May 2010 – June 2013
Laughing Moon’s Dore corset from pattern #100. Sewn as a single layer of coutil with internal bone casings. 11″ busk, size 00 eyelets, 1/4″ boning throughout: a combination of spiral steel, spring steel, and cable ties. Here’s an inside view.
This corset was finished in 2010 but never worn. It was intended as an upgrade to my Victorian undies, but just wasn’t an improvement over the first Dore (see Corset and Undies in the gallery). I rediscovered it three years later, stashed in the corset supplies box, and decided on a whim to see if it could be salvaged.
The corset had been boned like the first Dore – entirely in spring steel – which I removed from all channels except the two that surround the eyelets. Spiral boning was the replacement, and added every 2 – 3″ apart. The casings in-between the spirals were filled with cable ties to keep everything smooth. I left the channel next to the busk empty. The end result: a lighter, more flexible corset which is equally comfortable yet more curvy than Dore version #1. The only other modification was to the center front. It’s cut to mid-bust, which is 3/8″ lower than my original over-bust version.
Dore #1 was lined in cotton and is still going strong with no evidence of wear at the stress points. It’s only been worn a few times a year (and taken on and off for countless fittings). With the bone casings and coutil facings, I expect this new corset to hold up forever. These features do add more bulk along the edges, and the corset is bound in cotton lawn to that end. There is one good thing about an abandoned project: if you leave it long enough, you forget how much work went into it. Finishing it up feels like a walk in the park.