Drafting and Making the Shieldmaiden Corset.docx

8/13/2019 Drafting and Making the Shieldmaiden Corset.docx

1/6

Drafting and Making the Shieldmaidenorset

To make the corset you need to take six measurements.

1) Underbust2) Waist

3) Hip

4) Waist to Underbust

5) Waist to hip from center front-where you want the corset to hit, center front

6) Waist to hip along the side-where you want the corset to hit your hip.


2/6

To draft the corset:

1) Draw a dot on your paper

2) From that dot, measure up to

underbust length. Draw a straight line.

(Measurement 4)

3) From that dot, measure down to CFhip length. (Measurement 5)

4) From the top, draw a line equal to

1/4 your underbust measurement

(Measurement 1)

5) From the dot, draw a line equal to

1/4 your waist measurement

(Measurement 2)

6) From the bottom, draw a line equal

to 1/4 your hip measurement

(Measurement 3)

7) Draw a line connecting the end of the

bustline to the waist and then to the hip.

8) From the end of the waistline (center

line) measure down the length of the hip to

the side (Measurement 6) and make a dot.

9) Starting from about the center point of the

pattern piece, draw a sloping line up to the dot

made in step 8.10) Redraw the side with a curve following the

lines you drew in step 7. About an inch and a

half above the dot, straighten the line a little.

Otherwise the corset will flare out too much

over the hips.


3/6

11) Add seam allowances. 1/2" to the side seams

and 1/4" (or whatever the size fold on the bias

tape you're using) to the top and bottom. You

may add a seam allowance to the center back aswell. I chose not to, since, in my experience,

corsets stretch quite a bit and I wanted a little

extra room to do that.

The diagonal line shows the position of theboning. There is also boning on the center back,

about 1" in from the center back (to surround the

grommets) and on the side seams.

To Make the Corset:

For my corset I used velvet, flat lined with cotton sateen as the top layer, andcotton twill as the lining layer.

Cut out the pieces:

Front (Cut one fabric, one interlining, one lining): Cut with straight edge on

the fold

Back (Cut two fabric, two interlining, two lining): Cut with straight edge onthe selvedge

The sewing:

Lining:

1) Using a 1/2" seam allowance, sew the front to the backs.2) Turn back edges under (to the wrong side) about 1/8" then about 3/8" to

form casings for bones. Stitch.

3) One inch away from stitching line, sew a boning casing. (All boningcasings will go on the wrong side)4) Sew boning casings on side seams and on center front as marked by the

pattern.


4/6

I used artificial whalebone for the center back and spiral steel for the side and

front boning.

5) Insert boning. It should be a little more than half an inch shorter than the

casing.

The Outer Layer:

1) Stitch interlining to fabric, wrong sides together. Treat pieces as one.

2) Sew fronts to backs.

For quilting. It's probably easiest if you quilt before sewing the piecestogether. I of course did the quilting last. I only quilted the front piece. I used

my clear ruler to draw lines with a fabric marker on the lining. Then I juststitched over those lines. It took a while, but the results were worth it!

To put the corset together:


5/6

1) On the outer layer, sew bias tape to both the top and bottom of the corset.

2) Trim the lining so that it matches the stitch line.3) Pin the lining to the outer layer, wrong sides together (bones will be on the

inside)4) Fold bias tape down over lining and pin into place. (No bias tape will show

on outer layer.)

5) Stitch bias tape by hand to the lining.6) Fold center back edges of corset under 1/8" then 3/8" and whipstitch to

lining to finish center back edges.

Trim as desired!


6/6

Drafting and Making the Shieldmaiden Corset.docx

Documents

Transcript of Drafting and Making the Shieldmaiden Corset.docx