Making the Comfiest & Curviest Victorian Corset (despite my mistakes)

I've been needing a good Victorian corset for about a year now, and I've finally gotten around to sewing myself a lovely, curvy, comfy corset that gives me a great waist reduction and helps amplify and create those gorgeous Victorian curves and proportions.

Corset making scares me if I'm being perfectly honest. It stresses me out because if something is wrong with the pattern - the damn thing can be terribly uncomfortable. Luckily, the corset pattern I'm using is from my friend Chrissy, and she is a genius at patterning corsets.

So in this video, I'm going to walk you through how I sewed my corset, the things I liked about my work, my mistakes (and there are a few, some of them are super dumb too if I'm being honest...), and testing out the finished product for the first time in front of you all.

🖼Images Used:

Corset, 1870s, V&A museum:

🥳Socials
Tiktok: @nabs_co

📚My books:

(This email goes directly to my management and not to me.)

[SewBiased]

I'm an opera singer, and we wear corsets on stage all the time. And we can still breathe and sing loud enough to fill a 5, 000 person concert hall. So if actresses can't be heard 4 feet away from a camera, I don't think the corset is the problem.

[audrab.]

I wear corsets to my singing lessons (at my teacher’s recommendation), where I breathe from my diaphragm. And use a spirometer (device that measures lung capacity) in my singing lessons. My lung capacity doesn’t change with or without a corset (even when I reduce my waist 2 inches). I loosely lace for my singing lessons to build my muscles, the purpose of the corset being for me to feel the positioning of my rib cage.

[nidomhnail]

Making the comfiest and curviest corset requires a drill and some engineering skills/intuition to create a structure (yes, a structure) that shapes but does not constrains. Corsets and other undergarments are products based on engineering fundamentals. Science. Some may joke and not take the science of undergarments seriously - others understand but can only write about it in a sarcastic way (see "A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown" by Charles Seim (a structural engineer) Journal of Improbable Research). BTW, the dress has a built-in corset. Abby's video points out that a painful corset worn by an actor is either an ill-fitting garment or a marketing ploy. I do not understand why these actors allow marketing to turn them into memes to ridicule.

[TheAgeofFabulous]

I’m so glad Sir Mix-a-Lot made a brief, albeit necessary, appearance in this video. because all the people with back need to be represented!!

[annaysbryd]

The actors not being able to breath in corest because of how they breathe is so silly to me, Opera singers wear corest and are able to act and sing extremely powerfully without dying.

[Chibihugs]

I absolutely lost it when Abby breathed from her diaphragm. 💙Yass, queen debunk the nonsensical corset myths.

[Keeperoffyre]

i don't care what media says about corsets. i have always wanted one. pretty sure i would get way more support for these mountains on my chests.

also, that corset looks very nice! mad props to folks who can actually sew! (and even use a sewing machine lol)

[debra]

The way a light was bouncing off the screen on my phone whilst watching your introduction appeared as if you were wearing a crown and, gotta say, it really looked great on you!! (Sentence length attributed to reading Victor Hugo of late...)

[ZipZipInkspot]

The fitting information and demo is so helpful! The corset hooks information was fantastic, especially. Costumers/reenactors have been padding corsets and dresses for several years now, and a few have talked about bending the bottom of the busk, but really appreciated this-is-how-it-works and here's why. Many thanks!

[deborahduthie]

I loved this comedic finale. Very funny family.👏🏼🪡🧵💜

[gigracer]

Love this video! Also, do you think you could review the costumes in A Discovery of Witches season 2? I cannot overstate how happy I was to see they used a chemise/shift under all the corsetry, and not once was there any intimation that the corsets were tight-laced or uncomfortable

[GrowYourGroceries]

I click so fast whenever I see you post 😍 id LOVE to grow my own old timey meal and explore what women would have worn to farm through time. I thibk that would be so interesting

[marlousv]

I did this pattern! Because I'm squish! I needed to make it larger of course. And then made it smaller again 😂 it is very very very comfy on me. Only pushing in on the waist. I did a single layer mockup and it is just a bit more exaggerated than yours ended up being. It curves more. But that might also be my body, I'm squish. When I've done it in two layers I'll update.

[kittyslyfox]

I’m honestly getting more and more into preparing to design my own corsets because each of the corsets I have I have issues with them my favorite corset would be perfect if it didn’t come up so high in the armpit and the waist allowed for flaring so I wouldn’t ruin the design due to my dimensions. I’m very small but I have exaggerated features naturally 40-29-40 I’m aiming for that 29 to be a 28 or 26 though. The other corsets I have the boning might be flexible but it digs in SO much when I lace it up it hurts my sides but it’s flexible so I’m able to sit in it just fine. My favorite corset is steel boning so it’s more comfortable to stand than sit. I CAN sit of course though but it’s that Victorian type of sit or it’s a lean sit. If I design my own corset I can in turn have those hip areas wider, I can allow for that smaller waist I like, I can also account for my armpits not being dug into and my arms can lay flat. Granted I’ve also learned how to hold my arms when walking in my steel corset so it looks a little nicer. I just lay my hands across my stomach and let my shoulders push back a bit

[charlessoutherton]

I can't wait for your reproductions :D I love Nicoles reproduction videos and everyone else's so can't wait for yours :D :D

[thewardendoesnotapprove]

Love how it turned out! Looks super comfy.

[nancywhite]

Abby. You are so adorable. I love your style of video. Thanks sweetie.

[jacquelineosburn]

Thanks to Bernadette Banner's video yesterday I understood a lot of what you were saying when making the corset

[AlbinoMonkeyC]

Dumb question: what do you wear under the corset when wearing such a low cut gown? Is the chemise tucked way down or just not worn?

[jennarhodes]

Always exciting when your theatre education manifests