Victorian Undergarments

Well I had a semi productive weekend. I got my Victorian corset finished. Which was my main aim for the weekend. The best thing is that I have got it down pat so that it only takes me about 3 hours to completely make it up, granted that it was already cut out. As I have said before, this is the corset that is going to be the base for my natural form Victorian outfit, as well as my Victorian ball gown set, so it was really important that it fit nicely and comfortably. And I have got the pattern to a stage where it is perfect for me. The bust line is now sitting at nipple height, the length is sitting correctly at my hip (I have a high waist ), it is not digging in under my arms and it is sitting flat in the front (I have had trouble with it kicking out at the bottom). Also, I made it a smidge smaller so that if I lose weight (hoping to) it will still fit me. As you can see, there is a pretty big gap in the back for adjustment. This one is made from silk – so very nice to sew with. It is a three layer flat lined corset. Silk, shapewell and cotton lawn lining. It wasn’t so much a matter of I picked the lining, it was that I had it left over from one of my Lolita skirts, and I though, hey that would look cool. It is also a very pretty pink colour. The colour of the silk itself is not a white. I thought of doing white but decided that it was a bit stark so I went with a very pretty pinky peach sort of colour. I am superbly happy with how it turned out.

I even put it on with my chemise and got my mum to lace me in so that I could take my measurements and start tracing off my pattern pieces this week. Hopefully come this weekend and my rec leave next week I will be able to cut fabric and start making up the pieces. I didn’t do a very uncomfortable tight lacing. I probably could have gone quite a bit smaller, but I didn’t really want to be uncomfortable, and I think my mum has issues with lacing me in any tighter. But I did get a 1.5 inch waist reduction. The main thing for me though is that it smoothes out my front flabby bits, so that I have a nice line. But my waist is still defined. I am pretty lucky though, that my shape is that no matter how much weight I put on, I will always have a waist (I would rather loose weight than put it on though).

I also managed to get a lolita skirt made up this weekend. It was originally supposed to be a dress but for the life of me I could not get my machine to do the shirring again. So I scraped the original plan and went for a skirt. I made it elastic waist so that it is a bit more comfortable than some of my waistband skirts, but because of the fullness of the skirt, I am not sure that I would do this again. I also added some ribbon eyelet tape and a frill. But I am thinking that I need to add some red ribbon over the frill just to brighten it up a bit more. It is very cute, but I just think it needs something. Hopefully I can wear it sometime this week (Frilly Friday). Will have to see though. I really need to get some cardigans, but I am having trouble finding stuff. I might need to some lunch time shopping this week.