The Scale Mail Corset: Completed Mock-Up & Deciding on a Construction Technique

So, tonight I finished my mock-up! It fits pretty well. I guess doing all the "grunt work with calculations paid off in spades, because it looks pretty darn good.


I was going to be lazy and forego setting the grommets, but I decided to go ahead and do it anyways so I could get an accurate idea of how it would lace up. The next time I make a corset, though, I'm going to use lacing tape. Most makers temporarily install it with two rows of stitching and then rip it out.

To fuse or not to fuse: that is the question

Some of my previous corsets were made with fusibles for the strength layer. The issue with this is they always seem to develop minute wrinkles as soon as any tension is put on it. This live journal post from the corsetry group corroborated this issue.

This is what I don't want happening to my dupioni! A shame, the corset is a nice color and shape.

Sumptuous silk corset by Colleen Green--look at those wrinkle-free panels!

I asked for some advice on the corsetry group and got the following suggested construction method from the maker of this beautiful corset: Dupioni fused to twill for floating outer layer. 1 layer of coutil with twill tape used for bone channels (2 at each seam) and then a floating lining

This method is pretty much what Scarlett recommends, with the addition of the fused outer layer. I'm not sure I want to mess with fusing--that's the problem.

Corset by Evening Arwen-much simpler, fusible-free technique

On the other hand, this corset seems to be made in a perfectly serviceable way using a simpler technique: "The outer Lavender fabric is silk dupioni. Inside is material specifically for corsets called coutil. The fashion fabric has been flatlined to the coutil to give it a lot of strength. "

Corroborating this method is the owner of Redthreaded (her work quality truly speaks for itself….truly incredible stuff!)
"Personally I have had no issue with using dupioni as a fashion layer flatlined directly to the coutil, with casings stitched through. I do work in a bit of roll pinning while flatlining to help take the strain of the dupioni and account for turn-of-cloth. (I don't fuse)."

The trade-off is that this corset has visible outer seam lines. However, I know I could roll-pin the dupioni to coutil and get a good outcome. I will also be using the dupioni on its strongest side--horizontally! Vertical dupioni is pretty but not nearly as strong (from prior experience, confirmed by others too).

My original plan with this corset was to make it simply, precisely and as strong as possible….so I'm leaning more towards a fusion of Scarlett's method and the ones cited directly above. If the cupid corset didn't have such prominent seam lines and clear bone casings I'd probably do the other method minus the fusing, but this seems to be the best idea. The bone casings are made of coutil too, so there will be 2 good layers of fabric encasing the bones and the floating lining to prevent wear-through and friction.

Bonus: I remembered that the scales will be covering the front panels, so any slight "wonkiness" I may encounter with wrinkling will be dealt with and I can further troubleshoot next time.

Onwards we go! The Silk Baron fabric has shipped and should be here hopefully by Friday.

A Game of Armor: Descending into the Realm of Leathercraft

I've always wanted to try my hand at leatherwork, but a few things stopped me:

A. It's expensive to get started

B. It seemed really difficult

C. I wasn't sure I could handle the pattern-making

While A is absolutely true, B and C have turned out to be far more manageable than I expected. As per usual, dedication, technique research and slow, deliberate work is the few.

My first REAL leather hand-work project was 2013's Game of Thrones Khal Drogo leather belt. It was created with a scrap/damaged hide gifted to me by a family friend who works for Cole Haan and it was fairly successful. I always wanted to do more, though.

The opportunity/excuse to really invest in beautiful tools presented itself late last year when I decided I'd be returning to Europe to attend the Endless Nights event with my better half. He really, really wanted a hard leather vest. I really, really wanted to learn leathercraft and have a 2.5-3 hour round trip commute on above ground subways and a deep-seated need to research all new interests extensively. The stage was set for taking up a new trade.

Stage 1: Designing the chest armor

This weekend I patterned out a basic leather vest/chest armor. For a first attempt, I wanted the pattern to be fairly simple, versatile and flattering. I considered moulded armor, but after reading up on it realized that it would hinder my ability to emboss or stamp the leather. I wasn't keep on the horizontal "Roman-style" plates because they make the wearers' abdomen look more pronounced (and isn't the point of "fashion" armor to look more stately and regal?). 

After a fair amount of mulling, I decided to apply the concept of the "princess seam" (typically associated with womenswear) and applied it in a flatter, more masculine way to a basic torso block for my S.O.'s form. I used Kamui Cosplay's armor book from a previous project (Worbla armor from Halloween 2014) as a basis for the torso block, but I ended up chopping it up so much anyways (my S.O. is 6'3", slim, with broad shoulders) I should've just drafted it by hand. Ah well, false economies aside, it is done now.

For those who are wondering: Kamui Cosplay's male armor block is for a 34" chest and a 31" waist and probably best for 5'8-5'9", so on the smaller side of the spectrum. It's a good starting  point for those who are handy with drafting but not so great if that intimidates you.

This was the inspiration for the lines of my pattern. I like the yoke at the top and the way it draws attention to the shoulders. At a later date I'll probably scan the pattern and share it.

Pattern notes/leather seam allowances:

Although this was based on pieced-together knowledge from Tandy Leather tutorials and youtube, it appears as though this style of leather seaming requires you to only add a seam allowance to ONE side (hence, that's what I did). There were no guidelines for appropriate seam allowances, so I drafted 1/2" after measuring out a small border and my desired stitching hole diameter….we shall see how that works!

For hardware and motifs, my S.O. decided he wanted a Celtic motif, so I scoured the internet for the appropriate buckle!

Getting great hardware and buckles: A perpetual struggle

My S.O. and I fell in love with these buckles and details after seeing this image. There was only one problem:

1. A lot of the hardware available on traditional leather crafting sites is geared towards people making horse tack or accessories with a "western" feel. In simple language: some of it is plain cheesy or excessive.

2. Most of the cool, affordable, stylized hardware is being made by companies in Europe. No time to ship that over here!

Cue the deep-google mission. For those on the hunt for LARP/LOTR/fantasy/goth/historical hardware, I found several great resources:

1. Kult of Athena: Affordable buckles (as low as $1.00) and accessories, US-based. Unfortunately mostly brass.

2. Armor and Castings: Historical Recreation site. All buckles available in brass or silver. The downside is, it can get pricey ($7.50 for a plated silver buckle, for example). The shapes are BEAUTIFUL, though, and I may order for a future project I have in mind.

3. Fight Club Group: Technically this is an Aussie company, but again, prices are reasonable. They stock much of what the European equivalents have.

4. Conchos.com: While some of the stuff is standard Western fare, there are some unique patterns in the mix as well, as well as matching buckle sets.

We ended up getting these from conchos.com, which had the "vibe" of the rope work buckles but in a silver casting. The fact that they had a sale didn't hurt.

Sewing hard leather:

The biggest expense of this project was surprisingly…the fact that we decided to go the hand-stitching route, which necessitated the purchase of some speciality tools. I got a punch set from Tandy, a stitching tool and one of these babies, a stitching pony, which holds the leather in place as you stitch it together:

Even though the sewing tools were on the pricey side, they looked a lot classier than quick-rivets and would allow use to add decorative stamp elements and patterns along the borders.

More to come as I delve into the mock-up (created again from the Mothra of a free damaged hide that the Drogo belt came from). The pieces are all cut out, just waiting for the real hide from Hide House and the tool sets.

The Scale Mail Corset: Part I-Planning & Mock Up

Scale Mail Corset-The Beginning

A few months ago I decided I wanted to make a scale mail corset after seeing these inspiring images of Bones and Lilies’ scale mail bodice and some runway pieces from Mcqueen that suggest scale mail. While black and silver are a classic combination, I wanted something a bit softer, more feminine and subdued.

 

Stage 1: Making scale quads

After reading about Bones and Lillies’ experiences, I decided to make 4-scale quads instead of an entire sheet of scale mail.

I ordered my supplies from The Ring Lord, large size scales with split rings.  Initially, I opted for split rings because they are more durable than regular jump rings and require virtually no repairs since the ring is so secure.

However, if you decide to embark on a project like this, purchase the regular rings instead of split ones. While I eventually figured out my own technique for assembly, it’s not very intuitive initially to assemble these with split rings because

As of this writing I have about 70 or so scale quads; I’ll need about 100 in total. My ever-cheerful fiancée has taken up the quest along with me and learned how to do it so we can meet the deadline for this piece (early July).

Stage 2: Selecting Fabric and Choosing a Corset Pattern

After perusing a variety of scale mail corsets and considering fabric choices, I opted for “poppyseed”-colored dupioni silk from The Silk Baron.

In person, the fabric is a two-tone mix that vacillates between silver, subdued purple and lilac. It pairs well with some of my other favorite colors—silver, blue, black, etc—making for a nicely versatile base. While I considered ordering a custom corset from another maker, I realized that would cause finishing problems with the piece itself, since the many hand stitches would show through the lining. Furthermore, many of the classic corset shapes on the more affordable or moderate end tend to “squish” the bust, rather than gently shape around it.  Ultimately, despite the investment of time involved, I decided making it myself would allow me to control the quality, fit and shape in several crucial ways.

I’ve made a few corsets in the past, primarily using the “welt-seam method.” I’ve worked with custom drafts, Ralph Pink Patterns and Truly Victorian. For this corset, I wanted to try a new method and a new pattern, since I was frustrated with the way the welt-seam method sometimes caused dragging and wrinkling problems on curvy seams. For this reasons, I decided to use coutil bone casings and the “sandwich method” to create a 2-layer corset. The floating lining, constructed according to Sidney Eileen’s tutorial will beautifully mask the interior hand-stitching of individual scales.

In order to save time on construction and drafting, I bought the Express Corset-Making Course from Scarlett Stafford’s website and the Cupid Corset pattern. I spent an evening modifying the pattern to my measurements earlier this month. I didn't document this, however, Scarlett made it easy (see notes below).

Here is the pattern I settled on-as you can see, it has a nicely defined waistline and a well-shaped bust, avoiding many of the issues of the afore-mentioned "bust-squishing" corsets. The trade-off is that the cups require a fair amount of precision, but this seems like a good trade for a lovely shape.

Regarding the Express Corset-Making Course: although some of the more advanced makers on some of the sewing groups I follow said the course was nothing special, since I am a visual learner, it has helped me tremendously so far. Seeing the techniques clearly and up close as well as reading about them helped me construct a mock-up of a much higher quality than I usually would be able to produce. Furthermore, Stafford’s break-down of the math involved in resizing measurements was profoundly clear, to the extent that my coutil mock-up may be a near perfect fit on the first try!

Stage 3: Constructing the Coutil Mock-Up of the “Cupid” corset

In order to document my process and determine what does and doesn’t work, I decided to create my mock-up as a proper corset, rather than a muslin-boned piece with many shortcuts.

Since the entire front of the corset will be covered in scales, I modified the pattern to be closed in the front. 

Supplies:

After a bit of trial and error, I determined that Tex-40 thread (sourced from SIL thread in NYC) was strong enough for multiple coutil layers. I’ve been using Organ 90 size needles on my industrial machine and changing them periodically throughout the project, since the tight weave of the coutil seems to “eat” at them a bit. I did try Organ 100s but they seemed unnecessarily damaging to the material.

Construction of the Mock-Up:

I marked out the pattern on the coutil using wax tracing paper and a wheel purchased in the NYC garment district. Although this is standard use in any fashion design college class, it always baffled me why this wasn’t ever mentioned in home sewing manuals, considering the pre-teen years I spent gently scratching at patterns in frustration when a dart arose. One online source is here.

Materials used:

• Fabric is a tan coutil that was a birthday gift
• ½” boning channels I had leftover from a previous project from Steinlauf & Stoller
• Tex-40 poly-cotton thread instead of my usual Tex-21 (please excuse the offensive mismatch of colors, I wanted high-contrast for stitching practice). For the final creation I will probably spring for strong all-cotton thread, since the corset will be mostly natural fibers (coutil/silk).

I decided to sew on the boning channels before assembling the body, because it made more sense to me. This worked out well.

Here is the CF and the cups pinned and ready. Stafford suggested pinning in this way although I learned at FIT to generally pin in the direction you’re sewing…however, this way was more sensible for pieces that might shift vertically.

While I considered basting the channels on for the mock-up it seemed a bit tedious for this stage, so I opted for careful and potentially excessive pinning instead. I will probably baste the more persnickety boning channels (ie, “free-standing” and not on a seam) for the final garment.

Pictured here is the center front of the pattern. The “V’s” are for the bust cups. I sewed around the corners (slightly in, perhaps 1 mm) so that I’d have a guideline for stitching the cups in that was clear.

Here is one of the corset cups. I decided to grade one of the seams since it might prevent a smooth top-stitching line and reduce overall bulk. I rejected the notion of clipping the seam into corners because that has created pressing issues with coutil for me in the past (impressions).

In terms of order of construction, I opted to construct the entire “based” before inserting the cups, even though the cup pattern somewhat aligns with the front 2 panels. This worked out well. 

Here are two attempts at the “pivot” where great accuracy is required; the second on the right was sewn in one complete pass. Pre-stitching the lower cup area helped increase my accuracy a lot. Obviously the second attempt is far better because I was more aggressive with my clipping at the corners. Professor King (a former teacher of mine) is perpetually right, you can see the result on the right is superior because it can really lay flat.

 

Here is where I stopped for the day. I am very pleased with the shaping of the bust panels and it looks like it will probably fit well with few (if any) modifications). The boning channels weren’t perfect on the left-hand side, though, so I may apply the bone casing for that section only AFTER assembling the entire cup to ensure perfect symmetry.

So far I’m enormously pleased with the pattern. The next step is to finish the last few panels and figure out if a length adjustment is required so I can order flat steels. For lacing, I found a wonderful ribbon supplier in the garment district with an enormous array of  beautiful double-sided satin ribbons, which will avoid the expense of ordering MORE supplies online.

To be continued!