Corset drafting
So, I've been spending the last several nights hand sewing my Regency dress pretty much the entire evenings while watching season 1 of Merlin (actually really good, despite the cheesy special effects!). I was getting just a little sick of it, so thanks to people's comments on the question I posted last night (friend locked for those of you who aren't on LJ/my f-list) I decided to tackle the issue of the new Victorian corset I want!
koshka_the_cat posted some links to corset patent patterns that were really helpful. After a bit of research I decided to tackle the L.H. Foy corset from 1868. I liked the hip gore, which I think will give the definition between my waist/hip ratio that I'm going for, and so far I haven't had a lot of luck with bust gussets (they all seem to come out super flat, since the gores are so small), so I thought I'd try the straight seamed bust and see what I thought. If I don't like it in the mock-up, I can always change it.
So last night I drafted up the pattern to my measurements, which took a while, but I'm pretty sure I have a corset that will fit me perfectly and give me the shape I want! I guess we'll see with the mock-up. The only thing I'm not sure about is the hip piece, I won't know until that's on me if I drew it the right size or not. But the waist, under bust, bust and over bust measurements are all perfect, as well as the waist to hip and waist to bust measurements. If this works, I may just do all my corsets this way, commercial patterns never fit me since I'm so short waisted.
After the initial drafting, before I had added seam allowances, I traced it out onto freezer paper (a tip I learned from FR) so that I can lightly iron it to my fabric and then just cut around it perfectly, without it shifting. I thought that was a pretty handy idea! I may use that more often for shifty, fiddly fabrics. And they can be reused a few times as well and hopefully I can just keep these as my pattern.
My only question now is what to make it out of. I'd really like to do just a single layer corset as I never have and I hate the bulk of my last one, but I also have some really pretty grayish cream silk that would be pretty with some colored flossing! Decisions, decisions... I guess I have time to figure that out. Need to make sure it's even going to work first! :)
koshka_the_cat posted some links to corset patent patterns that were really helpful. After a bit of research I decided to tackle the L.H. Foy corset from 1868. I liked the hip gore, which I think will give the definition between my waist/hip ratio that I'm going for, and so far I haven't had a lot of luck with bust gussets (they all seem to come out super flat, since the gores are so small), so I thought I'd try the straight seamed bust and see what I thought. If I don't like it in the mock-up, I can always change it.
So last night I drafted up the pattern to my measurements, which took a while, but I'm pretty sure I have a corset that will fit me perfectly and give me the shape I want! I guess we'll see with the mock-up. The only thing I'm not sure about is the hip piece, I won't know until that's on me if I drew it the right size or not. But the waist, under bust, bust and over bust measurements are all perfect, as well as the waist to hip and waist to bust measurements. If this works, I may just do all my corsets this way, commercial patterns never fit me since I'm so short waisted.
After the initial drafting, before I had added seam allowances, I traced it out onto freezer paper (a tip I learned from FR) so that I can lightly iron it to my fabric and then just cut around it perfectly, without it shifting. I thought that was a pretty handy idea! I may use that more often for shifty, fiddly fabrics. And they can be reused a few times as well and hopefully I can just keep these as my pattern.
My only question now is what to make it out of. I'd really like to do just a single layer corset as I never have and I hate the bulk of my last one, but I also have some really pretty grayish cream silk that would be pretty with some colored flossing! Decisions, decisions... I guess I have time to figure that out. Need to make sure it's even going to work first! :)