1860: Panel 1 Complete

I have finished cording Panel 1 of Salen 1860. While staring at the picture in the book, I noticed a couple of things. The first is that the next panel attaches to the first by sandwich method, (thanks to Sidney Eileen for that note, hers is an earlier corset example, but I’m going with it) hoever, once the panels are attached, a separate row of stitching runs down the outside of the seam at a smaller stitch-length. This serves 2 purposes: the main one is to create a place for the next row of cording to butt up against. You could lay the cording right against the seam, I suppose, and that is what I thought I’d do until I studied the picture. But I think that the cording will lay nicer if it actually begins with it’s own channel. In any case, that seems to be the historical precedent seen here. The secondary reason for the extra stitching line is to give some re-enforcement to the seam.

The other, less important, thing I noticed is that the corset in the book doesn’t really have contrast stitching the way I’ve perceived it. The original work was red, and red thread was used on the red, as well as the black panels. The red fabric faded to orange, and I thought the thread on the center front panel was black all these years, and that alternate red/black threads had been used on the red and black panels. That is not the case, I believe it’s just red throughout, but I’m going ahead with my alternate orange/black contrast stitching because – pretty!

I have chosen to machine cord, so far, so good. The seam allowances are a tad small on one side due to the cording, but I think I’ll be able to account for it by strong hand-basting prior to running the seam.

Here’s a mystery: When I searched corset patterns at the Symington Collection, looking for this one, I found this one, dated 1897-98, with a spoon busk as the main difference that I can see. The flossing colors are noted at red, black and green, as possibilities? production notes? I don’t know.