Edwardian Corset Part 1

This weekend I got some help fitting my Edwardian Corset! I’m pretty good at fitting on myself, but not only is fitting a corset on yourself EXTREMELY hard, but I also needed an experienced eye for this one. Most of the reference images I’m finding are illustrations so stylized with miniscule waists and odd proportions, it’s hard to know how the corset should realistically fit. When Lauren from Wearing History said she could come up for a visit over the weekend, I immediately planned to rope her into my Edwardian world.

This is my scaled up version of the 1901 Corset from Hunnisett’s Period Costumes for Stage and Screen. I got lucky and the basic pattern is close to my size. This is actually my second mockup – the first one I took out from the bust and hips (not anything from the waist, boo!). Now I see I could have made more changes on the first go-round, but I didn’t know what I was doing! There are no bones in this mockup, and the final version will have a center opening busk.

(Man, my shoulders are way crooked. That’s all I can see when I look at these photos. Time for a massage!)

We shortened the body length about 1″ total so that the top of the corset hits at or just slightly above my apex. I also needed a little more gap at the CB, so we decided to take that out of the hip gussets. We got tired and didn’t pin out the total amount, that’s why it’s still too close at the bottom gap.
On the side view, you can see a little bit of the Edwardian “S” curve posture, where I’m tipped forward on top and backward on the bottom.
I think one more mockup for this guy, and then I’m gonna start on the real deal!
  1. Shelleyj June 5, 2011 at 4:53 am

    That's looking great! I so wanna make me a corset 🙂

  2. Hope Adela Pasztor June 8, 2011 at 1:10 am

    i just love corsets! =)

    http://pinkchampagnefashion.blogspot.com/

  3. Terri April 24, 2012 at 11:27 am

    You will get a better idea of the fit and alterations you need to make if you put boning in your toile. You can leave the boning long, tip one end or tape the end and ajust the final length after the fitting. Leave the extra length sticking out the bottom.

  4. Beth April 25, 2012 at 4:37 am

    Thanks for the tip – I like the idea of leaving the boning long and open at the bottom. It seemed like it would be hard to do a fitting with the boning in already, but your way makes sense. 🙂

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