Construction Demo – Quilted Gore Victorian Corset – Part 2

This is detailed construction walk-through of a Victorian-style corset with quilted gore piecing. The core is two layers of coutil on the panels, three layers of coutil on the gores. The cover material is peacock blue dupioni silk. The lining will be plain cotton. Boning will be spring steel flats, flossed in place.

The first part of this demo covers the assembly of the body panels, and the creation of the boning channels.  The second part covers how to quilt and insert the gores, and how to edge the corset.

Return to Part 1

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 am using 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.

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. My hands primarily kept the layers from shifting as I sewed, and also made sure the stitches stayed straight.

Again hugging the edge of the gore, I came back to the starting point and finished the pattern of parallel lines, finishing at another corner.

I repeated the pattern, but in a perpendicular direction to the first set of stitches.

And came back around to the starting point, so the pattern could be completed.

Once all the quilting stitches were in place, I stitched entirely around the outside of the gore, slightly more than 1/8″ from the edge. This ensured no raveling of the stitches took place after the gore was trimmed.

All of the gores, quilted.

All of the gores, quilted and trimmed on the seam sides. The edges of the gores that are to 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.

To insert the gores, they needed to be coaxed completely into the body of the corset. This took some work, but it is critical that they be seated entirely within the slots. If they don’t seat completely, then they will not fit properly. At best the corset will look a little odd. At worst, it won’t fit or the gore will 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 should match up evenly. If the gore sticks out from the panel, then it is 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.

You can see that the gore and panels are flush at the bottom edge of the corset.

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

This final image shows one half of the corset with all the gores stitched into place.

I did not take detailed pictures of the flossing process. Suffice it to say, I used the same upholstery thread as for the contrast stitching.

This corset was one of the few occasions where I used bias cut cover fabric for the edging, rather than double-satin ribbon. I could not find a close enough beige color, so instead I used some beige silk that is intended for a matching skirt. Silk is a sturdy enough fabric that I am not worried it will wear through like some cover materials will.

First I trimmed the edges so they were clean and even.

The strips were cut 1.5″ wide, on the bias. I stitched them to the outside of the corset, just as I would with ribbon. By stitching down one side and then the other (vs ironing the bias tape into a double-fold shape and sewing it on with one seam) I had more control over the stretch of the fabric and could prevent rippling.

I folded over the bias tape with my fingers, being sure to fold it under on the back side. Then I stitched it down from the front side. I went back and re-stitched the couple places where it did not catch the first time.

The view from the inside of the corset.

After grommeting, it was finished.

More detailed views of this corset may be found on its gallery page, Quilted and Flossed Silk Overbust.

Return to Part 1