costumekullan: Time to loose the corsets

Today I have done something I have thought about a long time, but it has still been hard to really do it. I decided to go through my corsets and simply get rid of some of them.

Here are the corsets that I've made through the years, most of them have been paired with skirts to make ball gowns.The reason why it's been hard to go through them is that I still feel quite attached to them. Here's the story behind them,
Upper row from left to right
1. My copper corset. This was the second corset that I ever made. The pattern is Laughing Moon's Silverado. 2006
2. The silver corset. I found the fabric in the fabric district in LA. This is probably the best corset I've ever sown. I've used it both for a ball and under my 1860's gown. This is Truly Victorian 110, which is my favorite pattern. It was also the first time I tried to work with flossing. 2008
3. White/blue. For this one I overestimated my skills. I made it into a wearable state, but never finished it. I was probably very lazy when cutting out the pieces because when I wore it felt lopsided, and my back started to hurt. I wore it under my 1880's walking gown, but never more. The pattern was this free pattern from 1869. 2006
4. Black brocade. With this corset I learnt the difference it makes to work in a stiff fabric. The fabric was a black brocade, and it was the first one that I made that didn't wrinkle horribly.
Bottom row from leftto right 2006
1. Green underbust. My one and only underbust corset. I made the pattern myself by heavily adjusting a drndl-bodice from Burda Magazine. I wasn't happy about the shape it gave me, I think it looks so much better with an overbust than an underbust. I wore the corset over my Arwen gown to make it a ball gown. 2007
2. The first one. This pink corset was my first ever try at making a corset. As I posted about here I wasn't happy about it, but still it was my first. I thought I had gotten rid of it, but I found it at the bottom of my corset box. The pattern is Laughing Moon's Silverado..2005
3. White brocade. This corset isn't badly sewn, it's just that the fabric is so horrible. I bought it on ebay, and instead of getting a satin brocade, the fabric has a feel that is more like a shower curtain, so it wrinkled like crazy. Laughing Moon's Silverado. 2006

So I took a closer look on the corset and decided to throw some of them away. I wanted to recycle some of the materials though, so I ripped away the busks and some of the boning. This mostly happened to the older corsets. At that time I didn't buy precut boning, so on some of the bones the endcaps fell off when I pulled them out of their channels. I also had to throw out some of the boning and one of the busks because they had been permanently bent.

In the end I decided to save these four corsets. The copper one has a piece of boning that has gone through the binding. Both the green and that one have been used for some masquerades, and the copper one is great for dressing up as a mine ghost. Since I also have a tendency to be asked about if I have some costumes to lend out I felt that it's still a chance that they might get used. The silver and black brocade were saved because they are well made. I need to try them and see how they fit though, .since my weight has gone up and down quite a lot since I made them. Then there is the material that was saved from the corsets that I got rid of; two busks, some boning, corset lazing, a blue sating ribbon and some pearl applique.

And when trying to date the corsets I found these pictures of me wearing them to different balls when I was a student in Uppsala, where balls are quite a big thing, and I made sure to always have a new gown each semester.