Victorian Overbust Corset Panels & Bone Placement
This is a picture guide to help understand the assembly of the Victorian over-bust corset.
Basic structure and bone position for a closed front and busk opening corset.
To measure and adjust use full bust, under-bust, waist, and high hip measurements.
This shows the basic structure of a paneled over-bust corset. The pattern has the seams included, each pattern piece will have the seam allowance clearly marked, usually 20 to 22mm wide
Always use a seam guide for accurate corset making.
The center front can use pieces 1 joined to piece 3 for open metal busk.
Showing the Victorian overbust corset using pieces 0 and 2 for a corset with a closed front.
The side pieces 4 and 5 can be trimmed along the top edge to fit the underarm.
The center-back panel has a 6cm fold line marked on the pattern pieces.
The eyelets have a bone at each side of their placement.
The centre back bone can be either 8mm or 12mm wide flat steel depending on personal preference, but you must have a bone on either side of the eyelets for support, strength, and shape.
This is to show bone placement in an over-bust corset with no front opening.
The yellow (a) position is usually only on a front busk opening corset, but they can be added to larger sizes on corsets with no front opening for extra front stiffness to hold the tummy flat.
Centre front bones can be added to a closed corset in larger sizes, but we don’t usually feel they are needed to give a good shape and can dig in when sitting down, so if using them cut shorter than the full length.
This is to show bone placement in an over-bust corset when it has front busk opening.
The yellow (A) position is usually only on a front busk opening corset, The flat steel bones can be placed behind the metal busk for extra front stiffness to hold the tummy flat.
Cut center front bones shorter than full length to prevent digging in when sitting down.
The bones in red are 12 mm flat sprung steel, and the bones marked in blue are usually spiral steel boning as this is when you need flexibility on the side curves.
The seam allowances make the padded channels for the metal boning. These are always turned toward the center back of the corset.
