Entry for the Dixie Stables summer 2008 costume contest. The fabric for both corset and skirt came from – you guessed it – the dollar table!

The corset pattern was created using the generator at ElizabethanCostume.net and modified to close in the front rather than the back. In order to make the edges meet, I added two inches to my original measurements, compensating for the two taken off during generation. Both layers are cut from the same fabric, a sturdy poly-blend probably meant for upholstery. The edges are bound with satin blanket tape. My ‘boning’ is plastic-coated wire from Lowe’s – I can’t remember the exact gague right now, but it’s in the vicinity of a quarter-inch wide and works spectacularly for the amount of stiffness I need – it actually holds its shape fairly well and can be manipulated back into position if it bends out (unlike, say, the cheap plastic boning that’s in my Hot Topic stuff).

The grommets are Wal-Mart brand – I’ve heard they shouldn’t be counted on for projects with any real pull, but fortunately, this is effectively a fashion item. I tried punching the fabric with a standard hole punch, but the results were huge and I ended up snipping very carefuly with scissors instead. No fancy setter here; just a rubber mallet and one of those little metal setter pieces. There are eight on either side, laced with 1/8″ ribbons in green and brown.

I couldn’t even begin to tell you what the skirt is made out of – it’s some sort of filmy synthetic. I whipped up some homemade fray-check with white glue and water, outlined my ‘pattern’ with it, and cut two zigzagged layers, one longer than the other. They’re simply gathered and stitched into a waistband of the same blanket binding I used on the corset.

The shirt is store-bought. The ribbons in both my hair and the horse’s mane are the same as those lacing the corset – in my case, they’re attached to barettes that already had tiny roses glued to them, and in his, to bobby pins and flowers picked in the stableyard. I’m also wearing two pairs of neutrally-coloured hose to protect my legs from the stirrup leathers, as they tend to pinch. We learned that the hard way.

The horse is Scrap Iron (‘Scrappy’). Like Val, he’s an American Saddlebred approximately seventeen years old.