Posted by Chandrakant at 4:39pm May 28 '10The rose corset. I started this last summer (some of you may remember me asking for advice about which color ribbon to use,) had no time to work on it during school, and finally finished it today. As I got close to finishing, I realized it had come out much smaller than I intended, and added a modesty panel so I'd be okay with the lacing gap. Funny thing, it's only too small in the back; the side seams fall where they should. As laced, this measures 34" at the bust, 25" at the waist, and 37" at the hips. It's too big in the front hip and too small at the front bust. When I planned this, I intended for it to be 35", 23", 36" fully closed. Fully closed, it's more like 32.5", 22.5", 34.5" (laced on a regular pillow; even my corset pillowform was too big for this thing!)Obviously, epic fail at the bust and the hips, but the waist comes in just about right.
If I had to do this again, I would:
-be more careful with seams so it ends up the right size!
-use spiral steels in the curvy seams
-When making something this curvy, use more panels
-raise the bustline about an inch, and the backline several inches, particularly under the arms
-take some size out of the front hips
-basically, not use a premade pattern!
-figure out a better way to attach the modesty panel, make it stiffer without using boning
-sacrifice something to the gods of corsetry and pray for good results
Things that I think were unavoidable:
-the wrinkles, to some extent. I think this is partially a grainline issue, but in order to pattern match I had to ignore grainline for some of the pieces. I think the rest of the wrinkling is due to the construction method, improper sizing, use of flat steels in curvy seams, etc.
-Sizing issues, to some extent. I was using a pattern. I modified it somewhat by using a smaller waist size than bust/hip size and redrawing the connecting lines, but didn't check high hip or low rib measurements, length between hip, waist, underbust, bust, etc. I could have fixed all of those things, but at that point I might as well have redrafted the pattern entirely.
Lining!
If I had to do this again, I would:
-be more careful with seams so it ends up the right size!
-use spiral steels in the curvy seams
-When making something this curvy, use more panels
-raise the bustline about an inch, and the backline several inches, particularly under the arms
-take some size out of the front hips
-basically, not use a premade pattern!
-figure out a better way to attach the modesty panel, make it stiffer without using boning
-sacrifice something to the gods of corsetry and pray for good results
Things that I think were unavoidable:
-the wrinkles, to some extent. I think this is partially a grainline issue, but in order to pattern match I had to ignore grainline for some of the pieces. I think the rest of the wrinkling is due to the construction method, improper sizing, use of flat steels in curvy seams, etc.
-Sizing issues, to some extent. I was using a pattern. I modified it somewhat by using a smaller waist size than bust/hip size and redrawing the connecting lines, but didn't check high hip or low rib measurements, length between hip, waist, underbust, bust, etc. I could have fixed all of those things, but at that point I might as well have redrafted the pattern entirely.
Lining!
Anothuh corset. - Chandrakant