I've always loved corsets, in fact I'd watch those hokey westerns with my dad just for the corsets on the saloon girls. I've been sewing all my life and I've tried to make them multiple times. Honestly there isn't a lot of How to information out there and my attempts were mostly trial and error. I used the a vogue pattern a couple of times and that turned out ok, but the fit was never right on me. It squeezed my ribs and was painful to wear.
As you can see it's wrinkly and the boning I found was insufficient. What I ended up doing was paring rigilene and plastic boning. This made it some what supportive, but not what it should be. And of course the fit was still the biggest issue. I'm lucky to have a figure unlike any other. sigh. One day I was googling ideas for costumes and one of the blogs I ran across had an ad for Foundations Revealed. What's that I wondered, so I clicked on it. It opened up a whole new world for me. I got a subscription and went to town. I first focused on my construction technique. Because of my sewing experience this was a no brainer. The corset below is the result of my practice. However, there are still problems. I used duct tape to drape the pattern and because my body isn't curvy, unfortunately niether is the corset. I still love this tough, look at how smooth it is.
The materials I used weren't correct. I used drop cloth as my strength fabric (it's stretchy), and the boning is industrial strength zip ties (they're bulky). I made this corset for a demonstration at a cosplay seminar. I was using cheapie supplies to save money. It turned out good enough for cosplay, but it's definitely not a REAL corset!
The next phase of my education was Pattern Drafting. I wanted to make an under bust that would fit and flatter my not so perfect figure. I used the Foundations Revealed tutorial at first, and getting the general drift of it, set out to do it my own way. I think I did rather well, but things always have to be tweaked. I joined an incredible discussion group on Face Book (Learn to make Corsets like a Pro) and got some of my fitting questions answered. My finished pattern still has some bugs in it. Because of the short distance between my ribs and hip bones, I'm running into some strange shapes at the waist line. I'm still working on this and will probably be harassing the group members for more advice.
This is what the final mock up looks like..... there where three before this one! Ugh! Yes, sometimes it takes that many and more to get it right. But I am determined, cause goodness gracious you can actually see a waistline there!
So the next step on this journey is to make it up for real and see what I come up with. I'm excited!
