Pretty Housemaid Corset (Part 1)
Click the link above if you want to look all around the corset… it’s a 3D scan
This article is a bit of a shopping list of things you need to get to where I am now and also to finish the project. I think anyone making a corset should benefit from reading a bit about the tools I’m using to get it done. If nothing else, it gave me something to do for a little while.
There are a pile of websites providing far better descriptions and history for the Symington Pretty Housemaid Corset than I am likely to provide my personal favorite is at Leicestershire in Pictures
Pretty Housemaid Corset, 1890 — Image Leicestershire
Which is part of the Symington Fashion Collection
There are also a great number of excellent YouTube videos on people who have been reproducing this corset. It is a very pretty design and it has a lot of details.
Currently, I’m reproducing this corset for my daughter who has taken an interest in wearing corsets and she is now starting to learn to sew as well. I figured it would be great to document the journey a little to assist others in reproducing this corset.
I first learned about this corset from “Corsets Historical Patterns & Techniques by Jill Salen” (here’s my Amazon Affiliate link to the book, please support my writing by purchasing the book through it)
Well, it’s a spectacular book and it even includes a scaled down pattern for this corset that looks like in 2023, it wouldn’t fit anyone I’ve ever seen.
Over at Jane Austin’s World there is some information that suggests that in the 18th century (about 100 years before this corset) the average height for a woman was 5' 1/2" which is about 153–154cm in civilized measurement.
I currently live in Norway and my daughter is a little above average. She’s 170cm which is about 5cm taller than the average for women in this country.
As for weight, I can’t use her personal opinion of herself as a reference. She, being a 19 year old lady is confident that she’s “beefy”. And she won’t let me anywhere near her with a tape measure… which makes sewing a challenge. But I believe that she’s is pretty good shape for a healthy kid. I tend to use about 68–70cm as a guessed measurement for her waist.
In this particular costume I made for her for Halloween this year, she was practically swimming around in the dress.
So, until I attack her with the tape measure, I’ll just leave a lacing gap and make a modesty panel.
Anyway, if we assumed that for ladies her age that are 15/17th’s as tall as she is, a corresponding waist size would be about 61cm. The pattern in the book seems better suited for closer to 52cm (that’s like 20 inches). That’s ridiculously small and bordering on grotesque.
Anyway, it was a good starting point.
The pattern above, which I’ll properly share once I get some spoon busks in the mail worked out pretty well so far.
So, I put the pattern into Clo3D which is an amazing program. I have to admit that it too me quite a long time to sort out the cording, but sooner or later, I got there. I have to admit that while I’m pretty good with Clo3D, I constantly have problems with fabrics in the program. Curling and folding in like you see above is a daily routine for me.
So, it seems that there isn’t a lot of stress on the corset with a reasonable lacing gap (about 5cm). Most of the stress seems to be on the cording itself.
Really the only information worth talking about on the pattern is that I used 15mm seam allowances everywhere except between the side bust and the side hip parts. There I used 10mm seams because the original Symington Corset appeared to have about a centimeter (probably more like 12.7mm, though 3/8 inch could have been used) between the cording and the seam.
Let’s talk fabrics
Before I go further, I don’t have any form affiliate link there, but I’m going to advertise hard for them anyway.
There is precisely one good corset supply company on earth anymore. Sure there are shops like Farthingdale and such, but I have ordered corset components from maybe 20 different shops around the world and for corsets, Vena Cava Design
These are THE CORSET SUPPLIER. Honestly, I have no idea how anyone would waste their time with anyone else. These women running this shop, the don’t like about their stock, they source as much as possible in Europe, they ship quickly. Their website is an ugly relic, but my goodness, they have everything you need.
Let’s start with the structure fabric
I ADORE THIS coutil. It’s 420gsm which is HEAVY. And while I really am not a fan of “tight lacers”, I think an excellent exaggeration to describe this fabric is that if grown up Dumbo were to fall out of the sky, this fabric would be more than strong enough to catch a falling flying elephant with. The quality is just spectacular. I don’t know where they source it from but I’m hoping it’s English. I honest to goodness have over 70 meters of this fabric in my house. I buy it by the roll.
I’ve used two layers of this fabric in black.
The fashion fabric was another story.
Bomullsstoff 100x145 cm mørkeb (panduro.com)
This is a ridiculously nice Danish cotton fabric. Until recently it was produced by Brændgaard Tekstil in Denmark, but I believe it has been sold off the Villy Jensen (also in Denmark). For corsetry, when using cotton, I refuse to mail order my fashion fabrics. I get horrible chills down my spine thinking I might order from Minerva some premium cotton and when I receive it, it would be the type of trash fabrics they sell at “Self Made” in Scandinavia or possibly worse, the stuff sold by Joann Fabrics in the U.S. (ewww). No, if I’m going to buy fashion fabrics, I’m going to not only know where the fabric comes from, I’m going to touch it and test it first.
If you’re in Norway, you should check out Lillestrøm Sysenter. You know how Self Made is like 99% flamible crud that loses all its color the closer you place it to water? Lillesy actually sells 99% good stuff and they have some of the Self Made like fabrics just for variety. (not a plug, but I am good friends with the people there and sometimes fix sewing machines there just for fun).
The Busk is in the Mail!!!
Steel Spoon Busks for Corsetry. European made. > Spoon Busks > Busks > Home > Vena Cava Design
Yeh, so I needed busks. I have about 100 different busks in different sizes, shapes and variety… but I’ve never sewn with a spook busk and frankly I just hadn’t bought them. So, I just ordered three in 36cm and three in 33cm.
This is where it gets ugly. So.. umm… yeh… I did it again! I forgot to measure think which busk I would use to make the corset. After scaling it and truing all the curves in the pattern… not to mention using 40 meters of string and 200 meters of thread, I then measured how much room I have for the busk.
So, the pattern I made from bust to bottom is 38.5cm but of course the bottom is slanted (the fat part of the spoon) and there has to be about 5–7mm for sewing on the bias tape on top and bottom.
Now, this shouldn’t be a big problem… right? Just find the right busk.
Well Vena Cava sells 36cm which might leave me desperately sewing narrowly around the busk.
Then there’s Eloja in Germany theirs is 34cm which would be … kinda ok I guess. I’d like something at about 35cm. Besides, while Eloja makes quality German steel busks, they have the most idiotic shipping system (they don’t ship to Norway through their website) and for some crazy reason, even though their website has the item in stock, they NEVER have anything I need properly listed on Amazon.de. Everything is always out of stock! Ugh!!! So, since I need the busk, I’m not going to play “send the e-mail and ask and wait game”.
What else can I do?
Well 14 inches is 35.56cm!!! 35.56cm!!! Not 36, but 35.56cm!!! All I need is a 14 inch spoon busk. Sure, I’ll end up paying 4.8 gazillion dollars to order one from the U.S. and fedex it, but… nope, no one willing to ship to me had 14 inch spoon busks in stock.
So, here’s the thing. I ordered the 33cm and 36cm busks from Vena Cava and figured I could do some creative angle grinding (don’t do this… I mean EVER) if it doesn’t fit.
So, I’ve used 100% (hopefully English) cotton coutil. I’ve used 100% Danish cotton for the fashion fabric. I’m using European (I’m guessing British or German) steel for the spoon busk. It seemed I had to use cotton cording from Europe as well. So, we have 80% cotton… 20% yucky cording. It’s 2mm.
STOP!!!!
2mm looks fantastic, but it’s just too wide.
I highly recommend trying to get 1.6mm or possible 1.4mm cotton cording instead. You can always add more rows. But if you use 2mm, you will end up with far list bling for your efforts trying to squeeze it in.
Quick note about measurements/metric system
Yes, I’m an American. I live in Norway, but I was raised with NIST/ASE measurements. But I’m an engineer, engineers don’t do measurements based on some random dead dude’s thumbs or feet. We use metric. So, if you sew, sewing is engineering. STOP USING inches, feet and yards. It just doesn’t make any sense at all.
Eyelets/Grommets
If I buy any more of these and my wife find out, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be in a LOT of trouble.
There is precisely one brand of eyelets on the market which aren’t just a mess. I’ve tried from American companies, Japanese, Chinese, other European… I will keep trying to get away from Prym, these guys are practically a mafia here in Europe. But ugh!!! They have the best eyelets I can find. If you make corsets, you’re going to need eyelets. Don’t you dare go to the store and buy the little 40 packs. They’re a rip off. Vena Cava sells 500 packs for cheap. I mean they’re 1/3 to 1/4 the price (at least compare to here). I haven’t decided which ones to use with the corset yet. I’m leaning towards the nice nickel plated ones which will match the busk nicely, but the black ones will match the fabric and the lacing nicely.
I’m a little torn here. I have a few rolls of black lacing and the corset is navy blue.
The lacing from Vena Cava, I’m almost sure is FabMania in Leicestershire which should be familiar since it’s where the Symington Collection is! Now the Symington factory was in Market Harborough which is about 5 hour walk from the center of Leicestershire. I wonder if FabMania is a descendent company of whoever actually produced the original lacing for the Pretty Housemaid Corset. Who knows? Of course Vena Cava is quite far from there and I doubt that there is any real relation there, but it would have be spectacular to ride the conspiracy theory out a bit further.
Well, here’s the thing, I’ve order lacing directly from FabMania before and while their sales people are REALLY not happy about doing business with individuals, they did send me 100 meters of red lacing for another corset for a somewhat reasonable price. I’m really tempted to push it a little bit and see if I can get them to sell me a roll of navy blue.
Aglets (lace tips) 10’s (System 1) > Aglets > Home > Vena Cava Design
Putting tips on the end of lacing is a must. To start with, there’s no such thing as the perfect premade corset lace. You need to just thread one and measure. Then clip and put on the aglets! Yes Aglets… the thingies on the end of the shoe laces are called aglets. If you’re like me, you’ll be running around for months saying “You know what the things on the end of your shoe laces are called? No? Aglets!!!! They’re Aglets!!! Sing with me!!!” (I have no idea how I’m still married, that is one truly patient woman).
Well, here’s the thing. My absolutely perfect, purely European corset has been ruined because I think there’s no one left on earth outside of China who makes aglets. I’m just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.
And while I think that the aglets and tools you get from Vena Cava are amazing, I think this is truly the one product you can find on ebay or AliExpress which would be just as good. But, if you’re already ordering from the wonderful people there, you should order from them.
I’m going to have a bit of a challenge here. There are definitely a few places where 5mm spiral wire will fit perfectly. But I don’t think I’m going to manage to slide this into all of the tougher channels. I will of course give it my best shot!!!
There are a lot of people who buy premade spiral wires because they think it’s easier. And to be fair, I expect to use 3–4 hours making custom spiral wires for this corset. But getting the perfect length bones is worth any pain or suffering you can imagine. I think I’ll make a YouTube video of how I do this mainly because I want to see the “real pros” mock me and hopefully correct me. I always feel like I’m doing it wrong. But I can live with that.
If you buy the wire though, do NOT forget to get end caps. If you count that you need … let say 50. Order a minimum of 200. Unless you’re experienced of course. When I started, I would destroy 2–3 for every one I managed to get onto the wire. Now, I get 4–5 perfect for every one I destroy. That’s a huge improvement :)
Good enamel coated crinoline/corset boning is a must. On the back of the corset, you use four of these to provide structure to the boning channels. These are particularly important to make yourself as they should be longer than from the first eyelet to the last one. I don’t really like making it go all the way end to end since they tend to bulge out of the ends when you’re moving around in the corset all the time.
Also, if you’re making a modest panel, lining these up side by side can look truly mind blowing!
Kombislipemaskin | MEEC TOOLS | Jula
The tool I use for rounding the edges of the flat steel bones is this. They sell them at pretty much any hardware store. You REALLY don’t want sharp edges on the metal being pushed into your back. And compared to a hand file, this is much more convenient and does a wonderful job.
When you round off the edges, you’ll leave steel exposed to the world. If you want your corset to last a really long time, you don’t want to risk rust, so learn to use two part epoxy. It’s basically drop some on some cardboard, mix really well with a scrap of boning, then dip the tips of the bones in this and wait a few minutes for it to harden.
Reed > Historical Costuming Supplies > Home > Vena Cava Design
If you don’t have a natural rattan porch chair to rip pieces off of, then order a chunk of this. A lot of older corsets used rattan quite heavily because it was cheap and you can easily work with it. It also lasts a surprisingly long time.
This is for boning next to the busk and it’s also quite likely going to make its way into a few of the “unofficial” or simply poorly made boning channels in my pattern because a simple knife is all that’s needed to make my own custom width bone.
Ok, here’s the link to where I got mine. Grafittpapir, Hvitt — White Transfer Paper, 22,8x33cm, 4 ark — HobbyHimmelen and it looks like Amazon has it too
(affiliate link)
If you don’t have a few sheets of this and you sew dark colors… you have NO IDEA what you’re missing out on.
This is an amazing product.
So, when you print out your pattern, you can trace the pattern onto your coutil and that is such an amazing life saver when you’re doing anything decorative where transfer is useful.
(affiliate link)
If you buy one of these machines, you can make use of the pen holder and a white or silver ballpoint pen to transfer patterns from your computer to your fabric automatically.
I’ve used the Brother Scan and Cut for years, but it’s such a nightmare because the matts get fuzzed up really easily and the Brother matts are insanely expensive and the glue just doesn’t last. Also the Silhouette Cameo is 60cm wide compare to Brother’s 30cm.
If Cricut ever makes a big model, I’m switching to them because their cutter works AMAZING on fabric and the cutting matts are cheap(er).
Glowforge — the 3D laser printer
And yeh, umm… if you’re bordering on insanity, you can cut the fabric pieces for the busk like I do. On a $7000 laser cutter.
Last night, I needed to hack together those two front panels. So, I measured a busk I had in a box. Then I drew it into my software and I used some magnets to hold down the fabric in the laser cutter and I cut the pieces.
I’m guessing I could have done it faster by hand, but let’s be honest, who wants to make corsets if you can’t find an excuse to use a laser cutter!!!
Conclusion of this part
So, it’s been a lot of blah blah and shopping lists and such. I’ll be honest, after doing this, I realize that corsetry has become a bit of a monster hobby in the sense that I have many thousands of dollars invested in the hobby by now. But, it’s something to do.
Could I do this cheaper without all the fancy stuff? Oh yeh, I could make this corset with a pair of scissors, some fabric, some bits and bobs and a needle and thread (A LOT of thread). But this isn’t 1890, and everyone needs a hobby. So, I’m doing it like this.
The busk is going to be here on Monday (3 days from now), when I do that, I’ll take more 3D scans and I’ll put up a little picture. Maybe I’ll even try to “live blog” the process of making the reset of the corset.
In two months or so, I expect to run a course on corset sewing for some friends. When I do, I’ll detail the process on here for others to read as well. At a later point, I think we’ll move onto wedding dress bodices (which for many types is more of a corset than a dress).
Thanks for following my rambling! Please follow me if you want to continue reading about my whole maker thing. I do lots of stuff, sewing corsets is just a small part of it.
