This project was a combination of two facets of sewing I’ve been super into this year: corsetry and upcycling. I had watched a Soft Bulk session with someone (I forget who now sorry 
) who specialized in dismantling old denim and reusing every individual piece in quilting and various other products. He talked about even salvaging the thread in side seams and how it’s usually extremely durable and very much still usable for hand sewing. He spoke lovingly about the “shadows” created from the dye process behind the pockets and revealing them when dismantling a garment.
I was incredibly inspired, and from my hoard of various “trash” garments (things with not enough life to donate but with too many memories to throw away) I found this late 2000s denim skirt that my friends and I had drawn on with sharpie before I moved away. I meticulously removed every seam, salvaged the zipper and the belt loops and threads, and played with placement of designs and patterns.
During this process, I found this pattern through the Gertie Charm Collective for the Waspie corset belt. It’s a Patreon subscription service, but it’s totally worth it if any of the patterns call to you. I had to piece a couple scraps of the skirt together since it just wasn’t enough fabric for all the pattern pieces.
I cut out the pattern in canvas and blue cotton scraps for the lining. These became the sandwich layers for the boning. I used another old pair of jeans and cut out 1” strips to bind it to keep the bones in place and stop fraying for these layers. The denim layer I kept raw for that lovely denim fray effect. I also ended up using some of the thread I salvaged for top stitching. For boning I used zip ties, but I wouldn’t suggest it for this particular pattern. I ended up replacing the side bones with spiral boning because it has such a huge bend that the zip ties just didn’t work there.
This project was such a fun one for me and I learned so much about the construction of a corset. The pattern was pretty decent, especially for a Patreon subscription pattern, though probably not for a beginner sewist. If you are looking to work your way to corsetry though, I highly recommend starting with a corset belt first so you don’t have to worry about as many measurements for fitting as that ends up being the hardest and longest part of corset construction. In the end, I don’t think I made a super wearable garment, but I learned a lot and made something new from a piece with so many memories. 🌼
Dropout Daisy 