Corsetry Toolkits!

I’m working on finishing up a full (and largely positive) review of the new RedThreaded 1860s corset, but while I’m finishing up, I wanted to share some tool resources that can help you dive into home-corsetry for the mid-19th century!

Grommets are a big deal. You need the 2-piece style, with a grommet and a washer, not the one-piece squashing-splay jobbies at Joann’s. And they need to be of modest size, to better suit the look of metal grommets used for lacing in mid-century corsets. You’ll also need a way to squash them together. A way that doesn’t kill your hands forever.

For under $12 *including shipping*, you can get a box of 100 sets of 000 or 00 metal grommets, plus the “hammer and anvil” that goes with the size, from Gold Star Tool.

The “hammer and anvil” set is inexpensive, effective, and lets you get a really good smash on the grommets for permanence and durability, without needing any sort of hand strength or grip strength. (This is a big deal for me. I cannot open jars without outside assistance. Grommet pliers are just Straight Out Nope.)

Now, you’ll also want a smacking tool… it needs to be hide, or dead-fall, or rubber mallet style, not metal. Metal will rebound in your hand, skitter around, and up your risks of smashing fingers and inventing all new Sewing Vocabulary that will likely get you Darned to Heck, where it is always Uncomfortably Warm. Let’s not.

Hit up Harbor Freight. A 1 pound rubber mallet runs under $3. And they have stores everywhere!

I’m often asked about the German Artificial Whalebone by Wissner (made from the baleen of artificial whales grown in the stock tanks at Wissner, of course)–does it work, etc? I’d say a hearty YES, actually! It’s an extruded polymerized polyester product with many remarkable properties.

It provides good, flexible support with far more stability over time (and with body heat) compared to lesser plastics or too-light steels, it can be twin-channeled with bones right next to one another when you want additional support, it’s lightweight, it can be cut with regular scissors and shaped with a nail emery, and it’s available by the yard/meter, so you can custom-cut your boning lengths as needed.

I prefer the 7mm (1/4″ wide) size, and I like ordering through Farthingales in Canada, though there are plenty of US suppliers. Burnley & Trowbridge have the 6mm at $2.30 a yard; Corset Making Supplies has a variety of thickness and width options by the roll, still under $3 a yard. (Burnley & Trowbridge have the very slender 4mm version, should you need something to mimic superfine baleen!)

German whalebone from Wissner is particularly useful if you’re corseting growing girls through their teens; you can go from test to finished corset as often as needful, without spending on repeated shipping.

Even with German whalebone for the majority of the corset, though, I still prefer to have 1/4″ flat spring steels for supporting the grommets at the back placket.

Coutil is not your only corset fabric option, nor is it a be-all, end-all. It’s just a French word for Twill. You can successfully corset with nearly any fabric, provided it has a firm, fine weave (too coarse and bones work through quickly), is a natural fiber (no heat-stroke death for costuming. It’s a low standard, but it’s my standard.), and has zero to very minimal cross-grain stretch. If you do want coutil, though, check out what Tutu.com has… $15 a yard for 60″ wide in white.

There you have it: a short list of useful things to contemplate while I wrap up my review of the new corset pattern and get it all loaded up!