Elsa Corset Tutorial

So I decied to do a full step by step tutorial on my Elsa corset. I will list all the materials I used and where I bought them (if possible)
Hope it will help some of you who want to make their own Elsa corset :)

This is what my finished corset looks like and I'm so happy with how it turned out :D

But lets start at the beginning:
At first I created the pattern. I always make them myself, as I luckily learned how to do them.
This is what mine looks like:

However I know, not everybody can create their own pattern, so you can also buy a one.
This one would do nicely:

You can buy it here: butterick.mccall.com or on ebay, just search for corset pattern. You can alter it, if you want, make it shorter i.e. I always make a corset a few cm tighter around the waist, then my measurement. Always make a mockup before you start the real deal, if it doesn't fit the way you want it to, you can alter the pattern and if necessary test it again.

Back to my corset: I used a cotton denim and a blue crepe I hade in my scrap box. I ironed on some interfacing to the crepe, cause it was very slippery... a light blue cotton would do nicely, you will barely see it in the end. If the fabric you use is too thin, iron on some interfacing like I did.

Then I sewed the layers together and made the tunnels for the boning, before I joined the pieces togehter. (no boning yet)

Then I cut the hemline and neckline and inserted the boning in the tunnels.

I bought a huge amount of plastic boning many years ago, but my stock is slowly but surely running out. I'll probably by some here: www.spitzen-paradies.de/
I highly recommend plastic boning (7mm) for straight or almost straight lines/seams, for curved seams, like over the breast or side seam I would take the spiral spring ones.

I added a lining to my corset, you don't have to do this. If you don't, just make sure that you use overlock or ziczac at the seam allowance, so the edges won't fray.

Then I edged the seam- and neckline with a bias strip.

So this is how my finished corset (without all the decorations) looks like:

Now, if you don't want to make your corset, or think you can't do it, you could always buy one.
i.e. something like this:

Found this here (ebay)
Just make sure the closure is in the back. I like a lacing closure, because you can make the corset tighter or leave it more open. The thing is, it's kind of hard to find a corset without this hook front closure and we can't really use this for our Elsa corset, when we want to add sequins later. So if you buy one with hooks, you have to take them out and sew the front together.

So now on to the timeconsuming, but fun part, the decorating :D

As it is very hard to find the perfect sequins for Elsa, I decided to "make" them myself. I bought this lovely shimmer sheats from elizabethcraftdesigns.com
 
I used like 8 or 9 sheats, so 3 packs will do.

Before I cut them into pices, I sanded one side, so they would stick better to the fabric. Then I drew the lines.
I made to diffrent sizes. The bigger ones 2 x 1 cm and the smaler ones 1.2 x 0.6 cm like this:


Then I started to glue them on, sequin by sequin



I used "UHU Alleskleber" (Sorry I have no idea what this is called in English, but it's a glue that glues everything). It looks like this:


I bought it from a lokal do-it yourself store, but you can also buy it online.

At first I just covert the whole thing in straight lines and just using the bigger ones.


Then I added more sequins on top of the first layer in an irregular way. Mixing bigger and smaler ones, like this:


I only layered the sequins till the sides because of the cape the will cover most of the back anyways.

Then I glued on the rectangular rhinestones :)

I bought them from ebay: this ones



And then I added lots of smal rhinestones (size ss8 and ss10) in lines to the corset (many lines along the bottom line)
I bought a large amount of rhinestones from this ebay seller: ebay.com/usr/eimasselegance
You will need a few hundert of them, can't tell you an exact number, as I bought about 40'000 in total ^^

Last thing to do was the closure in the back (if you buy a corset, it will already have a closure, so you don't have to do this step)

I just punched in eyelets int the back to lace it up.




And that's it, the corset is done :)
Some more pictures with the not yet finished skirt.





I hope you liked my tutorial and found it helpful :)


Sarah

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