Follow up to Tilted Waistline

[reeneejune]

Hello everyone! I've finally finished my first muslin, and I'm pretty encouraged by the results. I know I need to make some edits to the bust area to better support the "ladies". Any suggestions for editing my pattern for the next go around would be appreciated. Some stats, my natural waist right now is a 56, this corset fully closed is a 44,

Comments

[virginiadear]

Nice work on the mock-up! (Not saying there isn't room or need for some tweaking, but you already know that: it's why you've made a mock-up in the first place.) I'm truly impressed (who am I? Oh, someone whose very first finished corset didn't look as good as this muslin/mock-up. It worked, but it didn't look anywhere near this good! I agree with sister_bluebird, that you have done an amazing job!) and you should be very proud of the work you've done so far.

If recall's serving me, it was costumer/author/cutter Jean Hunnisett who said that if the corset/stays/"paire of bodies" [16th century term] is/are more than one-half inch (0.5") lower than the neckline of the gown, that neckline is going to want to cave in, or curl, toward your body. It, too, needs support, and in fact when you're wearing a corset or a set of stays, demands it. Just thought I'd pass this along because the height of the top edge of the corset will affect the neckline of the gown and how it behaves (and, thereby, how it looks), and the finished edge of the neckline will determine how high or low the corset's neckline can be.

The flip side of that coin is, you don't want the dress's neckline as high as the topline of the front of the corset: it'll show. So, the corset's got to be lower, but not too much lower.
I'm not telling you how to design the dress's neckline, just letting you know that it and the corset's topline will be interacting after a fashion.

Hope this helps!