The Swiss Waist: the Easy Way to a Victorian Silhouette (without a corset!)

Hello everyone and welcome to a new video! After a little bit of a disappointment with my 1860s skirt, I widened the skirt band to fix it, and though it made it better, it still wasn't ideal. So I decided to explore period appropriate solutions: belts! In this case, a Swiss waist, or belt, or however you'd like to name it. It seems definitions were inconsistent across magazines and outfit descriptions, but you can trace these belts/waists through museum extants and photographs. They definitely existed and were definitely popular for a handful of years in the 1860s, most likely because they suited the new fashionable style of separates. I used the free online pattern made by koshka-the-cat (http://www.koshka-the-cat.com/swiss_pattern.html) based on an extant from their collection. I had to add significantly to the sides to make it my waist measurement (and it accidentally ended up a little wider when I messed up my seam allowance). I used around a half meter of cotton coutil and black velvet, as well as thread, bias tape, synthetic whalebone, and a handful of metal eyelets. Overall, I think this project took only a handful of hours, even with all the hand finishing, and I'm so happy with it! I think it's a great addition to historically inspired outfits and provides some support and silhouette shaping without the full need for a corset, especially when paired with historically drafted skirts (that hem to waist is the real trick at the end of the day!). Have you heard of Sw