It gets hot here in Kentucky. Hot, and in my particular region, fairly humid. I had started this particular corset excursion with a midbust mesh corset in mind, because I’m all for practicing historic techniques and shapes. However, as I also hold a day job which doesn’t really work with a midbust as a support garment, I opted for an underbust similar in style to one of my more popular patterns.

First, I went on the hunt for the most essential supply: mesh. As I’m fairly particular about sticking to history’s examples, I went looking for a cotton mesh. Several summer corsets have been made using sport mesh, but I’m not too fond of the stuff. I find it itchy and uncomfortable, and it reminds me a little too much of fishnet stockings. Most of the historic examples I’ve found have a tight, fairly rectangular weave to the mesh, and while I was not about to find anything sturdy enough in that type of weave, I did find the next best thng: aida cloth. Surprisingly, Joann’s sells aida cloth by the bolt and in my local store it’s next to the utility fabrics. Incidentally, I also found sport mesh, which I purchased should the aida not work out. Thankfully, I didn’t have to resort to using it.

While the mesh of the aida is a little smaller than I would like (at 16 squares per inch), the sport mesh doesn’t feel terribly solid, though there would be more air flow. Based on my preference for natural fibers, I picked the aida to experiment on. In addition to the natural fiber content, I also like the stiffness; it reminds me of unwashed coutil.

The pattern that I’m using for this corset is a fairly modern styled 7 panel underbust. Most of the shaping occurs on the sides and the back, though I experimented a little and brought the slightest bit of waist shaping to the third panel. I’m curious to see how comfortable I will find it, as more extreme shaping at the front of the ribs tends to be very uncomfortable for my body.

I started out with my measurements and drafted up a pattern, then made my mock up. As a note, it’s always important to go back and re-measure yourself if you’ve waited a few weeks to try out your mock up. Apparently, I’ve lost a couple of inches in the past month from my torso, though as my clothes were only a little bit looser, I didn’t realize it would be that much.

However, as the mock up mostly fit in all other areas, I decided to remove an inch from the back, and then another inch from other panels in order to make up for the lack of lacing gap. I also knew that I needed a bit more reduction at the waist, which can be seen in some minor pattern alterations. While I intend on wearing this corset quite often, I didn’t want to take too much of an additional waist reduction, as I consider this summer corset to be more of a support garment than an overly shaping garment. And even with the mesh aspect of the corset, I don’t feel that I would be particularly comfortable in 100°+ weather!

You can see from the pattern where I redrafted the lines. Because I prefer how easy it is to erase pencil, I marked my new lines with arrows at the tops and bottoms. The back was too low for me as well, so I redrafted for a higher back and trued my new seam lines. I felt that the fit was otherwise good enough, and so didn’t do another mock up.

Once I had my pattern revamped, I decided to jump right in to construction. Even though the aida is fairly stiff, I still found that it didn’t take my transfer marks well, so I grabbed the trusty mechanical pencil and traced my pattern pieces onto the cloth. From there, I added a ½” seam. I wasn’t too worried about the pencil leaving marks that would be visible, as I had planned on laying the casings over the seams. And, since this is a summer corset that I will invariably be sweating in, I am doing my best to make it washable: those graphite lines should come out with a bit of gentle fabric cleaner if all else fails.

Once all pattern pieces were cut out, I moved on to construction. With the aida’s open weave, I did worry a little about the strength of my seams. Normally, I would go over each seam with various stitch lengths and then press them open, especially if I was reinforcing those seams with bone casings straddling the seams. Rather than risk it, I chose to do a lapped seam for its inherent strength. For every seam, I stitched wrong sides together, then trimmed one seam allowance and folded it over.

After ironing the seam, I stitched the fold down, flipped it to the other side, and stitched close to the original seam. The result is a strong, triple stitched seam that is fairly locked in place. With this open weave fabric, it also looks pretty interesting as a more solid line.

I thought very seriously about what would be the easiest method of construction to finish up the entire corset because it is a single layer. In the end, I decided to go ahead and sew all of the panels together. You can see just how stiff the material is, and how well it holds its shape, even laid mostly flat.

Once the panels were completed, I decided which of the halves was to be the right side, and which was to be the left. With a fabric that has no real “right” side as well as a seam finish that looks almost exactly the same from both sides, it really depends on your preference. I chose to have the raised edge of the lapped seam point towards the front, but it didn’t truly matter as they’ll be covered in casing. With that choice, I placed the half inside up on my thigh to baste in the waist tape. All basting is done in a contrasting purple thread for easier viewing. You could choose to do it on a table or even over a pillow or batting, but I’ve found that the thigh mimics the torso’s curve well enough. As a note, even though aida has an open weave, make sure you find your thimble before tacking the waist tape down. The seam is very solid by this point!

Even though I marked the waist on all panels, I still double checked with my clear ruler that the waist tape was evenly matched on both sides, especially at the front and back where any mismatched tape would be the most obvious.

The next step was to grab two pieces of coutil and make the shape for the center back lacing. As I have a large supply of coutil scraps (this particular corset is made entirely of scraps from other projects), I merely dug in my box until I found two pieces of appropriate width and length. These pieces were roughly 4” by 15”. I cut them to a true grain and began to press them into shape. In order to catch the underside of the coutil, I made sure to press one side slightly wider than the other. The exterior of the center back piece was 1.5”, with the interior being about 1.6”. An adjustable seam guide was very handy for this.

I then copied the curve of the center back onto the coutil by placing the aida panels over the coutil. The green pen and line are from these interesting Frixion pens. They’re erasable gel pens that are supposedly removed by friction. What really removes them, of course, is heat. So, once I cut the piece to the right dimensions, the marks ironed out without a trace left behind. I would recommend trying them on scrap pieces first, to make sure your fabric will release the inks.

After it was cut and pressed, I sandwiched the aida between the coutil and basted it closed. I didn’t want to worry about the layers creeping apart while sewing. If you’re a quilter, you may also try using some of the spray adhesive sold at places like Joann’s Fabrics, as I’ve had some good experiences with it. Using a zipper foot, I sewed close to the edge of the coutil on the outer side. With the slightly wider interior piece, I didn’t worry about not catching it. I also sewed my casing stiches to hold the boning at the center back.

The front was similarly sewn, with differences to accommodate the busk. I looked through the scraps to find a few pieces that were long enough and wide enough to accommodate my busk. Here is the point where the back differs a little from the front, for several reasons. I’m using a conical busk that I have in my stash and have yet to have an opportunity to use. Using this busk means that instead of a more rectangular center front coutil panel, I had to be a little more careful with the shape of the panel and the pressing.

First thing, I measured out a scrap that would be long enough and wide enough. I followed through with the conventional step of measuring out the needed gaps for the busk and added my standard seam allowance, and mirrored the dimensions so that I could cut the panels and sew the seam. After sewing the seam, I pressed it while closed to set the stitches, then pressed it open, and finally pressed it closed with the raw edges inside. You can see how the green ink disappeared with the pressing.

After inserting the busk through the holes, I measured out the width of the busk and marked it with my disappearing ink. I also drew another line a little further out that would become the fold line and provide enough space between the busk and fold to sew everything together. I double checked several times as I didn’t want to cut into another piece of coutil wastefully.

Once the fold was pressed, I flipped the piece over and ironed the facing piece slightly wider, about an eighth of an inch to make sure the facing would be caught when I sewed in the busk from the front.

To sew the busk into place, I once again used my spray adhesive because the corset body and the busk panel kept shifting. With enough tackiness to hold the two pieces together, I could baste the whole thing together without much hardship.

Now, the center panel was ready to be stitched. Due to the design, I had to sew with the machine’s foot over the busk rather than next to it as is my standard practice. This is where the extra room in the fold becomes very important! If possible, sew wearing safety glasses to prevent eye injury from any accidental needle breaks.

With the right side of the busk safely sewn in, I could move on to the left. Once again, I found a scrap wide and long enough to accommodate the busk. Instead of marking for seam allowances on the front, I went ahead and ironed in a fold, so as to have a small modesty placket behind the busk. Then, I marked the appropriate stud positions by lining up the right side of the busk over the fabric. The process for the left side was no different from the right from this point on, other than adding some fray check to the position of the busk studs to prevent any rips.

All we need next is the bone casings!

Knowing that no casings would take on curved seams, I was able to find a few pieces of coutil to create the bone casings. Using my see-through ruler, I marked and cut out 1” wide strips. These strips were then pressed into casings using my Prym 12mm bias tape maker. I’ve found the 12 mm fits ¼” boning very well. If you’re not worried about bulk over the seams or decide to place your casings away from the seams, you could also create casing strips using nylon presser bars as well.

Simply thread your fabric through the tape maker and press. For shorter strips like mine, I pin down the starting point so it doesn’t creep across my ironing board.

Place the newly created bone casings over your seams.

Baste them down, or use spray adhesive if you like. Just be careful not to baste them to your dress on accident if you prefer to sew in your lap like I do!

Once everything is basted down, your corset should look a little like this.

Once basted, it was time to sew the casings in place. If you use basting thread, or some other easy to remove thread, don’t worry too much about stitching over it with your machine. Stitch close to the edge so as to leave enough room for your bones.

Once you’ve permanently stitched all of the casings down, you should end up with a corset that looks fairly similar to the picture.

At this point, it’s time to remove your basting. I like to use the tweezers that came with my serge machine, as they are very good at getting under tight stitches. Don’t forget to flip the corset over and remove the basting stitches that held down the waist tape as well. Hopefully, they kept the waist tape flat and even while you stitched the seams.

With the casings sewn, I measured the bones to match. My edge binding will be about 1/3” wide at both top and bottom, so I cut all the bones to account for this. Besides the standard ¼” flat steels on either side of the grommets, I also cut flats for the front four casings. I have a belly with an obvious curve, and it’s easily combatted with flats instead of spirals. All other seams will hold spiral steels.

All along, I’ve planned this corset to be more practical than pretty, and I’ve also wanted it to be washable. Because of this, before I tipped the bones, I spray painted the cut ends with an anti-rust varnish. This is experimental, but I really don’t want to wash the corset and have it rust at the ends, so I thought it was worth the try. The edges took no more time than dipping in the more common plastic tipping fluid, and should hopefully last longer.

Slip the bones into the casings and then bind the edges. Following in my recycling habit, I had some down proof ticking already just into bias strips that I could easily use for the binding. Any other tightly woven cotton would have worked just as well for my purposes, including coutil. Now, because I find hand sewing the interior of the binding to be more aesthetically pleasing, I just folded the binding under and stitched it down by hand. This is a little bit tricky given the mesh fabric, but a prick stitch isn’t very visible.

All that is lacking is of course to set your grommets however you prefer; I set mine with a grommet press to reduce stress on my wrists.

The finished product! I do have the corset laced on straight.

The whole point of this corset was to be a practical and light undergarment that could be washed. While I love decoration, I just didn’t think it would be the best idea with this corset, though I think lace or flossing would really liven up the all-white palette. This way, however, the corset won’t show through lighter or thinner tops.

Concluding Thoughts:

After wearing the corset for a few hours, it’s quite comfortable and definitely cooler than my all-coutil corsets. I imagine a more open weave would be cooler, but I prefer the feel of cotton over the man-made mesh that I found locally. I will definitely keep searching for a slightly more open weave of aida while still keeping a high cotton content.

The shaping to the ribs was still mild enough that I didn’t feel uncomfortable, though I really do like the shape of the corset at the back. I liked it on the mockup and I’m even more pleased with it on the completed corset. Even though the corset is only lightly boned, I still feel that it gives excellent shaping, and it doesn’t feel uncomfortable in any way. The lighter boning also matches the intention of the corset in being a less heavy garment. More importantly, unless the fabric clings, the corset doesn’t really show through. I continue to keep losing weight, so I know I’ll soon be able to close my gap soon enough. I’m almost disappointed about that, as this corset is very comfortable!

There is some wrinkling throughout the body of this corset, which I am actually quite willing to put up with due to the fact that this was an experimental piece and the fact that it doesn’t show through tops. It could be alleviated somewhat with a few more pieces of boning, but adding too many more bones to combat the wrinkling would cancel out some of the benefits of this corset, mainly the lightweight aspect. There is the additional effect of the mesh adding slightly more give to the fabric’s bias. I can’t help but wonder if this is the issue, as the mockup didn’t wrinkle nearly as much at the front hip. It would also be helpful if there was just a touch less room throughout the hip so the corset stayed a little tighter, but that is mostly due to the weight loss I’m experiencing.

Time will tell if the corset holds up well to multiple washings, and I’ll be happy to share my findings in the future. The most worrisome part of the wash would of course be the possibility of rust, but I think the enamel spray paint should do the job.

A note on the uncommon supplies:

• The quilter’s adhesive I used is Dritz temporary spray adhesive, but I know several other manufactures have similar products.
• To seal the ends of the cut boning, I bought Krylon’s Rust Protector, in Clear. If anyone else has other enamel-type products they’ve used successfully, I’d love to hear about your experience!
• I found the 16 count aida cloth at Joann’s Fabrics, though searching online for smaller count aida online yielded plenty of results. As always, test your swatches to determine their strength.
• If you’d like to try Frixion pens, various retailers like Amazon carry them. So far, I like them better than the other forms of fabric pens I have used.

add