Bioshock: Infinite
September 2016
30 days
Rose City Comicon 2016, Tailor category
Finalist
Taking on this costume meant I’d have to make a corset. One that actually reduced my waist. I had never made a corset before, so first things first: find a corset pattern.
After much searching on the internet I found a tutorial on how to draft your own corset pattern based on your personal measurements. It happened to be in the correct era style for Elizabeth as well! [pattern image to come]
Unfortunately, I found those instructions two years ago, drafted my pattern, then lost the site. Haven’t been able to find it since!
Following Sidney Eileen’s and Sew Curvy’s tutorials, I did two quick mock ups of the pattern in muslin to make sure it fit. Only one was with boning since the first was too loose in the top for my liking. One other great thing the second mock up did for me was realize the importance of a waist tape to this design. (I believe the overall reduction is about 2″, generally the maximum reduction for someone with my waist size and hasn’t worn a corset before, so I wanted to make sure the fabric wouldn’t take more strain than necessary.)
The boning channels and trim on Elizabeth’s corset are very distinct. For the cleanest lines I decided to go with 3/8″ white cotton boning channels and add the black strips by hand. The 16 channels—8 seams, plus two each for the busk, top and bottom hem, and lacing edges—were measured and cut for both the cotton and pleather. The pleather was temporarily attached with iron-on sewing and then hand stitched, careful to only catch the top layer of the boning channel or else the boning would not have room to be inserted, and just shy of the entire length. The ends for the boning seams were not sewn on all the way so the boning channels could be closed by machine without disrupting the pleather. After boning was inserted and before trim was added [see assembly] the pleather was hand stitched the rest of the way to completion.
Again, I mostly followed Sidney Eileen’s and Sew Curvy’s tutorial for the majority of the construction. All of the inner layers were sewn together, except the back edges, and the waist tape was attached at each seam. On the back edges I first had to attached the white fabric past the seam of where the eyelets would eventually go. Next, the first two (of sixteen) boning channels were sewn over the white fabric seam. (These first two channels were purely for decorative consistency in the design.) The actual channel for the lacing bones were sewn in under the white fabric. Finally the back panels were attached to the rest of the inner layer. The remaining waist tape was attached to the new seams. The center of the lacing bone stitching was opened just enough to insert the ends of the waist tape and then sewn down multiple times.
For the exterior layer each panel, except the back and center panel, first had the white satin hand-tucked while being sewn on, close enough to the edge that the sewing would not show once the panels were sewn to each other.
For the front panel there is a non-functional busk which required some brain breaking to figure out the order in which everything was sewn. First the busk pockets were measured and cut. Next the white layer was attached to the front of the pockets. The other side of the white was not yet attached to the corset’s main front panel. Then the decorative boning channels were sewn on top of the white seam. Next, the busk pieces were inserted into their pockets. Note, the pegs of the busk almost couldn’t make it through all 5-6 layers of material; that is, coutil, the white satin top layer, two layers of cotton boning tape, light iron-on seam tape, and pleather. This also goes for the busk hooks fitting between all that material and the pegs. It was touch and go if it would even work. The seams to complete the pockets were sewn under the white outer layer and those pocket edges sewn to the front panel of the corset as a single unit. The free edge of the white satin was then finally attached to the outer edges of the front panel, ready for final assembly.
Final assembly included combining all of the outer layers before attaching them to the exterior back panels and then sewing the interior and exterior layers together at all of the individual seams. (more detailed treatment to strengthen each seam at each stage is outlined in Sidney Eileen’s tutorial) Boning channels were topstitched on as described in the previous section.
I didn’t tell the entire truth about sewing the interior and exterior layers together! On the front seams the stitching stopped at a pre-marked spot under the bust. The layers were kept separate even when the boning channels and front side of the trim were stitched on. This made a pocket that accommodated pre-molded bra cups (cut to fit) and gel inserts. This reinforced the silhouette Elizabeth has in the game that corsets don’t usually have without a different pattern. The decorative trim had already been topstitched onto the silk bias tape before being sewn onto the corset. The back side of the bias tape/trim was stitched down by hand with an invisible x-stitch, enclosing the bra insert as well.
T-minus three days to the convention and I haven’t worked on the rest of the dress yet, let alone made this corset functional. I panicked when it came to inserting the eyelets. The standard awl I had did not make a hole big enough for the eyelet to fit through on the lacing bones. The two I did get in took me an hour each and there were 28 total. A coworker saved me the next day by making me a new, bigger awl out of some metal he had in the factory workshop. He probably saved the entire costume. The rest of the eyelets only took me another hour!
I searched everywhere for lace that matched the design at top of the corset and ended up with some French wedding lace. It’s elastic and sequins (definitely not what I thought it was from the image online) but it worked with the circular pattern that the game model has for the lace and on the choker. I tacked it on very lightly with large X stitches on the edge of the trim. Since I hadn’t made the rest of the dress yet, the final decorative stitches (the big black ones on each panel) were completed on the 5-hour ride to Sacramento for the convention and in the hotel room the night before, after I had set up my artist alley booth.
I couldn’t find any bolero patterns that were close to what I needed so I drafted my own. This was accomplished by tracing the shoulder and side seams from my Asami jacket and using a cotton mockup that I could adjust/draw/cut on. The final fabric was a 4-way stretch velvet with the nap upside down so it wasn’t so shiny. The collar of the jacket had both sides reinforced with iron-on interfacing and the front of the jacket self-lined so I didn’t have to topstitch anything. The back hem was done with my sewing machine’s built in blind hem stitch. Shoulder pads were hand-tacked in.
There was a tiny bit of extra work here to hide some seams. The jacket sleeves were made slightly short and the cuff extra long so the cuff could fold back and not show any blue at my wrist. To extra insure no seam would show, a small slit was made (and finished) at the side of the sleeve so my hand could get through with the stretch fabric. The cuff, made double layered with interfacing fused on both halves, had the raw edge turned in and the blue fabric inserted into this opening. The cuff seam was then topstiched closed and folded back at the appropriate length. Once buttoned, the overlap of the cuff hides the side slit in the sleeve.
Elizabeth’s game model generally shows the white ruffles attached directly to the blue skirt but I was worried it would cause the blue skirt to hang oddly. Plus I like the way a petticoat makes it feel more like a complete outfit. The petticoat is made of a single layer cotton A-line skirt drafted to sit directly on my hips to reduce bulk. The waist has small bits of elastic at the sides to get it on and off so there’s no hooks to dig into my hip under the corset. The ruffles of the petticoat were made of two tubes of double-layered cotton, 120″ long and four layers of fabric total, gathered and stitched onto the bottom of the cotton skirt. Since the lace arrived later, I attached the .25″ cotton lace as the very last piece of the petticoat. There are two ties (made of the same cotton, folded and stitched) inserted in the side seam of the petticoat. By tying them together it creates the asymmetrical hem.
This was probably the most frustrating piece of the costume just because of all the stretch. The pattern was the petticoat made into more of a circle skirt. The hips were kept narrow to sit under the corset without extra bulk. There’s a bit of bias tape sewn into the waist to keep it from stretching and an invisible zipper on one side as it would have been too obvious for my liking on the back (not to mention I didn’t make the skirt with a back seam, only side seams). For the shorter side of the skirt, I just messed with alternating folds until it looked right, pinned it in place, then stitched it down. Now for the worst part: the hem. Trying to make a blind hem on a 4-way stretch, asymmetrical skirt that is slightly longer in the back, and NOT have the hem roll was an absolute nightmare. I think I spent hours pinning, making sure everything was the right length and having to do many sections over again when I got further along and realized three pins prior started rolling the hem. I had never been more glad to finish stitching anything than I was for that hem.
Purchased on Etsy. Keeps its shape wonderfully.
Purchased on Etsy. Original link unavailable.
Victorian style stacked heel from Amazon. Miraculously, fits wide feet!
Old sewing thimble from my supplies, attached at the knuckle with spirit gum.
