A while time ago, I found THE outfit that I need in my life to fulfil my newly developed ultimate Victorian Librarian fantasies.
Of course I’ve since been scouring the internet for fabrics like this. Cut velvet dotted stuff for the skirt and jacket, and lace for the blouse and sleeve cuffs. I’ve not been able to find anything that’s remotely similar and in my price range for either. I did find one fabric at Mood that seems possibly close for the cut velvet but it’s in the United States (i.e. shipping is exorbitant) and it wasn’t there in any nice colours. For the lace, I haven’t even figured out what I’m supposed to use as a search to get what I’m after. So the only thing I’ve got going in that area is RSI from scrolling through Etsy stores. If you’ve got any suggestions, please let me know!
The difference boning makes, left with boning and right without 
Applying the channels
However, since old-timey outfits should start from the foundations outwards, I have made some progress in this project. I made the corset. The pattern I planned to use is a corded late 1880’s spoon busk corset from Norah Waugh’s Corsets and Crinolines. I had it all drawn out, copying and enlarging and generally faffing about. Then I discovered that Ralph Pink has a number of the corsets in the book available as free patterns, with seam allowances and everything. So I quickly printed that out, made a mock-up and decided to add some width, between 0.5 and 0.7 cm, to each panel, and cut a bit off the bottom.
Front 
Side 
Back
It was constructed using a single layer red and silver (?) on black coutil with boning channels made of some vague synthetic fabric that was reinforced with interfacing. I used exactly 0.5 m of the coutil and basically have none left. Especially since I was also taking care to mirror the panels exactly, such that the corset is symmetrical. Next, the cording was sewn to the front two panels. Then I put the project on hold for months because I was scared to continue. During Eurovision I got myself to cut the boning channels and iron them to size. Then I waited a few more weeks before finally stitching them down, cutting and installing the boning and grommets and binding the edges.
Cording 
Boning channels 
Overlapping boning channels
It’s not perfect. The bottom edge sticks out too much in front. I had to unpick some of the boning channels because they were to narrow for the boning to fit through. The cording is close but not exact. It’s just a tad bigger than I thought it would be. All mostly nit-picky things. I think it would certainly improve from doing some more seasoning (i.e. wearing). However, I’m still pretty proud of myself for actually finishing the thing, especially after the amount of procrastination I’ve been doing on it. The one thing that is still missing is flossing, but with 14 bones per side, I’m not sure I’m up for that yet.