Pattern Selection
I had my heart set on a Symington pattern from the start (because heaven forbid we make things easy on ourselves), and I knew I was aiming for the late 1890s, so I was able to significantly narrow down my pattern search just like that.
Doing research into materials and costs (and my limited spending money) narrowed things down one step further - I needed a pattern I could make as a single-layer corset, aka no fashion fabric (aka no beautiful, expensive silk), aka no cording.
Because of these limitations and my own sense of style I was able to narrow down my choices to five patterns which I traced in Illustrator, printed, cut, and assembled into five small paper corset models. I used those to get a sense of the shape created by the original pattern and make my final pattern selection based on the shape and how difficult it might be to construct. I ended up going with the Symington pattern that has instructions (though we'll see later whether or not I end up following them).
From there I followed the Wicked Rain Studio tutorial on scaling a pattern to your measurements to create my pattern. I had measured the paper model incorrectly on the first go-around and created some... alarming shapes. Once I re-measured it, though, and re-did my math the process went really smoothly! (Note to self: consider switching to the metric system! Converting decimals to fractions of an inch is hard!) I did make a slight adjustment to the process, though - I added an underbust line, so I would know approximately where to end the bust curve. I didn't measure around the underbust, just the distance from there to the bust and waist lines.
After I drew out the pattern I double-checked my bust, waist, and hip measurements, cut the pattern out, and 'walked' my seams to make sure the seams and measurement lines matched. Thankfully, everything matched pretty well!
Mockups
Then I gathered my supplies - I had a mostly-suitable mockup fabric in my stash, heavy-duty zip ties to use as bones (admittedly not ideal, but I already had them and I'm on a budget), and stash ribbon for boning channels. Then I borrowed some 'hacks' I've seen other people use, including using grommet trim/tape instead of setting grommets for the lacing and using a heavy-duty zipper which will be reinforced with zip tie 'bones' instead of a busk. Because I don't know the height of the corset yet, I didn't want to buy bones or a busk only to have them be the wrong length!
At long last, it was time for mockups! I traced my pattern onto the fabric and cut the pieces out with a generous 2" seam allowance on the sides (you don't need seam allowance at the top and bottom edges), and then thread-marked the seam lines and the bust, waist, and hip lines. I made the seam allowances so wide so that I could make any adjustments on those pieces instead of cutting new pieces since I don't have much mockup fabric left.
My first mockup went together quickly (minus some thread tension issues), but had some glaring fit issues. It was too large overall and left me with no lacing gap. Even completely laced it was slightly too large in the waist, but was slightly too snug in the hips (I suspect this was because I had used my full hip measurement instead of my high hip measurement, which is where my hip bones stick out and sits about 1.25" higher than the hip measurement I had taken). The front of the corset was also too long - it came up higher on the bust than I liked and was long enough that the bones stabbed me in the legs when I sat down.
To account for these issues, I took 1" at the bottom of the center front (evening out at panel 3), 1.75" at the center front top (evening out at panel 4), 2" off the bust and hip lines all around and 3" off the waist (all spread evenly across each seam). I then remembered that I needed more room in the hips (aka hip spring) at certain seams, so I added a bit back to those seams. The pattern pieces were re-traced, re-thread marked, and re-sewn into mockup #2.
The second mockup seemed to fit a lot better, with the only glaring error being an uneven lacing gap - about 2" at the top, which I wanted, but almost 5" at the bottom, which is way too much. I wore the corset mockup around the house for a few hours that evening to understand how the corset would feel after being worn for a few hours, and I'm VERY glad I did that. The pattern encourages a slightly conical shape sloping from the underbust to the waist, and it seems that my lower two ribs are NOT amenable to that (I have a decidedly rectangular rib cage) and I started to experience discomfort in that area after about two hours that was bad enough by hour four that I had to remove the corset entirely. I expect to wear my corset for hours at a time for events and such, so this had to be fixed. (I was uncomfortable enough that I forgot to get photos of the second mockup, and put it back on briefly a few days later.)
On the bright side of things, I decided I had my pattern close enough to the final that I went ahead and ordered my busk, boning, and lacing cord! I put off making my third mockup until those arrived so that I could practice inserting a busk and also so that I could have one lacing cord instead of three mismatched stash ribbons.
My adjustments for the third pattern included evening out the bust curve and adding width to the waist and hip of pieces 1-4. I also had to shorten the height of the back panels (piece 6) to account for the fact that I underestimated how long the spiral steel bones on either side of the lacing needed to be, though that adjustment didn't make it into the mockup as I didn't want to remove and reattach the grommet strips.
The third mockup gave me a much more consistent lacing gap (though still not completely parallel, it got narrower at the hips), but slightly less waist reduction. I wore it around the house again to see how my ribs felt, and it was really comfortable! I had it on for four hours in the morning and another five in the afternoon (with about an hour break in between for a nap). Lacing it up was infinitely easier with a proper lacing cord!
Finishing Up
Ultimately, I was content with my third mockup and deemed that my final pattern! I took apart my final mockup, ironed the pieces, and compared them to the pattern to ensure wearing hadn't warped them (it hadn't).
That means I'm ready to start on the final corset!
My next blog post will go over the construction of the final corset and material costs. Then there will be a fourth and final post looking at flossing and decoration and the final reveal. I can't wait to see how my first corset turns out!
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