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Draft Your Own Corset Pattern
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- Written by Cathy Hay
Draft your own Corset
Your personalised Victorian pattern
Now that you've begun playing with pattern drafting, I hope you can see the awesome designing and dressmaking power this skill can give you (Muhahaha!)
Clearly, drafting instructions could be devised for any garment, so today we're going to go straight into the classic Victorian corset, that most maddening of garments to fit.
I've devised these instructions for you based on corset designs of the late 1870s. I hope that you'll find the instructions as simple as before, but I've made one change that I hope you'll bear with me on.
This time we'll be noting separate measurements for the front and back "halves" of your bust and hips. This will help us to get bust size, back size and derriere size right.
Since a corset pattern won't require you to mess around with armscyes or shoulders, I'm hoping that you'll be able to handle this extra level of complexity instead, in the interests of a much improved fit.
(For extra credit, the more advanced drafters might consider how to incorporate this extra level into the bodice instructions!)
I won't repeat the equipment list since it's the same as before, but there are some differences in the measurements we need. On the following page we'll run through the measurements in full and then get straight into it.
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You have just reminded me of something my dad told me, years ago (when I got into a temper over something not working out right)...
A draughtsman's advice to novice or dunce
Is always measure twice before cutting once.
Words I have never forgotten, and often pass on.
I'm still a novice, but learning new things is so much fun...thank you for this excellent article, I will let you know how I get on with my corset.
Rose, this tutorial covers the drafting of the pattern only. For boning placement, you can begin by boning the seams, but for more discussion on this subject, check out the article "Planning Out Boning Channels" which is currently free at our sister site, Foundations Revealed.
http://www.foundationsrevealed.com/basics/169-arranging-and-marking-boning-channels
Thank you for these very clear and free instructions! I shall have to look into making this at some point. However, I think the post would be greatly improved if you could show a few pictures of what the actual finished product would look like. Thank you, again!
