Finishing the Gores

This is how the inside of the corset looks after the gore is secured. As you can see, the gores still have raw edges on the inside. It can be left like this, but I recommend finishing the inside so none of the raw edges can be seen at any time.

Variation: If you prefer not to add lining at the end, you can include lining at the beginning, and bind the edges of the gore so at this point they will be completely finished. I opted not to do that on this corset because I wanted to also cover all stitches at the end.

For this corset I am adding lining only over the gore areas. I cut four pieces of lining material in roughly the shapes of the gores, with about 1″ extra on all sides so I have plenty to fold under.

I hand worked the lining pieces onto the corset using a whip stitch. I folded under one side and secured it down the length, and then folded under the next side and continued. Be sure to have a bit more area of lining than the gore.  If you stitch the lining area too tight, so it’s shorter than the gore, you will need to remove the stitches and try again.  If the lining has extra room it won’t hurt anything.

Once the lining is in place, the bottom edge of the corset should be edge-stitched and trimmed smooth before binding is re-applied.

This is a photo of the finished triangular gore.

This is the finished trapezoidal gore.

The inside of the corset, once the binding has been added and everything is finished.

This is a full view of half the corset, after the modifications were complete.

More photos of this particular corset, both before and after the modification, can be found in 1880’s Blue and Cream Silk Sweetheart.

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