1905 #5 Corset -- Corset We will today, make the corset for Bleuette. It is very easy. Have a strip of linen, pique or same of calico a little strong being 36cm long by 8cm high. Fold it in two to mark, with the fingernail, the middle of the strip. This middle will be, at the same time, that of the corset and that of the flat pleat which is in the front, and which you will form by folding back the fabric at 1 centimeter to the left and at 1 centimeter to the right of the fold marked with the fingernail. Make a second fold on the right, another second fold on the left. Leave your fabric and take, with light paper, the copy of our drawing. Cut out then this copy by following, with the scissors, all of it drawn with the pencil. You then have in hand a pattern that you will fold in two by marking, with the fingernail, the fold of the middle (as you did, a little while ago, for the fabric). Now, place the paper pattern on your fabric while taking care to make agree the middle of the paper pattern with the middle of the flat pleat of the fabric strip. Maintain in place with pins, and cut the armholes, but nothing more. Take away the pattern. At about 2 centimeters from each armhole, you make a flat pleat similar to the one that you have already made in the middle of the front. Here is the corset prepared. It is implied that you basted the folds [pleats] from the top to the bottom, as you traced them. Without that, they would not hold. Let us now look at the drawing. We see small lines of dots which run along each fold [pleat], to stop abruptly at some distance from the bottom of the corset. These dotted lines represent the sewing with the needle, that you will make as far as the place where the dots stop. When all the sewing is made, we will remove the bastings and you will see that the corset, maintained by the sewing until at about three quarters of its length, remains free at the last quarter – this will prevent it from pulling in on the hips. The back stitch is made by always coming back to begin the stitch where the other finished, and by making the needle go out again a little further to bring it back then behind, and always thus. If my explanation does not seem very clear to you, your mothers or your big sisters will supplement it by the practical lesson. Let us return to the corset. It is sewn. Let us press a little lacet de fil [cotton braid] folded to bind it at the top and the bottom. You can sew this edging with a hemstitch; but, apart from the fact that this would be rather slow because it would be necessary to sew on the right side and the wrong side, it will be more traditional to sew this edging by

going through in order to take the part of the lace which is on the wrong side. Before sewing, it is necessary to baste your edging quite carefully. Now, let us place the shoulder straps. These last are strips of fabric on the straight thread, being 2 centimeters broad by 10 long. You fold up you strip so that it hardly has, one centimeter of width, and you hem underneath to maintain the part folded up. The straps are sewn in the back at the place indicated on the pattern, and come to fasten in front with a button through a buttonhole made right in the same fabric. This combination makes it possible for the children to grow a little, without mother being obliged to buy another corset. One puts the button more or less far, or one adds a piece to the shoulder strap. But since Bleuette will not grow, you will be able to simplify the work and to simply sew the strap in the front as you have sewn it at the back. The eyelets remain. You will begin by indicating them by a small circle with the pencil. Surround this small circle with a running stitch, make a hole with the awl and overcast all around. There is a thing which I have forgotten while drawing this corset, it is to indicate to you the place where you must sew a cord folded in two, the two ends hanging free and intended to go itself to pass in the circle of lacing which we have sewn to the socks. Tante Jaqueline lost sight of this detail, but you will fix it without difficulty: draw a straight line under the most hollow place of the armhole and, on this straight line, at the bottom of the corset, sew the garters. To do the lacing, ask for the small tie for the chemise or corset-cover. Translation copyright 2011 Deirdre Gawne. Not for sale. www.dressingbleuette.com