So this was the year that two of my closest friends decided to tie the knot, and I was really pleased that Red asked me to make her outfit for her special day. Red wanted an overbust corset, and two different types of matching skirt: one long with a small train for the ceremony, and one knee-length circle skirt to be worn with a petticoat for the party afterwards.
I was very confident with the circle skirt, as I've made a lot of these in the past, and the long skirt was not too complex in design. The first mock-up had a single centreback seam and was made of one front panel and two back panels with a center-back concealed zip. This didn't move in quite the way the bride wanted, so it was re-designed to have a godet starting at the back of the knee. This meant it hugged her behind a little better and the small train fanned out behind her a little more naturally.
She chose an ivory duchesse satin for the ensemble and a standard anti-static polyester for the skirts. The corset was lined with white cotton and inter-lined with corsetry coutil.
In order to avoid any obvious bulges under the corset, I made both of the skirts without waistbands. I did this by making the linings a perfect copy (but with slightly higher hems), folding them under and understitching the seam allowance.
The corset was based on a Harlots and Angels overbust pattern as I have found their patterns to be very reliable and have a really good waist curve. My bride is quite top-heavy and we wanted to make sure that there was no chance of any ‘slips’ during the dancing. We both wanted to avoid cups due to the aesthetic and the complexity, so the mock-up corset was quite rigorously tested. The bust seams were nipped in just above the top curve of the breasts, and the underarm line was raised a little to hold them in at the sides. I deepened the sweetheart neckline a little for just the right amount of sexy(!) and bound the edges in the same fabric.
After much experimentation with a mock-up in coutil a combination of flat steels over the tummy and spirals over the bust point to allow for the steep curve was the solution. Most of the rest of the corset was boned with spiral for comfort as they are flexible in 4 directions and tend not to dig in or restrict movement.
We chose some really long decorative silver aglets for the laces which were cornflower blue to co-ordinate with the petticoat she wore under the circle skirt. These both tied in with the very pretty and unusual union flag shoes that she got from Irregular Choice.
Photo shoot pictures to follow!
