I was super stoked when these patterns came out for a number of reasons. I had been wanting to go into 18th century fashion for a while and did lots of research and looked at many examples of dresses and underpinnings. The first reason I was excited was because they were made by American Duchess! I knew she would have put a lot of research into creating the patterns for this and it would be as historically accurate as possible. The second reason was because she had promised to give "hacks" to the pattern to guide in making it even more historically accurate. And third was because it was an Outlander themed pattern! That show's second season had me drooling over all the gowns and feeling really inspired.Unfortunately, American Duchess has been SUPER busy with growing her business and hasn't had time to finish the "hacks" series for these patterns. I am super bummed about this. I really wanted to make these patterns more historically accurate. But its alright. I can use these to build my skills so when she does finish them I can remake everything and already have a familiarity with this style of dress.
I used some scrap fabric I had laying around to use for the stays. The outer layer was made from a mystery yellow fabric that was a soft cotton, but due to Hancock Fabric's poor labeling system for scrap I had no idea what type of fabric it was. The interlining was made from a vanilla cream colored denim from Joann's. And the lining was cut from a white Egyptian cotton bed sheet with maybe a 400 thread count.
On to the pattern!
I cut out all my pieces and marked the boning channels on the interlining layer. I used some guides from what American Duchess has already published for the "hacks" and added a bit more boning to the pieces than what is required.
I took the top and interlining and based them together. The pattern tells you to sew down the long sides of the pieces. But the picture shows that you are to have sewed all the way around the pieces. This confused me and is what I really hate about Simplicity patterns. They tell or show you to do something different than intended. If you sew all the way around you close your boning channels. I stupidly didn't realize there was a difference until I had already decided to sew around three sides of each piece leaving one end open for boning. It still worked out for me, but next time I know what to look out for.
I sewed all the boning channels in and ironed each piece down.
Then I assembled the pieces together and sewed them down. This creates a few more boning channels on the edges.
The strap was sewn together with all three layers. The pattern suggests just the outside and the lining but I didn't think it would hurt to add in a layer of interlining to add more durability to the strap. The strap was then sewed onto the tab of the outside/interlining portion of the corset and the excess was trimmed and ironed down towards the bottom.
I then sewed the lining together. I ironed down the tab for the strap on this section towards the inside of the lining. Then I pinned it, with right sides facing each other, to outer layer on just the sides. Each side was sewn down and that created the outside edges of the boning channels. I left the pieces as they are, turned inside out, and started working on the boning.
This took a lot of boning. I used zip ties, from Lowe's, as the pattern suggests. I always use zip ties and was happy to hear that American Duchess suggests it too. Each piece was clipped to size and had the ends cut to curve them. Then they were sanded down, to reduce any sharp edges, with a metal nail file I have. You can use sand paper, but I prefer my file.
After the boning was inserted I flipped it right side out and pinned the bottom and top edges together and made sure everything lined up. Then I sewed the shoulder strap section down with hidden stitches. Next the top and bottom were sewn together a scant 1/4 inch away from the edge. Some of the fabric shifted and creased but I wasn't too worried about it so I left it as is.
Next I made some bias tape to cover the ends. I used a fat quarter of white fabric and measured my strips to be 1.5 inches wide. I had tested 1/4 inch bias tape but it wasn't enough to cover the basted stitches. So it being halfway between 1/4 and 1/2 inch was perfect.
I applied it all to the top of the corset. I did run into some issues going over the outer curves at the end of the strap which I'm sure would be fixed if the bias tape was narrower but I wasn't too worried. I sewed this part down by machine. I should have done it by hand but I was impatient.
The bottom was done by hand and took quite some time. I opened the bias tape and lined up the edges with the bottom edge of the corset. Then I hand tacked it in place along the first crease. I attached it first to the front and then folded the bias tape back and around the bottom edge. Then I whip stitched it to the lining. when I looked at the front I didn't like the way it looked compared to the back. Some places were too thin or blocky looking. The inside had nice rounded binding. So for the future I would suggest doing the reverse of what I did and start tacking it to the lining and then pulling it towards the front.
Next it was time to do the eyelets. My markings had shifted on the fabric and both the lining and outer layer were not matching up. No big deal. I just punched holes in the center between the boning level with the marked dots with my grommet pliers. I also added extra holes to allow for spiral lacing in the front and back. Then I clipped the holes open a little more with scissors and insert the grommets. Once they were all placed (not hammered yet), I applied fray check around the holes just to give them a little extra durability. Then I let the glue dry for a couple of hours till it was not tacky.
The grommets were then hammered in and the corset was finished.
Right now I have it laced sloppily just for pictures. I am also switching out the black para cord for ribbon when I get to the store.
Next up will be the bumroll and the chemise.
Thank you for reading!!
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