"Hold on, and suck in."

This year for Halloween (yes, I start planning early) I've decided to be Scarlett O'Hara. In particular, I'm going to be making her green sprigged dress that she wears to the BBQ at Twelve Oaks when she first meets Rhett Butler (and professes her love to Ashley Wilkes, but he's less important.) Scarlett's BQQ dress is a silk organza afternoon dress (gasp, bosoms before 3 o'clock) with a wide bell skirt, a velvet belt and bow, and a wide ruffled neckline.

Now, to build any historical silhouette, you must begin with a proper foundation. Therefore, the first piece of my costume is a corset. My corset is made from white cotton shirting and polyester paisley jacquard. I used pattern (insert pattern number here), a busk, steel boning, grommets and lacing from corsetmaking.com, and it's trimmed with contrast bias tape, ruffled organza ribbon, and pearls.

Things I learned from this project:

1. How to use grommets. I haven't ever used them before. Most of my previous costuming has involved badly installed zippers. Grommets, though, are nifty. And a pain in the but to get through set when you're around other people who don't see why hammering is necessary.

2. Read the instructions carefully.If your Total amount of fabric needed is X yards you don't have to buy X yards of Each type of fabric.

3. Metal boning. I've used small amounts of plastic boning before, but this was my first experience with metal boning. Good rule of thumb- Measure twice, order and pay shipping once. :)

Overall, I'm pleased with how it turned out.