I have never (no, not even once!) made a corset based on an existing pattern. I’ve always drafted my own patterns from scratch, using a mix of careful measurement, intuition, and that wonderful confidence that comes from being oblivious to the actual difficulty of a project. Creating this corset was definitely a new experience for me, and it is my hope that everyone reading can learn a little something from my adventures. I would especially like to encourage beginners; theory is great, but the very best way to learn is to jump in and do it!

The Patent

 

The full patent, including a side elevation, the pattern pieces, and a sheet of written specifications, is available through Google Patent Search:

US Patent No. 208,517, Improvement in Corsets,  D. H. FANNING. Patented Oct. 1, 1878.

A Closer Look at the Patent

Fanning’s 1878 proposed improvement in corsets relied heavily upon a “greater number of small gore-pieces.”

Fig. 2 shows two gores marked c and d (a gore is inserted into a slash in a corset’s panel), and four gussets marked e, h, i, and j (a gusset is inserted between two panels of a corset.)

On the specification page, both gores and gussets are referred to as “small gore-pieces,” lacking our current distinctions. The number and position of these gores and gussets was an improvement over previous corset designs, where fewer small pieces were typically used; sometimes only one or two pieces were inserted, and even then they were seldom found at both the bust and the hip locations in the same garment.

The fashion of the day called for dramatic curves in both the bust and hip areas. Fanning sought to achieve this silhouette through the use of gores and gussets inserted between fairly straight vertical panels a, b, f, g, and k.

By shaping the pieces b f g k and inserting the small gore-pieces, as shown in Fig. 2, I am enabled to more perfectly fit and fashion the corset than by slashing a piece of fabric for a short distance from its lower edge upward, or by the use of a single gore.

Two Toiles

From the beginning, I planned to make two separate toiles (or muslins, or mockups, or “draft” versions,) for this project. Toile #1 would be a direct copy of Fig. 2, as I was very curious to see the ways in which the pattern would fit (or not fit) a person living over 130 years in the future. Taking what I discovered from this exercise, I would make the necessary modifications to the pattern and create Toile #2; a toile to fit a present day body shape. I used an inexpensive but sturdy herringbone cotton for both toiles.

 

Measurements

 

First and foremost, I needed to take my measurements. I did this as I normally would for a basic corset:

• bust: 34”
• bust to underbust: 3”
• underbust: 30”
• underbust to natural waist: 3”
• natural waist: 28”
• natural waist to high hip: 4”
• high hip: 33”
• front height: 12”
• back height: 12½”
• underarm height: 11”

 

Patterning Toile #1: Applying My Measurements to the Original Pattern

For this first toile, I did not want to make changes to the shapes or relative sizes of the original pattern pieces; I wanted to see exactly what this corset would have looked like back in 1878. Still, I needed to find the size that would best fit my body, and scale the pieces accordingly.   Judging by the shape of some of the pieces, I could tell that seam allowances (circled) had already been included in the drawing. I decided to use a 3/8" seam allowance.
Having opened Fig. 2 in Adobe Photoshop, I used the program's capabilities to draw a grid on a separate layer over the pattern, each square representing 1". (Precise scaling of the pattern would be done a little later.)   I traced red horizontal lines where I thought the bust, underbust, waist and high hip should go. (The line placement was difficult, with so few curves to indicate where they should be drawn.) I assumed that the underbust line would fall somewhere near the bottom points of the bust gores. By placing the waistline where the back piece appears to curve inwards, it seemed like the waist was too high up once the line reached the front of the corset. The shapes of f, g, and k (the only pieces showing any evidence of waist definition) seem to suggest a waistline that curves slightly downwards as it travels towards the front. I left the waistline straight for measurement purposes, planning to observe how the toile behaved when worn.
With the lines drawn, I linked the pattern and line layers together in Photoshop, then resized them underneath the grid. This is how I determined the correct size: I decided to use the measurement at the 33” high hip, where my torso is the least squishy. Since I was measuring for only half of the corset, I needed a 16½” width. At the hip, fourteen edges would be joined together with a 3/8” seam allowance, and the back edge would also be allowed 3/8”.  (I decided that the front edge would become the actual leading edge, and that I would add extra fabric for the installation of a busk later on, when constructing Toile #2.)  3/8” multiplied by fifteen equals 5 5/8” of combined seam allowances. Adding 16½” and 5 5/8”” together gave me a total width of 22 1/8”.  Finally, it was just a matter of scaling the pattern, counting the number of 1” squares along the high hip line I had drawn, so that the total width of the pattern pieces along this line would equal 22 1/8”. (I needed to scale it up and down, counting a few times, in order to find the right size.)
Once I got the high hip to the correct width, I was curious about the widths of the other three measurements. Counting the squares, and subtracting the number of 3/8” seam allowances per line, this is what I found: The bust came pretty close to my initial measurement of 34”. At 32½” on the pattern, the difference of 1½” didn’t bother me (especially in a squishy area that needs support). The 25¾” waist measurement reduced the natural waist of 28” by 2¼”. The underbust measurement was only 24”. Six inches too small! More minor discrepancies between the original pattern and my own measurements became apparent when I noted the vertical distances between horizontal measurements: The distance between the bust and underbust lines is 4” on the pattern, and my measurement was only 3”. The underbust to natural waist was also ¾” shorter on the pattern than I required. The waist to high hip measurement ended up being 5/8” longer on the pattern than it was on me.
As for overall heights, the front and back seemed much too tall at 16¾” and 16” respectively. The underarm measurement of 12½” seemed a bit more reasonable, but was still somewhat taller than I thought it needed to be. Perhaps this was meant to be a longline corset? The patent gives no indication of how much hip coverage, stomach coverage, or back coverage the corset was intended to provide. Mr. Fanning did not include any drawings of the corset being worn or modeled. I decided to go ahead and make up my first toile. Would seeing the pattern in three dimensions clear things up?

 

 

Creating Toile #1

Printing the pattern on my home printer wasn’t difficult. I only had 8½”x11” paper to work with, but I managed to divide my pattern file into eight pieces, print them separately, and join them together. I left the grid on my printouts, which helped me join the pieces evenly.
I cut out my pieces, then pinned them to a double layer of herringbone cotton. (The printed grid also helped me place my pattern pieces so that they followed the grain of the fabric.)
Once the fabric was cut, I marked the outside of each piece with its identifying letter, as well as “L” and “R” for left and right (so there could be no confusion).
First, I pinned and stitched pieces h to pieces f, and pieces j to pieces g. Then I inserted the bust gores. (I didn’t worry too much about making the gores look perfect, at this stage.)
Combined pieces f&h, g&j, a&c, and b&d were treated as whole panels from this point on. I worked front-to-back, sewing the panels together:
Piece a was joined to gusset e. Piece b was joined to the side made up of pieces a&e.
Piece f was joined to piece b. Gusset i was joined to the side of piece f.
Piece g was joined to the side made up of pieces f&i. Back piece k was joined to piece g, and this process was repeated for the other side of the toile.
With both sides combined, it was time to add hardware to my toile. By zigzag-stitching along the inside edges of the major seams, I quickly created channels to hold steel bones.

I had previously made a set of 12” high “fitting aids” which can be machine-basted onto a mockup to check the fit. My aids consist of two front pieces which hold both sides of a busk, and two back pieces with eyelets for lacing. (If you haven’t made a set for yourself, I’d strongly recommend it!) With my fitting aids basted in, and boning inserted into my zigzagged channels, it was time to test it out…

Assessing Toile #1

The toile fit much better than I thought it would!

What worked?

The major concerns I’d had about the underbust/ribcage area vanished as soon as I tried it on. Wearing the toile, I could see that the bottom points of the six bust gussets and gores added about 1” each to the width of the corset in this area, eliminating the significant deficit I thought I would encounter at the underbust line.

I don’t normally make high-backed corsets for myself, so the thought of a 16” back seemed strange to me, at first. Looking at the photos, however, I found the effect of the shape and height to be very pleasing!

The bust and high hip measurements were absolutely perfect. My bust felt supported without being squished, and the shaping in profile looked quite gradual and natural. The top edge of the corset went about 1” above the nipple line, which is an ideal height.

At the high hip level, my hipbones (which are veryprominent) were not traversed by any of the corset’s steels; indeed, the most prominent part of the hipbones ended up directly between gussets h and I, where they would not receive any pressure from overlying steel bones.

The underarm area was a perfect height. The corset didn’t come up too close to the armpit. At the bottom edge, my hip-bones were completely covered (with about 2½” of corset extending below the hip-bones).

What changes needed to be made?

At the waist, with only 2¼” of reduction, the corset felt almost loose; I’ve found that a 4” reduction is usually quite comfortable for me.

The waist area in general also looked very straight. I planned to add a little more curve to the main vertical corset panels at waist height, and to reduce the pattern along the waistline.

These three close-ups show some additional areas I thought needed adjustment:

On the left, I’ve indicated the underbust and nipple levels. While the amount of coverage at the top was perfect, it seemed a little odd to me that the bottom points of the bust gussets and gores should extend so far below the underbust line. Looking at some examples of similar corsets online, however, convinced me that this was normal. As a result, I decided to leave the pattern unchanged at the top.

The centre photo shows how easily I could fit my fingers underneath the gusseted hip areas of the corset. The lower hip area was fairly roomy and, by pinching the extra fabric, I found that I should reduce each hip by about 1¼”.

On the right, I’ve folded up the extra fabric at the front of the corset. The front centre area extends very far down below even the lowest hip level. If there had been a 16” busk reaching all the way down the front of this corset, and if I had tried to sit down, I would have received an uncomfortable poke in the crotch!

Fig. 1 of the original patent shows a studded busk extending all the way down to the bottom edge of the corset, so there can be no question that this extended front was meant to contain steel. Ladies of the late 1800’s had very different sitting and standing postures than we do today, so I understand that this design in a corset may have been normal for that time period. However, since I want to be able to wear this corset comfortably, I decided to shorten the centre front points by about 2 ½” to 3”.

Patterning Toile #2: Altering the Pattern to Fit a Modern Body

I made little marks and notations all over Toile #1, as a reminder of the changes I’d proposed.

With the pattern pieces laid out on my table, I started measuring and sketching the necessary alterations. Surprisingly, the only changes that needed to be made were reductive; no part of the pattern needed to be made larger by adding extra paper (except for along the front centre edge, where I wanted to add an extra ½” of fabric for the eventual installation of the busk).

A little reduction goes a long way, so I didn’t want to over-reduce any of my pattern pieces. Areas to be cut away were shaded with pencil.

I removed a total of 2½” from the waistline. I decided to move the waistline a little lower, curving it (slightly) downward towards the front.

A total of 2½” was also removed from the lower hip area; 1 ¼” per hip at the bottom edge. I distributed this reduction evenly between the hip gussets, (rather than by trimming pieces f and g,) removing about 3/16” from both sides of each gusset. The reductions were tapered upwards to blend the cuts with the existing shape (and correct size) further up on the gusset pieces.

The centre bottom was the area where I made the most drastic change. I did my best to retain the pointed look, even removing a little length from the bottom of pieces b, h, and f so that these appeared to curve a little further upwards.

Now it was time to repeat the cutting, labeling, and joining process. I used the exact same assembly method as in Toile #1.

 

Assessing Toile #2

The waist was now visibly lower and more clearly defined, especially when viewed from the front (although the difference could also be seen at the back.)

The hip areas were not overly tight, but they did not hang loosely as they did in the previous toile. These sections lay just close enough to the body that the asymmetry of my hip bones became evident. (My right hip bone is higher and slightly further back than my left. I wasn’t even aware of this until I started making corsets for myself!)

I expect the waist to become even more defined in the final version, once a waist tape has been added. The overall corset will probably shrink a little once the bones are doubled (I plan to use two bones along each vertical seam), cords are added, and the number of layers increases. There will be fewer wrinkles at the bust with the addition of boning and, of course, the front and back will straighten out once the proper lengths of busk and back-bones are being used.

For Next Time

Now that the toughest part is done, here is what you can expect in Part II.

Design, material, and colour choices (my favourite aspects of corsetry!) will be revealed.  Many of the methods I’ll be using to build the corset are things I’ve never tried before:  adding cord to the panels, using Laura Loft’s guide to gore and gusset insertion, and flossing the ends of the bones.

So many of the gored/gusseted corsets from this era have beautiful embroidered designs across the bust and along the front opening, and I want to incorporate this design feature into my finished corset. I’ll provide detailed progress and how-to photos of the embroidery process, as I apply and stitch the designs by hand.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you’re as excited as I am about the next stages in this reconstruction!

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