Corset Supplies 101: What are These Things?

Making one's first corset, there are a number of unfamiliar terms and items.  Since you can't (usually) go to the local fabric shop and look at them, here's a virtual petting zoo.

Actual petting zoo also available--drop a note, and I'll bring examples to the next meeting.

The Hardware

From right to left: 1/2" straight steel, (2) 1/4" straight steels, (2) 1/4" spiral steels, 1 pair of lacing bones, wooden busk, staight (separating) steel busk, spoon busk.   Across the bottom is a 'featherlight' plastic bone.

The Busks
The wooden busk (a solid piece of hardwood, about 1/8" thick, 14" long, tapers from 2" to 1") is older than the civil war period.  There are used in renaissance/Tudor/Elizabethan stays, up to the early nineteenth century.

The separating steel busk dates from about 1851, making it ideal for ACW use.  This busk consists of two 1/2" straight steels (just like the bones on the far left), with studs and loops which allow them to hook together.  The great benefit of this busk is that it allow one to put on the corset without fully unlacing it--you can loosely lace the corset, fasten the busk and then tighten the laces, instead of actually lacing them behind your back; to take it off, you just need to loosen the laces slightly so the busk isn't under pressure and then unhook it. No need to actually unlace anything.  This style of busk is most often around 12", but can also be found in 1/2" sizes ranging from 6" to 14", depending on the style of corset and size of the wearer.

The spoon busk post-dates the civil war. It was invented c.1871, and helps make the long lines of the late-19th-century bodice.  Note the "bend", as well as the wider base. Shorter-waisted 1850s-1860s gowns don't require the abdominal shaping of spoon-busk corsets.

The Bones

Most of my corsets use 1/4" straight steels.  They're lightweight, flexible on one axis (making them good for straight seams, less so for curvy ones), and can be ordered in a variety of pre-cut sizes.  Some sources sell them in continuous lengths, which can be cut to the desired size.  The ends are blunted and coated against rust.

You can bend straight steels (front-back), but can't twist or bend them side-to-side

The 1/2" steels are the same as the 1/4", just wider.  Some people like to use them behind the separating busks for extra rigidity.

The wider steels still bend, less easily

The spiral steels can bend in two directions: front-back and side-side.  The only way they don't move is in (you can't compress them like a slinky).  They (apparently) weren't invented until the 1880s, but can take the place of whalebone as flexible stays.  Spiral steels can be bought in bulk and cut down, as well; note the metal end caps.

Spiral bones are very bendy

Lacing bones are optional.  I love them, many other people do not.  They are used to support the eyelets through which the corset is laced.  Typically, the eyelets are placed between two (or more) bones, to keep the fabric straight around them.  (I used this method on my regency stays, for instance).  The lacing bones are rigid 1/2" steels with holes for the eyelets, so that separate bones do not need to be placed on either side.

Lacing bones don't bend at all

Featherlight plastic boning can be found in notions section of JoAnns.  Usual benefits: easy to get, comes with own casing, can be sewn through, desired size can be adjusted with scissors.   Down-sides: less supportive as it doesn't hold shape easily, not a period material, dulling the cut edges is annoying.

Plastic boning is also bendy

Not pictured: German artificial whalebone (a plastic option which behaves more like whalebone), zip ties (sturdier than the featherlight, but bulkier and less comfortable than true steels).  I sometimes use zip ties for steels during the mock-up phase.  Another period option is to use rows of cording to stiffen the corset (as with a corded petticoat).  Reed was used in the 18th century and earlier, but I've seen no evidence for its use in the 1860s.