All posts tagged: ribbon corset

Black and white delight

Remember the darling black and white flowered and spotty faux ribbon corset I blogged about  back in May? Well, last week I finally had the time to sit down and do the tiny bit of handsewing to finish it off.  Yay for finished projects! All it needed doing was hand stitching along the front busk to hold it more securely.  It’s really quite pitiful that it took me so long to do that. I really like the effect of the hands stitching on the front.  It adds a nice handmade touch, and contributes to all the different graphic stripes and spots and splotches and flowers going on with this corset.  And makes it look even more like something from a Tim Burton film. The corset isn’t looking its best on little Isabelle.  She’s only a size 10, and this corset is more a size 14+, so it is massively pinned in the back and doesn’t show off the right curves.  I need to do a proper photoshoot with it on a model.  

A faux-ribbon corset

To go with yesterday’s sparkly pink tipped corset bones, I’m making a little underbust corset. The goal of this corset was to make Jill Salen’s ribbon corset using ribbon the same size as that used in the original. Problem:  I couldn’t find fabric ribbon in 2 1/4″ widths Solution: take fabric, cut it into 2 1/4″ strips, and bind the edges. While I was scouring the fabric stores for ribbon, I picked up a cute black and white floral remnant.  It went perfectly with some spotted fabric in my stash too! I’d actually had my eye on the black and white floral for a while.  It’s a gorgeous 100% cotton grosgrain, so soft and lovely to work with!  The cartoon-y aspect of the flowers dissuaded me from using it for a larger project, but I just couldn’t resist the last half metre (and on half off too). To make my ribbons, I cut 2 1/4 strips of the floral, and the polka dots.  Then I cut the strips into the correct lengths, as I was …

Friday Review: Jill Salen’s 1900 Ribbon Corset

This is a review of the fit, comfort, and wearability of the 1900 ribbon corset pattern from Jill Salen’s Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques, and of the pattern itself. First, the pattern: The pattern, when you first confront it, looks ridiculously hard and completely incomprehensible.  This is true of all ribbon corset patterns in my experience.  As soon as you put a prototype together and figure out how it works, the logic of it all comes together in your mind (or at least it did in my mind!) and the whole thing makes perfect sense. There are some very interesting things about this pattern.  Because the side, back, and front pieces are perfectly straight, the seams that meet them are very curved, to give the corset its curving and shape.  The front and back seams are particularly curved.  I’m not used to sewing two very curved seams at the centre front and back, modern seamstresses are generally taught to keep both of these seams perfectly straight, so it did take a little mind-readjustment. Flaws/problems in …