Well, I've had a very busy past week and a half. My parents and brother came to visit me from across the country. We did lots of sightseeing and work on my house (thanks Mom and Dad!). I didn't have much time to blog, but I did finish a bit more of Simplicity 1819 for them to take back and hand over to my sister (actually, my brother is being my costume mule - thanks brother!).

Anyways, as you know from my last post, I have been making a steampunk costume for my sister. I made a test bustle and skirt and now I have finished a test shirt and corset.

The shirt was super easy to make - it's just two pieces. I also skipped hemming the sleeves and bottom.


I just use a nice grey jersey from my stash to stand in for the stretch fabric of the final shirt (probably stretch lace over tricot). My mom has just given me her serger, so the final shirt will probably be a little more finished.



The underbust corset turned out really well. I can't wait to see what it looks like on my sister. It was not hard to sew. I just took time because of the many seams.


I used two bedsheets for the outer and inner layer. I wanted to see if I could make it reversible and I think I can. I would just have to figure out how to install the panel that sits behind the laces.


For the boning, I used cable ties (I forget where I found the original idea, but it is even suggested on Wikipedia). Cable ties are those long plastic straps that you might have seen the police use on Cops to tie the hands of the people they were taking into custody (haha). I simply cut and then rounded the ends with a pair of scissors.

The cable ties are a great substitute. It would have been much harder to find and work with metal boning. Also, I imagine that the plastic is much more like what whale boning would have been like. Which makes me wonder where fashion would have gone if plastic was available when whale bones (baleen) grew scarce? Did the switch over to mostly metal boning in corsets in the Edwardian period affect the Edwardian style and the ones that followed? Would the availability of plastic have prolonged the life of the corset in mainstream fashions? hmmm....