Welcome back to the third installment of the Foundations Revealed 1908 Sew-Along, following the pattern set for the 2013-14 Foundations Revealed Competition. In this article we'll finish-up fitting and get started on the real thing. If you have missed any part of this sew-along, please visit part 1 and part 2.

Pattern Alterations

Once again, I will use the mathematical naming convention: A is the oldest, A' is the version I made up for the last article, and A'' is the most recent iteration.

Everything except the bust was fitting great in the last mockup, so rather than making another I decided to just cut out the final version, sew up one half, and try it on. If it fits, great! If not, it's easier to rip out one BE section and replace it than to replace two.

For this version, I added ½" (13mm) along the whole bottom edge, and ½" (13mm) total to the width of B and E. I also made all seam allowances ½" (13mm), rather than the mix of ½" (13mm) and ¼" (6mm) I used for the mockups. It made seam matching a little harder, but gave me a lot more options for seam finishing.

For the first alterations of B, I slashed across the whole top and raised it up. That resulted in a narrower bottom angle for both B' and E'. For the third try, I used those version 2 side lengths, but extended the original angles of B so the resulting piece is less narrow. That widened the top edges (the legs) of B'' by about ¼" (6mm) total, and I extended the top edge of E'' to make up the other ¼" (6mm). As a result of these changes, though, B'' and E'' no longer overlap as much as they did originally. That means the section as a whole will have less shape than I would like.

To fix that, I marked how much overlap I wanted B'' and E'' to have, then I slashed B'' from the crotch up to the point and carefully pivoted one leg around to meet the mark. The legs didn't change shape at all, but the bottom angle of B'' got a little narrower.

Left: Original B with the latest version in progress. Right: Making B'' slightly narrower. E'' in green. Newest lines are all in blue.

My final version is going to be in Vena Cava's grey Spot Broche, which has a very nice, soft sateen finish with high-gloss satin spots woven in.

I traced half the pattern, then flipped all the pieces over and traced the other half. I prefer tracing over pinning and cutting since corsetry is a fairly exact science, and pins can warp the pattern or the fabric. I trace with a Faber Castell PITT brush pen - the soft nib doesn't skip over the fabric, and it's waterproof so the ink won't bleed if it goes in the wash. You should be able to find them at your local art supply store; lots of shops have them available as singles, rather than in sets. I trace around the outside of the pattern and then cut just inside the tracing line. That gives the most accurate transfer. I use the same pen to mark the slash point for gores and match points on the edge of the seam allowance.

Two halves of a corset. This is on the cross grain - the selvedge is at the bottom of the photo.

Making Up

The final version goes together just like the mockups. The only difference was in the seam finish. Whereas in the mockups I just pressed the seam allowance to one side and stitched it down, for the final version I extended all the seam allowances to ½" (13mm) and felled them.

Seams

I considered several possibilities, including trimming the allowances short and stitching bias tape over them, but in the end I only tested two options - felling the seam allowances to one side, or turning them back and stitching them open.

Fabric cross-section in grey, stitching in red. In both cases, the seam allowances were originally ½" (13mm), to fell them (left side) I trimmed one allowance down to ¼" (6mm).

I picked the felled seam because it required less stitching, looked better, and produced a stronger seam; because both pieces of fabric are sewn together twice, there's less chance of failure. All vertical seams were felled to the back except the hip gores - that was unintentional, but definitely for the best. With the allowances going opposite ways, the seam between KL and HN is much easier to sew than if all those seam allowances stacked up in one place.

For the hip and bust, I felled the gusset (KL and E) seam allowance onto the surrounding piece. At the corners, I just trimmed the excess allowance. It left a tiny bit of raw edge peeking out, but no one will ever see it and I prefer a little bit of raw edge to a very thick finished corner. It made topstitching go much smoother.

Where one seam intersected with another (AB with F, KL with HN), I trimmed away as much of the felled seam sections as possible, leaving only the outermost parts long to fell over everything else.

There is one tricky spot where H is very narrow. At my size, the topstitching for the GH seam just kisses the topstitching around the hip gore KL.

The center back is to the left, front to the right. The top of the hip gore KL is in the center of the picture, showing the opposite direction seam finish for HN and KL, and the interaction of the top stitching on H.

Busk

The center front section A was cut with 1½" (38mm) facing on both sides. These days it is typical to sew on a facing and insert the busk loops through gaps in the seam, but surviving corsets often just have buttonholes or even unfinished slashes to permit the busk loops through. It's a lighter, faster construction, and I was interested to try it.

When my grandmother moved to a smaller home two years ago, I inherited her beautiful vintage Singer with various attachments and feet. One of them was a buttonholer, which I had not yet tried out.

It goes on the machine like a very large foot, and has different cams for different sized buttonholes.

I played around with different buttonhole sizes and widths, and made sure I knew what I was doing. The attachment made very even buttonholes and I will definitely be using it in the future. I marked the busk loop locations on the inside fold of A for convenience, using the same PITT brush pen as before, since I already knew it wouldn't bleed through the coutil.

The marks along the fold helped get all the buttonholes aligned correctly.

The buttonholes were almost invisible from the outside, even once they were cut open. Once they were all done, I inserted the busk and basted it in with strong thread.

The buttonholes are almost invisible.

At this point I haven't trimmed the facing at all. That will come after the busk is stitched in.

With thinner fabric, or on a mockup, I often let the zipper foot guide the busk into place. Coutil is just too thick for that, and the basting helps keep everything really tight and neat.

The busk was stitched in without defining the top or bottom edges; one long line that crosses the A/F seam at the very bottom, right below the bottom of the busk. Then I trimmed the excess facing to ½" (13mm) and pressed the cut edge under. That got stitched down to match the seam treatments and give a clean finish on the inside.

The facing after trimming, as it's being turned under. You can also see how I handled the bottom point of E.

And It Works...

I basted in my lacing strip and taped-in some bones, then laced it up to the other half of my previous mockup for a try-on. Sadly, none of my photos from the fitting turned out, but it fits. I'll be making up my other half-corset just the same way in the next article, putting on some finishing touches (garters, flossing and binding), and showing you the final piece!

I didn't want to put grommets in until I had both halves made up, so to try it on I basted the lacing strip to my CB bone casing.

You might be asking: "Taped in some bones?!" Yes! It's a super handy fitting trick. Use masking tape (¾" or 19mm is a good size) and tape your bones right in to the inside of the corset. You want them on the inside so the pressure of lacing holds them in place; if you put them on the outside they just pop right off and don't provide any support. Then when you're done fitting you can pull the tape off the bones and use them over for your next fitting. Faster and cheaper than casings, and it works beautifully every time.

Miss Carmene's 1908 Fitting

Miss Carmene needed a larger corset all around. She added 2cm (approx. ¾") in five places: A, F, G, L/N, and I; then she taped together a paper test version and put it on a personalized dress form.

It's quite large in the bust and back, but the right size in the waist.

She cut out a muslin version and stitched it together, then started pinning out the excess on her form. Since the waist started out the right size, she didn't really have to worry about carrying darts across the waist.

Lots of excess, especially in N.

She traced her pin lines and redrew the pattern, then made up a new muslin version. That was looking good, so she trued up the edge, then stitched in some bone casings and tried it out. Her version sits differently from mine - it will be a true underbust.

Pin lines are drawn in red. Most changes are quite small, but H will become much narrower in the next version, and N will be a very different shape.

Correcting the bottom edge on her mannequin.
Trying it on.