Chocolate, pizza sauce, wine…

All these things have their (delicious) place in life – but hopefully you can keep them off of your corset. If you failed at this task, however, have no fear. I’m here to help!

How to spot clean a corset

There is a product that I swear by, when it comes to caring for and cleaning my cosplay clothing. It’s Clorox 2 liquid. The image below (an affiliate link) will take you to purchase on Amazon – but you can get this at your local Walmart too.

I don’t know how many 50’s housewives they sacrificed to achieve this… 😉 But I swear, this stuff will remove the worst stains from white – while colors either remain unchanged, or look brighter afterwards!

I recommend testing a spot first to be safe. If your corset has a modesty panel, there is a line along the attached edge that will be underneath the grommets when you lace up. Take a toothpick, dip it in Clorox 2, and put a tiny bit in an inconspicuous spot. Let it dry for 30m to an hour, then keep wetting the spot with water and blotting it with paper towels. Keep repeating, and be sure you don’t have a bleached spot. If not, you are good to go!

You’ll need the following:

• Clorox 2
• A couple Q-tips
• A bowl of water
• Plenty of paper towels

When the stain first happens, if you can, get as much out as possible by blotting it with dry paper towels, wetting just the stained portion, then blotting again until it lightens. Before you start with the Clorox 2, get the spot as dry as possible. The magic seems to happen only when it’s extremely concentrated.

Use a q-tip to apply Clorox 2 just to your stain. Let it sit for 15m. If the stain is still there, apply more Clorox 2, and let it sit for another 15m. Repeat until the only added color in the spot is blue – up to an hour total. Remove the Clorox 2 by applying water to the spot with your second Q-tip, and blotting it out with paper towels. Repeat a butt ton of times, until the blue is gone and the water spot is barely visible. It should disappear once the corset dries all the way.

I’ve used this technique to remove a black ink stain from an ivory corset (as well as less taxing stains) – with perfect results.  It’s time consuming, but it does work!

How to Wash a Corset

My official recommendation: Don’t!  Corsets should be dry cleaned.  If you live near a big city, there may even be a dry cleaner who has experience with them.  You can call around and check.

Confession, however: I hand wash my own corsets.  One of these days, I plan to open up the banding on a couple of them that have been thru the process at least three times, and pull out the steel bones to see if I’ve ruined anything using my technique.  If I find no rust, I’ll post a tutorial outlining the process.  It is a rather long undertaking – and requires owning some specialized equipment (namely, a tailor’s ham designed for ironing sleeves) – but the end result is a corset that looks and feels brand new.  If and when I post the tutorial, I’ll update this post with a link.  🙂

Best Storage Practices for Corsets:

If you wear your corset on a warm day (or if you sweat a lot on a cold day) be sure to air it out before putting it away. Flop it over the back of a chair (with laces spread wide so the modesty panel can breathe too) and put it away the next day.

It’s best not to wrap the laces around the corset when storing it. It will sometimes leave random weird looking dents in the waist area, and I’ve heard it isn’t good for the corset either. If you buy a corset from me, it will come with a fabric storage bag, like this:

Rather than simply stuffing the corset in the bag, I recommend lacing it up first. Fold the strings, then fold the corset around the strings, and put it inside the bag. The bag will keep the corset safe from other items, and your other corsets if you store them together. If you’re packing the corset for a trip, it will also keep the corsets busk and/or any hardware from messing up any of the items in your bag.

And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed my Ultimate Guide to Corsets. If you think you may have missed one of the parts (there are 8!) you can access each via the links below.

Part 1: History

Part 2: Types

Part 3: Real Corsets

Part 4: Anatomy of a Corset

Part 5: Pattern Matters

Part 6: Sizing

Part 7: Comfort

Before I did this series of posts, I posted this question on facebook and instagram:

And I was surprised when about 90% of the responses were questions to do with sizing!  As well as kind of pleased – because that’s a subject I feel that I’ve really got a handle on!

My Story

I’ve been selling made to measure clothing online since 2006 – but it was in March of 2013 that I started specializing in corset costumes.  And as always, the first thing I did is put my proverbial mad scientist hat on – and I did a ton of experimentation!  I trolled facebook groups and volunteered to supply costumes to local collaborative photoshoots.  I took measurements for all the models, and made notes of which size they wore in my corsets.  And I did the same thing with friends and family – until I had a big database of measurements, along with the size that each person wore in my hourglass corsets.

And I used that data to come up with a sizing strategy for my corsets.  It’s very different from the way most other stores out there do it… but it works!  Here’s what I have learned.

Tip 1: Don’t size by waist.

Most stores recommend to size your corset according to your waist.  But very often, this won’t work.  The reason why is simple: Your waist squishes when you wear a corset, but your rib cage and hips can’t squish.  So the most important measurements to determine your size are actually bust (or underbust for an underbust corset) and high hips.

Tip 2: Don’t lace a corset closed

Corsets aren’t supposed to lace closed.  If you have purchased one that laces down to less than a 2” gap in the back, return that sucker and get a smaller size.  Part of what makes them work is some heavy duty steel boning beside the grommets in back.  And that boning should rest on top of the muscles on either side of your spine – and never too close to your spine.  A corset that laces too close together is bad for your back.

Note: I have read conflicting information to this statement – there are a lot of tightlacers who lace  their corsets closed.  I think that there may be exceptions to this rule when a corset is custom made to your form (with a mockup and a test fitting) that makes it possible to lace shut without back pain.  I can tell you – for me personally – If I lace a 26” corset (in any style, overbust or underbust, any shape, and any level of curve) all the way shut, I will experience back pain in 5-15 minutes time.  But it I don a 22 or a 24 in the same style, and lace it to a 4 inch or a 2 inch gap, I’m perfectly comfortable.

Tip 3: Underbust Corset Sizing

Are you tall, or long waisted?  If so, then yes, you can most likely wear an off-the-rack underbust corset.  If you are short waisted, well endowed, or any number of things that could mean you have a short torso (particularly a short waist-to-underbust measurement) then underbust corsets very often won’t fit you!  I’ve bought several from my wholesalers, and although I am average height, I’ve found that I need a shorter corset.  A “Waspie” is a term used to describe a very short underbust corset.  If you find that standard underbust corsets are too tall for you, try searching for a waspie.

Tip 4: Lacing Cheats

Corsets are made to have average bust-to-hip ratio – but if you have a bigger bust, or bigger hips, it’s okay to lace your corset in either of these ways to get it to fit:

…But!  After you lace up the corset like this, feel the flat steel bones by the grommets, and make sure they are flat.  If they are trying to twist on you, that means your corset does not fit – and you need one that is customized to your natural shape.

Tip 5: Wear a bra

Yes, it’s perfectly okay to wear a bra underneath your corset.  In fact, if your cup size is below C, I recommend wearing a push up bra beneath your corset.  But you’ll need a very specific style of bra to get it not to show.  You want a half cup or Demi cup bra – as shown in my sketch below. If your bra has non-removable straps, tuck them inside the corset before lacing down all the way.

If your cup size is DDD or above, you probably can’t wear a bra underneath your corset.  No worries, however, a real steel boned corset provides amazing support (much better than your best fitting bra!)  If you aren’t wearing a bra underneath your corset, lace up partially, then reach down the front and scoop – make sure both ladies are exactly where they are supposed to be!  This will help your corset lace down better, and your chest fill the corset’s chest area better.

Those are my best tips for how to get a corset to fit you perfectly.  Next week, I’m going to talk about how to be comfortable (yes you can be comfortable) while wearing a corset.

Today, most manufactured corsets seem to have a shape sort of like inverted parenthesis – like this:

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So the first thing I wanted to do is explain why that’s not good!

Your bones aren’t shaped like parenthesis!  They curve in at the ribs and have a sharp curve at the hips.  There are steel bones along each seam of the corset – and if the corset does not follow the shape of your bones, you will feel those steel bones digging in in places.  The red in the sketch shows the spots on which you’re likely to feel some discomfort, when you wear a corset shaped like that.

Hourglass corsets are much more comfortable.  They curve with your bones, which keeps the corset’s bones from digging in.

And here’s the really cool part.  Hourglass corsets will actually make you look curvier – and make your waist smaller, while being more comfortable to wear than a corset with a “parenthesis” shape.  This image shows just the corsets from my sketches above, with the comparison of the waist size for each.  See the difference?

Most people prefer hourglass, but there are other shapes out there too.  The picture below shows a conical or wasp waist corset.  You wouldn’t typically purchase a corset with this shape unless you are a waist trainer (someone who wears a corset daily to reduce waist size).  It will actually move your ribs.  When I’m waist training, I like wearing underbust corsets that have this shape.  Oddly, if I’m wearing a corset more than one day at a time, a conical shape feels more comfortable to me.

The shape below is called a pipe-stem corset, and it is only worn by serious waist trainers.  It looks rather painful to me – so I’ve never tried it!

And those are the primary shapes of corsets that you’ll see when shopping today.  I’ve drawn them in overbust, since that’s my personal preference – but all of these shapes come in underbust styles too.  If you are looking at patterns – you’ll also see historical corset shapes.  Women wore some form of corset for several centuries, so there were a ton of different styles throughout history!  If you want to learn more about historical corset shapes, I wrote a post about it previously in this series.

Coming next week – Corsets 101 Part 6: Sizing

I was surprised when I started working on this post – and came up with 18 different terms to explain to you!  Corsets are a rather complex art – so to explain them well, it helps to dissect them into their parts – and define each one.  In this part, we’ll cover everything that goes into making a corset, as well all the terminology you need to become a corset afficionado.

We’ll start with the boning.  In most corsets, there is one steel bone along each seam, plus four in the back with the grommets.  The jury is still out on this – but in my opinion, the nicest corsets have spiral steel bones over the bust and all around the sides.  Sometimes you see them with flat steel – and some people prefer flat steel (saying it gives more support).  Spiral steel bones are extremely flexible (while still being strong as steel) and they mold to your form without digging in.  For me at least, the sensation of straight steel bones digging into my rib cage is extremely uncomfortable!  So I use spiral steel for my corsets.  The bones in the back beside the grommets, however, should be made from flat steel.  They will keep the edges of your corset straight as you lace up into it.

The diagram at left shows how the bones are placed in most corsets.  This is called a “Single Steel Boned Corset”.  But some corsets are double steel boned – meaning they have two spiral steel bones along each seam in place of one.  To my knowledge, all double steel boned corsets are made with spiral steel.  With two bones along each seam, you need that moldability!  Waist training corsets are usually double steel boned, since they are extremely durable when made that way.

In the front of most corsets, you have a busk, with hooks all the way down.  In some corsets, you instead have swing latches (or box clasps).  You see swing clasp closures very often in Steampunk corsets.

Corsets are made of two fabrics fused together.  The outer fabric is called the “Fashion Fabric” and the inner fabric is called the “Strength Layer”.  The fashion fabric will usually be something pretty – and the strength layer will be a nice thick coutil or cotton twill.  There are boning channels sewn to the back of the corset, and the boning is inserted inside.

Some corsets have reverse boning channels, which are made from a contrasting fabric and sewn to the outside instead of the inside.  This makes a really cool decorative effect.

Some corsets have waist tapes.  The waist tape reinforces the waist and keeps it from stretching.  I chose to leave the waist tape out of my hourglass corsets, because I find that the corset has a smoother shape without it.  I make these really pretty dress jackets, patterned to curve perfectly with the shape of my hourglass corsets.  The smooth shape in the waist looks nicer with my jackets, so that’s what I did!  But if you have bought a high quality corset elsewhere, you will likely see a waist tape on the inside.

In the back, between the two flat steel bones, are grommets.  (photos coming soon!  Lol, I forgot to mention the grommets when I originally wrote this post, so I’m now adding them in way after the fact.)  What are grommets?  They are the metal pieces that protect the lacing holes from getting wallered out over time.  You may think of them as “eyelets” – but eyelets are one piece.  The front looks the same as a grommet, but in the back, eyelets have what looks like metal flower petals that spread out around the lacing hole.  If you’ve bought a corset from a new maker, you might find eyelets instead of grommets.  Grommets are two part.  There is a front piece that curves around the back piece, and if set properly, both the back and the front is 100% smooth.  The flower petal-ed back of an eyelet will cause lacing to fray over time, so for a long lasting corset, grommets are necessary.

In back under the lacing, your corset should have a modesty panel.  This protects your back while lacing up, and covers up the crease you’ll have in your back after laced into the corset.

More rarely, corsets will also have a modesty placket in front, to protect your stomach while hooking the busk, and cover the tiny space that can happen in front.  My hourglass corsets have this piece.  I accidentally hooked stomach skin into a busk on a corset once.  (Holy friggin ouch!)  Let me tell you, that experience will make you insist upon always having a modesty placket in the future!

The trim at top and bottom of the corset is called binding.  It’s often made from the fashion fabric, or sometimes it’s made of contrasting fabric for a cool look.

The lacing in back is extra long, so you can loosen the corset to a very wide gap in back to put it on.  It’s laced so that there are bunny ears on either side at the waist – so they are easy to pull to tighten the corset.

That’s all the parts to a corset.  Was it a bit more complex than you thought it would be?  Coming next week, Corsets 101 part 5 – Pattern Matters

Welcome back to my series on corsets!  Last week I talked about fashion corsets.  And I shared a bunch of pretty pictures.  Each and every one of the fashion corsets I carry has a “upgraded version” that I offer by special request.  In most cases, the real corset costs at least twice as much.  If you are new to corsets, you might be wondering – why buy a real corset, when fashion corsets are perfectly cute at half the cost?

Let me describe to you what it feels like to wear a real corset.  Imagine a hug.  A gentle squeeze, perfectly proportioned all around your torso.  Imagine the best support you’ve ever felt (better than your best fitting bra) but with no weight on your shoulders, no elastic digging in anywhere.  Then imagine looking at yourself in the mirror – and seeing this gorgeous curvy bombshell figure that you never knew you could have!

There is one very simple way to tell if you are purchasing a real corset or a fashion corset.  How is it sized?  If the sizes are Small/Medium/Large/etc, that’s a fashion corset.  If the sizes are numbers, that’s a real corset.

Real corsets are designed to actually shrink your waist size, so they are sized by waist in inches.  They have steel bones, a busk in front to clasp (typically), and lacing in back that is laced in an over-under style that makes them easy to pull tight.  A good corset will be made nice and curvy, so that when you lace it tight it will squeeze your waist but curve out to give enough room for hips and bust.

Overbust Corsets

Overbust means, well, over the bust!  An Overbust corset covers the bust, so you don’t need to wear anything underneath to cover your chest.  I find that looks with overbust corsets are more elegant.  Many people say that overbust corsets can have fit issues in the chest area, but I find this to not be a problem as long as the corset has a good pattern.  My hourglass corsets, for instance, have been officially verified to fit perfectly on cup sizes from A to G.

Underbust Corsets

And similarly, I’m sure you’ve guessed that underbust means under the bust!  If you’re wearing an underbust corset, you’ll need to wear a chemise or blouse underneath (at least to be legal in public!)  You’ll have more mobility in an underbust corset, since it ends lower on your rib cage than an overbust.  If you can find an underbust corset that fits you perfectly in height as well as size, you’ll find it to be the most comfortable style too.

Midbust Corsets

You see these much less often.  Midbust corsets are somewhere in between under and overbust, and they are typically straight across the top.  Authentic historical corsets were often midbust – as there would be several layers worn over the corset, and the corset wasn’t supposed to show!  Midbust can be a great choice if you want to do a look inspired by the Tudor or Baroque era – since the necklines were extremely low and straight across in those days.  Depending on your level of endowment, you may be able to get away with wearing a midbust corset without a chemise.

And those are the primary types of real corsets.  Stay tuned for next week’s post, where I will talk about all the bits and pieces that go into making a corset.

Shopping for a nice corset can get tricky.  Because there are a whole lotta things for sale today that are called “corsets” that aren’t really corsets!  Here’s your buying guide for exactly what’s out there today, and how to tell one type of corset from another.

“Corset” Trainers

If it has latex, or rubber, it probably isn’t a corset.  Yes, there are real latex corsets (drool) but these are the exception to the rule.  Corset trainers are basically one step up from a girdle.  What’s cool about these is, they come in steel boned styles.  The steel boned styles can sometimes be used to train the waist down, depending upon your level of “squish”.  I’ll write about waist training later.  What you can do with a corset trainer, you can do way better with a real waist training corset.

“Corset” Bustiers and Bridal “Corset” undergarments

If it has bra cups, it probably isn’t a corset.  There are exceptions to this rule too – real corsets can be made with shaped cups – but a cupped corset is very unlikely to fit you unless it’s custom made to your measurements and costs at least $300.  The distance between waist and underbust (bra line) tends to vary greatly between women!  Bustiers solve this problem by being made of elastic, and not having a real waist point, only a gentle curve that can be placed higher or lower on your waist if necessary.  And they are usually plastic boned.  They’ll smooth you out a bit, and look quite nice under a strapless dress (or by themselves at a club!), but they do not truly alter your natural form.

Lingerie “Corsets”

Lingerie corsets aren’t actually a thing – it’s just something I’ve noticed.  Anytime I’ve seen a “corset” in a lingerie store, it has been the most seriously poor quality corset EVER.  And it has cost a lot too for the bit of poorly sewn fabric, lace and plastic boning.  So just a little warning for you – beware the corset that is made by a big brand lingerie store!

Fashion “Corsets”

Now here’s where it gets extremely tricky.  Fashion corsets are typically copies of real corsets made by various manufacturers overseas.  And they often steal photos to sell them!  So they’ll look just as nice and as curvy as a real corset in the photos, but what you receive could surprise you. Most of the time, fashion corsets have plastic bones.

There are also steel boned fashion corsets – but those aren’t quite the same thing as a real corset either.  The steel bones are thinner than the bones in a real corset (they are called “soft steel”
bones), and most of the time the fabrics used are thinner too.  And we all know that manufacturers (and pattern makers) often do not understand female curves!  Lol fashion corsets will most likely be less curvy than your natural form.  So it isn’t possible to reduce waist size with a fashion corset.

I still love fashion corsets (the steel boned ones, at least).  Sometimes I just want something cute, and I don’t have enough for a real corset in the budget!  I sell the cutest steel boned ones I’ve found in my store.  I don’t use the photos my supplier sends – instead take my own photos for each and every one of them, so you’ll know exactly what you are getting!  I also don’t sell fashion corsets in plus sizes.  Remember what I said earlier about the thinner steel bones and fabric?  Because of this, fashion corsets provide slightly less support than a strapless bra.  So if you are a plus size women, I’ll recommend a real corset instead, which will be better designed to handle your beautiful curves.

These are my favorite fashion corsets (at least the ones that I’ve taken pictures of so far!)

Real Corsets

Now that we’ve gotten all the random out of the way, we can talk about real corsets!

And there are so many types and so many styles of them that it will require an entire other post to share them all with you!  Watch for it coming next week.  🙂

If you were born in the Victorian Era, you would most likely be wearing a corset right now! Most girls started wearing them in their young teens in those days. Victorian times were the heyday of corsets, but to search out their origins, we must go further back in time – to the late Renaissance.

So imagine with me a setting a bit like your local Ren Fest (but less fairies, more unpleasant smells… ok let’s not imagine the smells!) and travel to the French Court. Corsets as we know them today got a big push to fame because of Catherine De Medici.

She’s on my “historical figures that would be fun to cosplay” list because she was kind of a badass (and possibly evil too.) One of the weirder things she did in her lifetime was to put a ban on “thick waists” at court. And a trend took hold.

In the early days, corsets looked like this:

They attempted to give you a torso shaped like an ice cream cone! The illusion was furthered by the style of the dresses women wore. They changed over the years, but they always featured a rather stylized figure. Here’s a gorgeous example from 1770:

The corset as we know it today came into being during the Victorian era. They had been using the corset for hundreds of years as a foundation garment to help dresses fit and look a certain way. So when the style evolved to have a small nipped waist, and tons of voluminous petticoats, corsets got nice and curvy to help the silhouette.

The Victorian corset started out short and curvy – but when the skirts got more form fitting in the 1880’s, it extended down to shape and smooth the hips and abdomen. My designs are mostly inspired by the 1880s. I absolutely love the silhouette in those days!

In the 1890s (Edwardian era), they made corsets with straight fronts and backs shaped in a way that forced your chest out and your hips back. It made the gowns look so elegant – but it made the corsets rather uncomfortable for your back.

As modern feminists, we would like to think that one day, we decided to be liberated women, and spontaneously burned all our corsets and switched to wearing only practical clothing. But it didn’t quite happen that way! The thing that really made us stop wearing corsets was World War 1. They needed more steel to make weapons/ammunition. So women helped the war effort by giving up their steel boned corsets. We still wore shapewear – like girdles, and lighter elastic corsets for decades after that.

In the 60’s – a slim athletic figure came into style. So exercise replaced shapewear for attaining an ideal figure. And for a long while, corsets were a rare item for those not into historical reenactment or the fetish scene.

Now the corset has come back into fashion – as something we wear for fun! And I’m glad that they have. I’m a mother of two who hates to exercise – so as you can probably imagine, I don’t have an ideal figure according to modern standards! But oh, do I love how I look when I wear a corset. ^.^

If you are curious to learn more about the history of corsets, may I recommend this book:

I purchased and read it before writing this post to be sure I was dotting my i’s and crossing my ts correctly!  But it turned out to be a fascinating read with lots of interesting pictures.  (The above image is an affiliate link – if you purchase with the link Amazon will pay me a small commission on the sale.  I’ve found some awesomely recommendable things on Amazon over the years – and it seemed that the easiest way to share their images in my blog was to sign up for the affiliate program!  So that’s what I did.  ^.^)

Coming next week – Corsets 101 Part 2: Corset types!