Have been making up a mock corset from the TVE01 Edwardian Corset pattern from Truly Victorian. Excuse the scribbles, when I'm making a mock up I just transfer all of the pattern markings to the fabric in their entirety so that I can keep an eye on which way the grainlines are meant to go and that the waistline sits where it's meant to. It's probably an unnecessary process but I have found it helpful. My handy dummy 'Dot' is sporting a regency chemise and an Edwardian hip pad (booty padding) to help with the silhouette that I'm going for.
I used the busk intended for the final corset so I will have to rip that back out. This was my first time inserting one so I'm happy that I understand how that's supposed to work now.
You can see from the side how the popular 's-bend' shape from that era is forming. The padding underneath the corset fills out the hips and will fill out the bust once I have made some padding (this is a period thing!). To help with the gap around the bust I am going down a gore size on the pattern as well. Between those two things the gaping should not be an issue.
On the back I laced it properly (with waist ties as well)by just using an awl to make some holes. The only thing that keeps drawing my eye is that the hips don't seem to come out sideways very much? Although I suppose that once there are petticoats it might not bother me so much.
Overall this has been a very successful mock up. It has allowed me to have a play with all of the corsetry hardware as I've never used it before. The size is fine other than around the top of the bust which I am sure will be fixed with padding and the gore adjustment.
The bad news is that the lace that I ordered for this project got lost in the post amongst all the strikes and Christmas limbo. So for now the actual corset will just have to be simply bound along the top because it took me ages to source the right look for the lace - lace is not just lace it seems.
Most modern lace just doesn't look period. Machine made lace was a thing in the Edwardian times as hand made lace was prohibitively expensive and reserved for the wealthy so the fact that its all machined is not an issue. What is an issue is how close to a plastic bag it looks, or like it was woven from sack cloth, but I digress. The actual problem is that my perfect lace is gone. I know I wanted to make lace this year but I don't think I'm going to be able to make it in great quantities!