Sewing an Angel

Or, A Completeley Impractical Diversion

The other week Scarlett of Corsettraining.net put her Angel Underbust corset pattern on for a ridiculously low price (even allowing the dollars tacked on for converting to CAD), and I jumped. And then, in the impulsive free-flow following my change of work priorities, I dug through some of the proto-corset stash and started making it up. 

That’s right, no mockup. Just straight to fashion fabric. Keeping in mind I’m pretty sure the brocade was a gift and the strength layer behind is from an old bedsheet I once bought to use as muslin fabric, which is some kind of rocklike poly blend that I think would make sleeping positively perilous, but it’s so sturdy and unforgiving it seemed destined for backing a more-or-less fashion corset. So, um, not a high investment in materials. 

This is supposed to be a low-fronted underbust corset with hip flare panels that give it quite a distinct look. Unfortunately, the low front requires only about a 9″ busk, which is rather shorter than anything I have in stock—so, since this was a MAKE IT NOW kind of impulse, I added height to the top on the front to fit my available busk. I think the straight look would have been fun, though. 

My busy brocade also pretty effectively hides the cool seaming, too. 

I followed the directions for sizing and cut a 12, and it’s basically perfect. Aside from the added height in front, I did a small swayback adjustment. (If I don’t do those I find the corset makes me slouch—I bend my upper body forward rather than tucking my butt under)—and that’s it. There’s a tiny bit of buckling around the back hip where my hips want to flare out sooner than the pattern does, and a bit of looseness in front where I added at the top, but those are the only quibbles I can come up with for fit, and the one is very specific to my body while the other one is my own doing. 

I have some minor complaints about the way the pattern/instructions are put together, but as Scarlett is apparently in the process of revising all her pattern formats I won’t go into it, as it’s not likely to be relevant. And I’m sufficiently thrilled with the fit that I’m not too bothered. 

The guts are not pretty; this is my first attempt at applying tape for bone covers and… Well, I think it will be functional. And I forgot the waist stay, despite it being clearly included from basically step one of the instructions. D’oh. (Oh, and I did not follow the construction instructions, either, so that’s all me, too.) 

Anyway, I had a lot of fun rooting through my tickle trunk for items to wear with this. The skirt I bought at a goth shop in London when I was there in 2009, and the top is a vest I made as part of a dance costume, based on the vest in the Folklore Turkish Dancer pattern—part of my first push, around 2008, to improve my sewing, but well before it occurred to me I could make everyday clothes. Neither has been worn more than once or twice, sigh. It was nice to pull them out and put them together!