A little bit more on the 18th Century Corset.

I finally transfered these pics so I could uploads them, but admittedly not too much progress has happened. I have yet to make up my mind on what I am doing for the binding so I have seriously been stalling. I did however, get both linings basted in, and one half's grommet holes done. Not quite as neat as I would like but at least they are done. 

 

I had this nice piece of vntage cotton--lovely and soft--that I thought would make a nice lining.

I took the corset, and making certain the it was flat across the top and middle, pinned it to the lining. It is important that there is no wrinkles in the cotton when you do this. You want it perfectly flat all the way down to the waistline; from waist down I did it was done differently.

This is not the best picture to illustrate this, but I will try and explain. There is "give" in the shape of the corset from the waistline down, as the pieces move and spread to go over the hips, to make this work our correctly, once i had to top part pinned smooth, I flattened out the bottom pieces as much as I could to give that spread, then cut all the way around--from waistline on one side, around the bottom, to the waistline on the other side. One it was cut out, starting from the center back I started to pin the tabs, slicing straight up the middle between them so there was enough fabric to so spead out. The most difficult piece is where the side front/front meet, but I used this same process, moving and flattening the pieces as I went. You have to pin each piece really thoroughly or they will slip.

Once it was all pinned, I started to baste the lining to the silk by hand. I thought about doing it by machine but felt I had much better control if I did it this way instead. Now the top and bottom (including tabs) are basted on WITHOUT turning under or finishing the edges, this is because of the binding. At center front and center back the edges were turned under. I gave myself a good 1/2" inch for this, It not only made it easier to pin, it gaves it more heft for when I sewed in the grommet holes.

I trimmed all the excess away. I was sirprised at how neat it turned out to be.