Big Sister - corset and shorts

This is a retroperspective post. It's been ages since I made the Big Sister corset, but boy have I used it for all that it's worth.

Photo by: Aslak Sødal

It looks amazing as part of a steampunk costume or elf, and have been used for a bunch of costumes. Recognize any?

Not to mention that this was the first corset I learned to sew, a skill I have used for several costumes later, like Elizabeth (Bioshock) Vi (LOL) Codex (the guild) and Morrigan (Dragon Age Inquisition). When you have done it one time it is very easy to do it again. 

And my sister bettcanarddesign borrowed my pattern, as we are about the same size, and now she know how to make a gorgeous corset in just a couple of hours.

Steampunk design by bettcanarddesign

To business
Sewing a corset turned out to be much easier than I first expected. I used an online tutorial to make pattern for an undbust corset. It is important to custom make your pattern to your measurements. The more time you spend on the pattern, the less job you need to spend on the adjusting the corset while sewing later. 

I ended up with a 8 piece pattern 4 for each side of the body, marked A (front), B, C and D (back).

Sorry for the terrible quality, it's all that I got 

The pattern was drawn out on paper and transferred to my fabric (faux leather). I think a stiffer fabric makes it easier to sew, as it holdes the shape better. Pieces held together by pins. 

Seems are folded back and sewn in as a 5 mm pocket for the boning. For budget corsets use electrical strips/plastic strips. (And I just learned that corsets with plastic boning is called a corsage, I'll be damned).

Insert the boning before trimming the edges (fold them and sew them up).

Grommets
The holes for lacing are made with common equipment bought at any textile store. See my post on Morrigan for more info.

Buckles
Buckles were a little hard to find and I ended up ordering a bunch from ebay. Center bar buckle (1")

Done!

Hotpants
But since we are already talking about faux leather and home made patterns it would be a shame if I didn't include the few photos I have from the making of the hotpants. Again I'm surprised of my own sewing skills, this is a ten piece shorts, and the seems are almost perfectly aligned. 

I traced an excisting pair of pants to create a test pattern. And then I made a test short. 

From that I drew on the pants where I wanted the seem lines to go and cut up the test shorts to make the actual pattern. This is how I ended up with 10 pieces, bacuase the big sister shorts have a lot of detailed seems. 

Draw the pattern on to your facric. I don't recommend faux leather for pants, but I needed the same facric for corset and shorts, so I had to endure.

Then I started sewing each of the back pieces and each of the front pieces together.

And now I only have four pieces, two for fron and two for back. 

Then I sew the two pieces for left side together, and same with the right side. - down to two now! And left and right together, with a zipper.

The detailing on the back

The detailing on the sides where the seems meet.

The zipper

Trying it on.

Ta dah! Pants!

Too warm to be wearing gloves inside :/