Once the body was completely prepared, it was time to quilt the gores.  Each gore is three layers of coutil and one layer of cover material.  As with the visible stitching on the body, I used heavy-weight upholstery thread.  I quilted the gores in a diamond pattern, stitching along the bias to remove what little stretch it has.  I started at one corner, and holding all the layers together, sewed a straight line along the bias.

Note: If you have trouble keeping your layers together and even, you can baste the layers together around the edge, or fuse them together before quilting.

Hugging the edge of the gore, I sewed parallel stitch lines to the far corner of the gore, using the edge of the presser foot as my guide.  Each of the stitches is just slightly less than 1/4″ apart.  Instead of pinning, my hands primarily kept the layers from shifting as I sewed, and also made sure the stitches stayed straight.

NOTE: Use whatever pattern of stitching you would like for your corset.  As long as the layers are firmly quilted, the exact pattern is purely aesthetic.

All of the gores are quilted and trimmed on the seam sides.  The edges of the gores that would be the outside of the corset were not trimmed.  I needed to trim 1/8″ from the gores to even up the edges and eliminate any shifting between the layers.  When drafting, I had deliberately cut them with 3/8″ seam allowance, when the intent in the final sewing was for a 1/4″ seam allowance.  The top and bottom edges of the corset have no seam allowance, so they are not trimmed at this time.

To insert the gores, they needed to be coaxed completely into the body of the corset.  This took some work, but it was critical that they be seated entirely within the slots. If they didn’t seat completely, then they would not fit properly.  At best the corset would look a little odd.  At worst, it wouldn’t fit or the gore would pull free from its stitches.

There is no seam allowance on the top and bottom of the corset for the gores or the panels, so the edges of the two needed match up evenly.  If the gore stuck out from the panel, then it was not fully seated.

I started at the edge of the corset, and being careful that the gore stayed fully seated while sewing, I stitched 1/16″ from the edge of the panel.

To ensure that the gore is firmly stitched in place through all layers, I stitched again 1/16″ in from the first stitch.

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