It's Finished!!
I've finished my corset! Hooray! There are a couple places that need some hand tacking, but other than that, it's wearable!
Yesterday was my birthday and I asked my husband if we could go up to Gettysburg again. I needed to go to the shops to get some supplies for my corset. So, we decided we'd bring our bikes and bike trailer up too. What a fun way to spend my birthday! We loaded up the kids and bikes and a picnic lunch and drove the hour to Gettysburg.
We had a fun time riding our bikes around the monuments and having our picnic. We even chatted with a few people at a Civil War encampment. I have to say that I felt completely joyful riding around. Riding bikes is so much faster which is wonderful as everything is so far apart. But also, I felt so much closer to the place - feeling the wind on my face, smelling the grass and earth and being close to the sense of history that walking or driving in a car can't give in the same way. *sigh!*
Anyway, we got caught in a huge downpour just as we got to our car, but we loaded up and drove to the first shop where I dashed into Abraham's Lady. This is where I got the boning and corset lacing. Then we drove on over to Needle & Thread so I could pick up some corset grommets, a beautiful cotton silk-finished gold thread to match my corset, bias tape, and an awl to make the holes for the grommets.
All I can say is that I don't know how Jennifer Ehle ran skipping through fields in the "Pride & Prejudice" movie wearing a corset like this. I will also now have to study dresses of women who had very little chest to model my dresses after as that seems to be my problem. Believe me, that corset is pushing up everything I have and it's quite underwhelming! haha!
We had a fun time riding our bikes around the monuments and having our picnic. We even chatted with a few people at a Civil War encampment. I have to say that I felt completely joyful riding around. Riding bikes is so much faster which is wonderful as everything is so far apart. But also, I felt so much closer to the place - feeling the wind on my face, smelling the grass and earth and being close to the sense of history that walking or driving in a car can't give in the same way. *sigh!*
Anyway, we got caught in a huge downpour just as we got to our car, but we loaded up and drove to the first shop where I dashed into Abraham's Lady. This is where I got the boning and corset lacing. Then we drove on over to Needle & Thread so I could pick up some corset grommets, a beautiful cotton silk-finished gold thread to match my corset, bias tape, and an awl to make the holes for the grommets.
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| Awl, lacing, thread, bias tape, grommets, and boning. That cotton, silk-covered thread is a dream to sew with! You definitely get what you pay for! How I love shopping in Gettysburg! :-) People don't do double takes or get weird expressions when you tell them your costuming projects! |
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| Stitching the casing for the metal boning was a pain in the rear! |
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| Busk in the center and you can see my lovely gold thread. |
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| It's finished! My husband helped lace me up. I had to figure out how to adjust everything. It definitely feels different than my 1860s corset. Walking and sitting are a crazy weird sensation that will take getting used to. |
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| Single lacing. The corset is not a perfect fit, otherwise the center back of the corset would be completely parallel. Not too bad for the first try, though! I'm wearing my 1860s chemise. |
All I can say is that I don't know how Jennifer Ehle ran skipping through fields in the "Pride & Prejudice" movie wearing a corset like this. I will also now have to study dresses of women who had very little chest to model my dresses after as that seems to be my problem. Believe me, that corset is pushing up everything I have and it's quite underwhelming! haha!