I wasn't planning for my first article on supporting a large bust to be a series, but all your great comments made me want to explore the subject a little more. We will begin right where we stopped, same pattern, same guinea pig, and try some different things.

I have always wanted to experiment with gussets for big cup sizes, so we will try to achieve something great with these. I will also attempt to have the busk sit against the sternum, I don't know yet if it will be possible as I don't believe there will be room for it between the breasts, but I'm always up for testing, even if I don't succeed on all counts!

Emilie was so in love with the final mock-up from the last article that she ordered a corset made after it, so I am able to show a finished corset made with all the theories I developed in the previous article. She fell in love with a cream damask I had in stock, and resisted strongly against using black, so after a little bit of searching through my fabrics, maroon silk was the winner. Outlined with cream lace and cream silk bias, I'm completely in love with those two colors! Isn't she gorgeous?

 

Before and After

Now that an actual corset exists, we can see the results of our changes. Let's compare the old pattern with this new and improved one on all the points that were discussed last time.

1- Half laced front The front follows the curve of the breast beautifully, and we have gotten rid of that last deep wrinkle. We made it without a busk and closed the front, but it would work the same with a busk, as I used steel bones of the same width.
2- Higher breast I actually like both versions. I think this is a matter of taste: the green one helps visually reduce the size of her bust, whereas the other one outlines it. 3- Double boning at the front With more bones, the front is smoother and has less wrinkles, because the fabric is not doing most of the support work any more. Emilie also said that "the more bones, the better", and that it feels great to have a lot of support in that area.
4- Higher back and higher underarms We avoid the little flesh bumps on the sides, and overall the back is smoother.

 

So let's review the pattern again. You should also know that I altered it slightly, first at the breast because I thought it needed about 5mm more room for her breast to avoid that little "bump" outlined on the photo below, and secondly, Emilie liked her tummy a bit flatter, so that extra cm I added in the low hip area at the front was taken away again.

 

Gussets Part 1

We took some pictures without the lacing at the front, just to see if the support was good enough and also to have an idea of how much we'll have to add to close the front completely. As you can see, not much is missing.

 

So she put the mock-up back on so that we could do a little measuring.

 

 

We settled for a 4cm ( 1 5/8" ) gusset. The pattern now looks like this, I only put one "big" gusset on each side for this first test.

 

The mock-up with the new gusset. The gussets served their purpose by filling the gap, but the busk is not flat against the sternum. When I laced her up, the the fabric was pulled towards the back, which made the busk pop out even more.  Emilie said that her breasts were not held tightly anymore and that she'd lost the sensation of good support we achieved before. We even tried unlacing a little bit to see if less tension would solve this but it only made the whole thing a bit looser.

 

 

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

While we were at it, we even tried a few crazy things without success, at this point we had nothing to lose ;-) . We tried placing two grommets at the top of the corset, and then at the nipple level.  I don't think those helped much, but it pointed us towards the fact that maybe straps would be needed.

 

The Busk Question ...

So I tried to find a solution to one of our main problems and came to the conclusion that the busk is too long (too high) and that maybe with a shorter one the top would not pull as hard as before and the busk could then sit where we want it to sit.

Here we go, with a shorter busk, the top right at the bust level. Hum...This is not helping as much as I expected, the breasts look even more separated but I do find the overall shape more harmonious.

 

 

Gussets Part 2

Considering the previous pictures and the fact that the front gussets were pulled back much more then expected, I tried adding a second gusset on the sides because I thought this might help. At this point, because of all the centimeters we added at the front, I started taking some out from the back, so we could still close the corset snugly.

 

Shoulder Straps

Technically, there is enough room for her breast now for the busk to sit against the sternum, but unfortunately their weight is making them fill all the space and push the breast area on the sides, so we are actually losing all the things we worked for on the first article. Once again we played with straps and ribbons to to hold everything higher in an attempt to make the busk sit flat against the sternum. You can see from the unused eyelets that we tried a number of things.

The shoulder straps are actually really helpful and the neck one helps to push the busk back, but of course we would like it to stand like that on its own. The shoulder straps do create really pretty, round breasts. I think I would prefer some wider ones, integrated in the pattern rather then the ones we knocked up with the ribbons. It would be much more pretty on the shoulder and not "cutting" it like it's doing here.

This also points towards the fact that maybe the mock-up needs to be more heavily boned. Right now the bones are not secured properly in their channels and perhaps it's emphasising our problem, because the pictures with and without the straps really show that the gussets are correct, the fit is correct, the heights are correct...

 

 

Heavy Boning

If you remember in the previous article I was suggesting double boning for the front half, at minimum, to give a secure feeling. But this mock-up was just simply boned, perhaps creating more problems, so I added more bones and secured them with top and bottom stitches.

 

It's better, but not as much as I thought it would be. I decided to take away a few cm of width at the top of the corset thinking that maybe, in the end, we added too much fabric with the gussets.
And then back to the shoulder straps, because they really helped to support the weight.
But the side view wasn't pretty, so I didn't keep them.

 

Conclusion

Gussets are a great way to achieve a more separated look at the bust, but considering the weight of ample breasts, I do believe it's better to use shoulder straps. I also considered steel bones, but I'm afraid they would push everything up a bit too much, and we would be back to square one with the overall fit. In the end, my favorite look was with two gussets, low busk and shoulder straps. Maybe I'd just make the cleavage a bit more heart-shaped to cover the breasts more, but once again this is a matter of taste.

 

Concerning the Crumb Graveyard...

Well as you can see I tried and tried and tried! I was really trying to obtain a great result with gussets, as well as have the busk sit against the sternum, and we came close to it. If you really do not want any space between your breasts I think a cup corset might be a solution. We discussed this with Emilie and she said that even her best fitting bra was not 100% against the sternum so I'm still not convinced for really big cups that it can be done.

On a more personal note, I prefer what we did in the first article because her breasts were closer together, whereas here they are really apart (even if I'll admit that the shoulder straps helped reduce that). 

I also believe I could have used smaller gussets and achieved a much better support even without the shoulder straps, but the fact that I was trying to do both (gussets AND busk against the sternum) at the same time made me use the bigger gussets. Well... maybe a part 3 on that?

Once again a big thank you to Emilie.

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