Corset Building - The Beginning

The Beginning

I did a lot of research, I have the books, the commercial patterns for reference and sizing, and I have trawled the internet, and I found a great site: FoundationsRevealed, that has been super helpful, but I still had to find my own way.

The biggest issue I have found both from making made-to-measure and teaching, is that bodies differ. I hear a lot of fussing about sizing, and how it should be standardized, and it just makes me want to get on my soapbox and deliver my spiel!

Every body is different. I have worked with catwalk models, who are all so slim, and yet, even thought they are the same size in theory, they are different shapes. Curvy, straight up and down, wide from the front but disappear when they turn sideways, to little tummies and sway backs. As such, they all need to be fitted, particularly when the garments are tight, to look good. This is true for regular girls and women too, which is why I found made to measure the easiest way to deal with sizing. So I would make a block, fit it to the person, and work from there. There are some great pattern making books that deal with contouring to the body, and a lovely fit can be achieved.

But with corsets, not only is there no ease, the shape of the body is also being altered, even if it is only subtly. How do you pattern make for that?!

Pattern Making for Corsets

As I see it, you have four options:

• Use a commercial pattern, adapt it until is fits well. This method appears to be easy, but ends up being time consuming.
• Draft your own, if you know how. But you still have a lot of tweaking to get the shape right, particularly if you haven’t worked with corset shapes before. 
• Get a lovely ready made corset and take a pattern, again, not so easy, and morally dubious.

And the one I like best:

• Use the 3D method found on Foundations Revealed and also the principle for making your own mannequin.

There is quite a lot of information about how to make your own dress form, with most suggesting using duct tape. It is my opinion that tape, the naming of tape, and the properties of tape, and the cost vary hugely! What I want to share first is my trials with tape.

I was so excited about this method that I leapt right in, using what I had, which was masking tape and duct tape of the ‘cloth’ kind in black.

I used one of my brave students as a model and set to. I gave her a singlet and because I only had a small amount of duct tape, I used masking tape first. Problem 1: masking tape tears easily so I couldn’t wrap her too tightly, and problem 2: the masking tape lifted off the fabric. I used what I had of the duct tape to reinforce the mold, which worked well, but I didn’t have enough to cover her.

But I was happy with the results, and was all set to mark the seam lines. Except I had used black duct tape. Bugger. So I just cut the shapes, which was fine, but I made a mental not to self: don’t use black tape!

Next I lay them on paper and traced around them, which worked well. I tidied up the shapes to make smooth lines and trued up the seams, and they looked pretty good. I was really impressed with this method, which is something, as I am old school when it comes to pattern making!