Thursday, November 2, 2017

Making A Georgian Costume - Part 1 The Corset B4254 Butterick


Gosh it's been a long time since I last posted.  No wonder I have had to make a robe for my mother, and for myself a major Georgian outfit from scratch. And of course life it's self happens.


Like anything one has to begin with the foundations of the outfit. So I needed to make Georgian
stays. I purchased the B4254 Butterick Making History Corset Patterns chose to make corset B.

Corset A and B are virtually the same, except corset B allows the wearer to put the corset on by themselves, because it is laced at the front as well as the back. This is what I wanted.

I don't know why I made the decision to hand sew the corset.  Maybe I wanted more control, maybe I wanted to know what it was like to hand sew a corset, maybe I wanted to know what the dressmakers of the time went through.  It was a good idea at the time, but half way through my poor hands were complaining.  Overall I am glad I made this decision. Now that I look back, I really appreciate my corset more.






4 Layers were used.
Top layer - Violet Jacquard Suiting
Middle layer - Grey upholstery fabric
3rd Layer - Interfacing
4th Inner Layer - Purple Cotton


I used spiral steel boning. Which is fairly easy to cut with little pliers. 


A sample of my hand sewing. 



The end product!

Overall I was very happy with the corset. The only changes I made to the Butterick pattern was to add more boning in the chest area.

I do realise my binding is better on the left hand side.  The binding on the right, is rather dodgy.

I find it very comfortable to wear the stays and I can drive in them really well. Bonus!  Overall the instructions were great and well illustrated.  I hope to make the other 3 corsets at a later day.  I recommend this pattern to a sewer who has some experience in making a corset.