Liliana Vess

Good morning, and thank you for stopping in to visit my first post. Although I have been in the business of delightful creation for many years now, it is only recently that I have taken to documenting the process. My current project serves two purposes: first and foremost, as any young woman of my age and disposition I am eagerly awaiting my wedding. Among the preparations I am making for the occasion will be a hand made wedding gown graced by a likewise hand made corset. Now as anyone who has attempted this sort of thing in the past can attest, corset making is an art form with many many pitfalls - especially when all the patterns are being made from scratch. To ensure perfect fit and construction of the final piece, (and to expand my own wardrobe) I have elected to make several trial corsets before starting one in white

This concept brings me neatly to my second reason for my project. Halloween (Samhain to the initiated) is just around the corner, and I do enjoy a good reason to dress in costume. This year, I have elected to become Liliana Vess, the powerful dark plainswalker from the Magic the Gathering multiverse (pictured to the right). This outfit allows me the opportunity to hone my skill while keeping in the spirit of the holiday. It has the added bonus of keeping a certain gentleman in my life, Sir Reginald Poppycock, very happy, as she is one of his favorite characters. As this is a rather large undertaking to put together within the month, I have enlisted the help of my mother - a skilled seamstress who has taught me her craft. Yesterday was our second session collaborating on this specific project, and it produced some lovely results

My first step, with any new project is to do a sketch of what I'm looking to create. In this case, I knew that I had to modify the skirt so that it would move correctly on a real person, yet still maintain the high slit that Lili is known for. To solve this problem I have included a semicircular drape in back overlapping a slightly more substantial panel that falls in front. This creates a high slit up both legs while preserving the modesty and mobility of the wearer. This whole piece will then wrap in place and fasten to the over-bust corset with a series of hook and eye fasteners creating the look of a full dress, but allowing the versatility of wearing both pieces separately in the future. As the skirt was already completed in advance, there is not much more to say regarding it's construction.
Our corset pattern is one that we made (it really does take two people to make one completely from scratch) for a previous project. It needed a few modifications to provide for laces in the front as well as the back, and I needed to reshape the pieces to add a bit more of a sinch to the overall finished product. If you are at all curious what the first version of the pattern produced, images of a green brocade version are posted on my facebook. We use a 5 piece pattern (two of each piece are needed creating 10 when all is said and done) and several additional pieces are needed to create the panels behind the laces. I have chosen an eggplant purple costume satin for the face material and an old-gold colored lining fabric. Because neither of these are particularly sturdy, we also used a core fabric (anything that can take a beating and is not likely to fray) as well as iron on facing to give the finished piece some substance.

When I arrived to work yesterday morning, we had already finished sewing the facing layer and the core into place as well as sewing the lining together. The top layers are pictured to the right pinned into position. What remained to be done was to add channels for the boning, shape the bust, and finish the front and back edges so that we could add the grommets for the lacing. I am in the process of ordering steel boning and other professional grade hardware, but in case it does not arrive in time for Halloween, I am prepared to use a heavy duty plastic boning, and we made the channels accordingly.
This dress, just like the ultimate corset I design for the wedding, should be made to not require any additional undergarment. In order to produce something that offers the correct amount of support, I have cannibalized the cups out of an existing undergarment. This was my quick and easy method, however it is possible to order a multitude of different products either online or in stores that would serve the same purpose if you don't have old dead lingerie laying about . By building in this type of construction however you will almost certainly have to modify the fit of the bust, and to leave the piece open to alteration you will not be able to place the boning in the seam allowance. We used a bias tape to run casings along up the center of several panels, both in the front and the back of the corset creating those lovely double seams and quilting the core and the facing fabrics together. The hardest part of the whole process seemed to be keeping these seams straight and even by eye and the positioning of the cups when you have to hold the whole contraption together on your body.

The final job we got completed was turning the front and back edges and adding grommets for the laces. I'm not at all happy with the punch or the grommets that we used for this version. The punch did not cut the fabric very well, and seemed to break progressively the more we used it. Also the grommets look lovely from the front but did not seem to crimp well in the back. Truthfully I'm not sure if they are at fault or if the breaking punch is responsible for the sloppy finish on them, but either way I'm looking into other options. All in all, the corset is coming together nicely. All the hard machine sewing is basically done and I'm left at this point attaching the lining by hand and doing some decorative gold top stitching along the edges. I hope to get most of the hand work done in the next week or so so that when we meet again we can grommet the back, attach the panels, and bone and lace the finished piece. I will be leaving the lining loose at the bottom until the last possible moment to provide us the opportunity to wait for the steel bones if they ship in time. Finishing the bottom and adding the hooks to tie the finished dress together will be the simple work of one afternoon in any case; by no means a taxing part of the job.

If you're interested in my work, please leave a question or comment on this post. I'm not yet ready to market my creations, but if something catches your eye please drop me a line so that I can gauge the interest in the different pieces I post here. A the present stage, my blog is by no means supposed to be a 'how to...', merely to document my creative process on my way to a final, polished, and eventually marketable product.
Thanks for reading,
~Djinni