4” (6mm), thus creating the bone channel between the two layers of coutil. I repeated this process with all of the corset panels until I reached the center back. 

At the center back I pressed in the seam allowances and top-stitched along the edge at 1/16” (2mm), 1/8” (3mm) and 3/4” (19mm) to seal the corset and create the casing for the lacing bone. After slipping in the boning I bounded the top and bottom with black silk dupioni.

The underbusk stops about 1” (25mm) below the busk edge at the bottom. This was deliberate because I had curved the bottom of the busk to prevent dishing out over my tummy and I didn’t want the steels fighting with each other. The underbusk is caught between the seam allowances, and the bottom is hand-stitched shut, thus creating a shortened casing behind the busk.

Looking at the illustration, and the 1” (25mm) width of the back pattern piece, it was clear to me that lacing bones were the original design intention. I purchased regular and fusion-coated bones from corsetmaking.com.  The fusion-coated ones were extremely stuff, so I decided to use the regular ones instead. The width of both lacing bones is 5/8” (15mm). As my corset only consisted of two layers of coutil, I found I did not need special long-shank grommets to pierce all the layers. As I was marking the grommet placement, I discovered the holes on the bones were slightly off, so I marked them right and left. Because the boning on the back doesn’t extend all of the way down, I stitched some prussian tape in the interior to add a little additional support for the grommets at the bottom.

Lace Decoration

The lace decoration was inspired by this 1909 Lace embellished corset from the Met Museum.

In an attempt to use up stash items, I ended up dyeing 16 yards of cotton/nylon lace using black RIT dye. The first batch came out a very blue-black (see first picture, below) which clashed with the red-black of the corset. To fix this I over dyed with more black RIT mixed with Tan. Since the RIT Tan dye actually contains red particles, it gave it a nice warm black (see second picture, below) which better suited the finished corset.

The layers of lace were gathered and hand sewn in place top and bottom one at a time. The bottom of the lace was securely whip-stitched in place. The top of the lace was slip-stitched in the folds to the layer below to keep it in place without flattening it.

The rosettes were made by first sewing the lace onto a strip of the black silk bias I used for the binding. I followed by sewing it in a loop; and then gathering it closed. After pressing the rosettes as flat as possible, I whip-stitched them onto the corset.

Flossing

After looking at historical examples (Please see links at the end of the article, particularly 'Symington's Flossing Sampler') and deciding on the basic design I wanted, I played around with different color and thread variations. I ended up using matte DC floss for all of the colors; single ply on the red, and double ply on the green.

Garters

The garters were made by first sewing two strips of lace abutted, then sewing the lace and the elastic together along the edge with a very narrow zigzag. I used wooly nylon thread in the bobbin for a little extra stretch.  To get the gathered effect I pinned at 1” (25mm) intervals, with a ratio of 2” (50mm) lace for every 1” (25mm) of elastic. Once assembled, I slid on and attached the garter hardwear. The free end of the elastic was permanently attached to the underside of the corset by stitching in the ditch of the binding. The final touch was to hand-sew hooks and eyes on, over the elastic on the inside, to ensure the center front opening stayed closed underneath the busk.

Final Notes

Once I had sorted out all of the pattern alignment issues, the corset was very straightforward to assemble since there were no gussets or complicated seamlines. The decoration I chose took longer and was more complicated than the construction sewing. I think that as long as you can successfully size-up the pattern, and fix the few pattern alignment errors, you will find this an easy corset to make-up.

The corset is VERY comfortable, so much that I am plotting ways to adapt it into a modern style for me to wear out dancing. The waist reduction is just right, and there is very little pressure on my lower back (a sensitive spot for me). It's very easy to sit in because there is so much 'ease' in the hips. The garter placement was also very comfortable because they mostly 'float' over the front, so I don’t get the 'annoyed skin' feeling I get from modern garters rubbing over the top of my thigh.

If I made this corset again I don’t know if I would raise the bust. While wearing it by itself I certainly find it more comfortable raised up, but it’s not entirely historically accurate. By this point in time, corsets were becoming so low it prompted the invention of boned bust-covers or improvers that later evolved into the modern bra. Since I really want to make a boned bust-cover later, I am worried they will end up conflicting with each other. I might also shift some of the hip ease from the front to the back - this will help me get a more period line, since my posture is much too modern.

Links and Suggested reading

How to Install Lacing Bones – Farthingales Corsetmaking Supply
About Garters/Suspenders – LaraCorsets on the Corsetmakers Livejorunal Forum
Symington's Flossing Sampler – Livejournal Harmonhay (Cathy Hay)

Articles on Foundations Revealed

Reconstructing a Teens-Era Corset (part 1 and part 2) – Jennifer Thompson
CAD: “Corsets Are Digitised” – Mark Garbarczyk
Corset Pattern Scaling – Sandra Stuart

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