Corset Covers - 14 Days of Vintage Lingerie

Corset Cover circa 1902 - image courtesy of The Met. 

I first fell in love with corset covers when I was 16. My mother had a booth full of vintage clothing at an antique show and she encouraged me to try on and model pieces up and down the aisles. When I wasn't decked out in full 1920s flapper ensembles or tightly laced into a Victorian gown, I was comfortably styling a pair of Lucky Jeans worn with a 1910s corset cover (over a nude strapless bra). Being 16, thin, and nearly 6 feet tall, I could pull off the crop top look in a way that I can only dream of now.

My mother had a dozen corset covers for sale that day and she sold all of them by the time we closed up for the evening.

But enough about my fond memories of my awesome Mama. Let's just look at some pretty vintage lingerie and sewing patterns in no particular order, shall we?

1912 Ladies' Home Journal corset cover sewing patterns.

A rare antique corset cover pattern, Mme. Demorest 2103 from the 1870s.

Corset Cover circa 1889 - image courtesy of The Met. 

Ladies' Home Journal corset cover sewing patterns from the 1912 June Counter Catalog.

Embroidered Corset Cover - 1908 June Ladies Home Journal Style Book.

The 1908 June Ladies Home Journal Style Book advertised several corset cover sewing patterns and even included a free embroidery design so that you could ornament your own.

Corset covers were so commonly worn by women that every major sewing pattern company offered a range of patterns for them from the mid to late 1800s until around 1920.

1908 November Elite Styles corset cover sewing patterns.

The McCall chemise pattern below included markings that allowed one to cut it short and make a corset cover out of it as well. I just love it when you get two garments in one with a pattern from this era.

McCall 7310 Ladies' and Misses' Chemise or Corset Cover sewing pattern from 1916.

Corset cover, drawers, and embroidery patterns Butterick 8478, 9341, and 10651 from The Delineator, 1917.

If you wish to sew your own corset cover, The Woman's Institute 1916 book Underwear and Lingerie dedicates an entire section to the topic (Part 1: Brassieres and Corset Covers) to fabric and pattern choice, pattern drafting, and construction and ornamentation lessons for corset covers.

I also have a few corset cover sewing pattern reproductions in both PDF and print at MrsDepew.com.

1870 Corset Cover - Image courtesy of The Met. 

1911 May National Cloak and Suit Catalog featuring corset covers sold via mail order.

For more information on corset covers from those far more qualified to teach garment history than me, you might wish to peruse the following articles:

Maryland Center for History and Culture - Corset Covers - Protection against Soiling and Indecency

The Closet Historian - What is a Corset Cover?

Corset Covers, Chemisettes, and Underbodices, Oh My!