Monday, July 20, 2015

Simplicity 1091 Part 2 - Poison Ivy Underbust Corset


After about a week worth of work the corset is finally finished. I love this corset. I love the fit, the style, and the amount of support from the boning. The construction was easy enough but the finishing was more aggravating than it should be. I will be going through my process of making this and the thoughts I had about the corset construction and instructions from the pattern. This corset is made using the Simplicity 1091 pattern by Loriann Costume Designs.

I cut out all the required pattern pieces beforehand. After an annoying and disastrous attempt at making the gauntlets I decided to focus on making the corset instead. One of the main things that was wrong with the gauntlets that would carry over to this corset was that the material was not thick enough for the grommets. The one piece of canvas lining and then the outside fabric was not enough make a good close with the grommets I was using. So to fix this I cut out a second layer of canvas to add.


This image is of the center piece after I sewed around all the edges but the top and then clipped the edges and corners and added notches on the curves. I turned the piece right side out and pressed it. After that I drew out all the boning channels. The boning I used was industrial zip ties. They are cheaper and work well for what I want. They are, however, slightly larger than the 1/4" boning that is required. This caused me to adjust the boning channels widths to fit them. It was not a problem but it did take longer than just copying the lines from the pattern.


Once they were drawn on I sewed all the boning channels down. And made adjustments for the grommet placing. That also brings up another point about this costume. The required grommets are HUGE. There was no way I was going to put those on my piece. I looked at the grommets compared to the piece and there was barely any space to fit them. So I opted to use smaller grommets which in my opinion would look better than huge holes in the corset.

I added boning by measuring out how much I needed and then trimming them own 1/2 an inch. This brings me to my most enraging aspect of this costume. The bias tape trim. Why oh why did they choose 1/2" That is huge! At least for the edges. I did not like this look. And the way that they describe it is worse. It made no sense in my head or how I was supposed to install it.

Step 9 says to baste the top edge down. It doesn't say how far. But if I went as far as the seam allowance I would have run into a grommet placement. So I went 1/8th from the edge just to close it. Its the only thing that made sense. It says to cut down the seam allowance but doesn't say how much and if I did I would have run into the same issues with the grommet. So I just left the seam and didn't cut it.

Step 10 says to iron bias tape flat and then in half. Then step 11 say to pin 1/4" from the top and sew on. It again doesn't give a seam allowance. I tried to see how it would look by guessing and the bias tape would be so thick of a band it didn't look good. Just trying to explain how this wasn't working is getting me all frustrated again.

So I improvised. I placed the edge 1/8" from the edge of the corset and then sewed it down just before it reached the boning using a zipper foot to make sure I didn't hit any of it by accident. Then I ironed it flat and understitched close to the edge. Since there was so much of the tape left over I ironed it in half where the raw edge met the raw edge of the corset piece and then folded it again to meet the line of stitching on the back side. This way I could ladder stitch/whip stitch the bias tape to the back.

I got better pictures of the sides for the next few pictures than the middle so they will be used as the example on how I "fixed" the bias tape issue.

Pinning the bias tape down 1/8" from the top.
After being top stitched and folded over it looked like this. I didn't want this big of a band!


So I folded it over to make the edge smaller and then folded it down to meet the stitching lines.
When sewn down it creates a much more pleasing accent line.
After I was finished with the corset middle I started on the sides. They came together pretty easy and had only the same problems with the bias tape that the previous section did.

Once the bias tape was all sewn on I worked on the grommets. I had to move the placement of the grommets because they would not fit where their original placement was. There was an inch gap between the edge boning and the piece was was to be 1 1/4 (1 1/2 for my measurements) from the edge so I placed the dots for the grommets on the same level as the old placement but put them halfway between the 2 pieces of boning. Once I expanded the holes to fit the grommet I used an anvil and my grommet setter to hammer the pieces together. Pro Tip: An anvil is WAY better to use than the floor or table. The grommets I did before looked like crap compared to the ones I did for this corset.

I laced everything together and it fit perfectly. I wish I had made it in a smaller size just because it is too close to my actual measurements and if I were to loose any weight it wouldn't fit anymore.

Overall my complaints about the construction are easily modifiable. But to sum them up:
-The grommet size suggested is too large
-The bias tape should be smaller
-The directions on applying bias tape need to be clearer
-I think its weird that the pattern wants bias tape on the top of the center piece but on the bottom of the edge pieces. Be consistent.
-Two layers of canvas are superior to just the one suggested.
- The placement of the grommets originally should have been further set back. If I had not used 1/2" boning channels and used the 1/4" as suggested it still would have put the grommets bumping right next to the boning.

Despite all those things I do plan on making this again for possibly a Green Arrow costume. 

Anyways here are finished pictures of the corset. Once the whole thing is together I will figure out leaf placement as I said before. And don't mind the white streak on the center piece. I tried to erase a line I drew and I guess the eraser on the pencil was bad and left a white mark that won't come out til I really work on it.






 

Part 1, which is making the hood, can be read here and part 3, making the bustle, can be read here.

Thanks for reading!!

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