People who know me for a while know that I started sewing when I wanted to wear gothy clothes. This evolved into a fascination with the Victorian era and corsetry.
When my client asked me to make her a Victorian corset in all black materials I was very happy. Combining the two things I love. We chose as a base a corset modelled after one of the Symington patterns. For a true historical look. It is the same style I used as a basis for the Victorian halfbust corset.
We talked a bit over skype for the measurements and the materials.
Victorian halfbust corset
We chose a Black Rosebud coutil, with black cotton sateen coutil boning casings. The top of the corset is trimmed with a black cotton lace. The boning casings are finished at the bottom with black cotton perle flossing.
Victorian Corset Flossing
At the back of the corset I added two diagonal bones. For a historical touch.
Victorian Halfbust corset
So we have a lot of black ingredients in this corset. The external boning casings and flossing adding texture to a corset that might have been seen as boring otherwise. I love it. And I hope you love it too.
At Skeletons in the Closet we always try to improve our work. Me in the pattern drafting department, and my husband when it comes to the hardware part of the work.
As you may know this year we have been working on new standard size corsets, couture shapes and historical examples. It was also time to review some of our standard size items. Not because they were bad, but just because there is always room to improve. We learn something every day after all! If we do no longer feel the need to improve or find better ways to do things, why continue. So with every corset I try to make a better corset than the last one I made.
The Heather Longline corset has been one of my favourite corsets. This probably is because it reminds me of the Edwardian corsets I love so much. When we started out creating the standard size version of the Heather corset in 2013 we decided to go for a bit of a conical underbust shape that gently sloped out to the hips. It has 5 panels on each side, a wide busk and 20 pieces of steel boning.
Here is a picture of the first Heather corset. Brocade coutil wil satin coutil boning casings. .
I decided to give the Heather corset a makeover. The first part of the makeover is that I wanted more of a cupped rib shape instead of a conical shape. A cupped rib shape allows for an easier cinch at the waist without too much compression at the ribs. There is also a little added room at the back to avoid spillage.
I also added more room in the hips. Combined with the cupped ribs this might mean that you can now go a size smaller than usual. Although it is a single layer corset, the corset is strong and you can achieve a 5-6 inch reduction should you choose.
We still make the corset out of a brocade coutil with satin coutil boning casings. For this example I chose the red and black rosebud coutil. My all-time favourite.
As finishing touch I added an inch at the back of the corset making it a more high back corset.
The corset still has the 30 cm long wide busk at the front to keep it flat.
Heather Corset
Here is the new standard size chart for the Heather Longline Corset. Of course made to measure will always be an option.
Size
Underbust
Waist
Hips
18 inch
66 cm
46 cm
79 cm
20 inch
71 cm
51 cm
84 cm
22 inch
76 cm
56 cm
89 cm
24 inch
81 cm
61 cm
94 cm
26 inch
86 cm
66 cm
99 cm
28 inch
91 cm
71 cm
104 cm
30 inch
96 cm
76 cm
109 cm
32 inch
101 cm
81 cm
114 cm
This corset will be available for order through the webshop from the 1st of September 2016. The price for standard size corset will be 295 euros excluding shipping. Now you know what to save up for!
All corsets are made by us in our atelier here in the Netherlands. This means that it is possible for me to change parts of the corset, to make it suit you better. For example if you prefer the conical rib shape, it is no problem to change that!
Here are the bigger pictures of the corset. The corset is also available as a ready to ship item in the webshop.
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.