1911 Cupped Corset

I feel like I start out saying the same thing every time I write an article for Foundations Revealed:

“I had so much fun working on XYZ, and I learned so much!!!”

But it is SO true! I have learned so much from every project I have undertaken these past couple of years. Add to that the benefit of then sharing and writing about my experience, and it magnifies the learning even more.

Once again I am SO excited to share my experience in making the 1911 Cupped Corset with you. There is something about cupped corsets that I just love. They are beautiful and romantic, and I see so much interesting design potential in cupped corsets that appeals to my personal aesthetic. This was my first opportunity to actually make a cupped corset so I was really hopeful that it would live up to my expectations.

First of all, I want to say "Thanks!" to Jeremy Erwin for bringing these patterns to us. You can read his previous articles here and here. There is a small, outside chance that I might have attempted these patterns without complete translation from French to English, but more likely, the patterns would have languished in the pile of things I like to dream about doing but never actually get to. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jeremy for removing the language barrier and for all of your hard work in putting these into a step-by-step form.

There were two main things that were missing from the original instructions that would be considered standard for modern corset patterns; illustrations of the completed project, and guidelines or recommendations for boning placement. I did go back and look through the entire pattern book here that these patterns were taken from, just to be sure that there wasn’t an index of illustrations that had been overlooked, but alas - no. None of the projects had any illustrations other than the individual pattern pieces. I am not sure if women were just so familiar with looking at pattern pieces back then that they would be able to envision the finished product or if there was some other reason no to include illustrations, but I found it an interesting thing to leave out.

As far as the boning placement goes, I suppose it is easy enough to guesstimate good placement. I would have liked a little bit of a suggestion on how to handle the cups on this particular corset, though.

I am not going to take you step-by-step through Jeremy’s individual slides again. I am simply going to show you the approach I took to construction and the resulting corset.

Because there were no illustrations of the completed corset, I wanted to give myself a visual to work from - so I decided to draft and make a miniature version first. That was so much fun! I just used 1/4” grid paper and plugged in Jeremy’s numbers, 1/4” = 1 cm. This also gave me a chance to see how well the instructions worked and the drafting approach behind the pattern.

I made notes as I went along, any time there was an instruction that was confusing. I ended up with, surprisingly, very few notes. One thing that threw me over and over was the use of the terms “half waist” and “half bust” in the measurements, when what the numbers were actually representing was the whole bust and whole waist measurement. This gets especially confusing as you go through the draft and you actually do halve the waist and bust measurement.

Another thing that started me off with some confusion was the notation on centimeters to inches. Bear in mind that numbers give me fits as it is, so if I am starting with the wrong information I get confused quickly and easily. For the record, 2.54 centimeters = 1 inch, not the other way around. If I used metric more often I would probably have picked up on the error right away but I tend to stick with my old friend imperial. Converting things back and forth is especially confusing for me. I am sure this isn’t an issue for most of you, but numbers and visual/spatial organization can be a huge challenge for me. (Emmalia Harrington did a great series on sewing with learning disabilities for Your Wardrobe Unlock’d that I really appreciated.)

Executing my first draft in the miniature scale made any errors easier to catch, deal with and correct. As soon as I had the miniature draft complete, I cut out and sewed together the mini test version so I could see the finished shape and decide how I wanted to proceed from there.

I am happy to report that the test version was an exciting success! All of the edges and seams came together as expected and in its tiny state the cupped corset appeared to have potential for nice shaping. While I was at it I also drafted, cut, and sewed together the tailored version just to have a comparison. It also appeared to have great potential.

I set about drafting the pattern in full-size. I considered attempting to change the draft to my personal measurements but I decided it would be a better course of action to draft the corset exactly as is from the original measurements provided. I was afraid that if I ended up with fit issues and that I would be unable to determine if they were an issue of fit or an issue of the pattern. I crossed my fingers and hoped I could find a model to fit.

The full-sized draft came together without a hitch. I smoothed and shaped the lines before adding seam allowances. It was at this point that I needed to start thinking about how I was going to move forward with the actual construction.

Like all of my test corsets, I use duck canvas and plastic zip ties. On this test version I also opted to leave out the busk that I presume would have been at the center front. There are no details mentioned or notations given on the original renderings that give any indication to hardware placement, boning, busk, or even grommets. I also needed to decide what to do with the pattern piece at center front of the cups that was labeled “button flap”.

I had spent some considerable time studying and playing around with my miniature and had come to the conclusion that the button flap was either a simple facing for giving the front edge of the cup a nice clean finish, or it was what it actually said it was, a button flap, and that the center front at the cups was actually meant to have buttons. I went with my second theory because I loved the idea of a set of small buttons dancing up the center front where the cups met. I figured I would work out the details as I went.

After serging my edges to prevent fraying my basic construction steps, using a 5/8” seam allowance, were:

Sew together the three back panels,
Sew together the three underbust panels,
Sew together the three cup panels (leaving off the button flap for the time being),
Sew the finished cups to the finished underbust panels,
Sew the finished front to the finished back.

I used the 5/8” seam allowance so I could make quick and easy boning channels. The curves on this corset are not extreme so I wasn’t too worried about wrinkling from this channel type. What I was concerned about was how exactly to bone the cups.

My searches through images of other cupped corsets didn’t turn up any with construction similar to this design. This design is basically an interrupted princess seam cup. The seams of the cup match up perfectly with the seams of the underbust segment creating, in effect, the visual of a continuous seam from top to bottom. The separate cup pieces allow for more precise fitting though the bust than the standard overbust corset would. The other design element that is different from most other cupped corsets is that there appears to be no separation or spacing allowed for between the cups/breasts. I suppose one could use a busk the full length of center front but I don’t think that was the original intention. My best guess is that taking away the structural separation between the breasts allows for the smoother and less emphasized chest silhouette of the early 1900s; containment and support without over-emphasis.

Other cupped corsets approached the cup boning and support in a variety of ways. Many of them appear to look like a traditional underwire bra structure as a base. If the cups have multiple pieces as this one does, they appear to use spiral steel boning or other flexible boning. Some cups are corded and some cups appear to have no boning or support at all. I decided to try boning the seams on this one just to see the results. Plastic zip ties aren’t quite as flexible as spiral steel but they are not as rigid as flat steel either.

Once I got all of the pieces assembled, I pressed my seam allowances down and stitched on either side of the seam to create the boning channels, stitching down the waist tape at the same time. I used a contrasting thread color so that my stitching would show up better for pictures. I wasn’t sure which direction to go with the seam allowance where the cup panels and underbust panels attached. I arbitrarily decided to push those seam allowances down.

With all of the pieces together, including the center front sewn together from the cups down, I set about evening up all of my top and bottom edges. For the most part they were all pretty good except the side seam where the front and back sections came together. I trimmed everything off neat and even.

Now I was at the point of decision for the button flap. I decided to treat center front at the cups just like a blouse placket or lap zipper. For the left side I used the button flap pattern piece to create the placket. I marked out the spacing for my buttons and sewed them on. I had leftover covered buttons from separate alterations projects so I thought the alternating color was a cute way to use them up. On the right side I used elastic button loops and then faced the edge. I didn’t have any pre-made button looping on hand but I did have cord elastic so I made my own individual button loops; a little more time consuming, but just as effective.

I think the buttons turned out super cute. Don’t even ask how I joined the seams together at the center front where the cups and underbust meet. I’m not even sure what I did myself! I just played around with things until I got them to lay in a neat and submissive manner.

Grommets were installed and I added my boning and bound the edges.

The finished measurements for this corset came out like this:

Bust – 35”
Waist – 22”
High Hip – 31”
Low Hip – 36”
Center Front (from top button) – 14”

For those who use metric this works out to almost exactly the same as the original measurements, except for the high hip measurement which ended up 2” smaller than the original. I thought I was drafting to achieve a 2 1/2” lacing gap but somehow that didn’t happen in the actual draft.

With the corset completed, I set out to find potential models to test the fit. Apparently my friends are becoming more familiar with corsets and much more excited to try them on when given the opportunity! Last time I looked for fit testers I had a terrible time finding anyone, but this time I had more people respond than I needed or knew what to do with. I am glad to know that my incessant jabbering about corsets is paying off and creating a positive expectation among my friends and acquaintances!

I was worried that this size of corset would be difficult to find an appropriate model for but the corset turned out to be surprisingly accommodating.

Friend A

My first tester was my best guess at the size and shape of person I expected to fit this corset well. I have made clothing for Friend A before and I knew her measurements were right in the range of this corset. Friend A is definitely petite at 5’2” tall and a dancer with the narrow hip silhouette that the corset is described as having.

Not a horrible fit but the bust was definitely too large and out of proportion on her small frame. I did not like the crease/buckle at the seam of the underbust and cups that showed itself. At this point I wasn’t sure if that was due to the corset being too large through the bust or if it was an issue caused by the boning placement.

Friend B

Friend B had a much different shape than Friend A. She was taller, closer to 5’7”, with a much fuller bust and thicker abdomen. This is where the zip ties show their weakness. I should have put flat steel in around the grommets; they tend to buckle when facing a body that isn’t ideal for the shape of the corset.

As you can see Friend B filled out the cups better but there is still buckling at the seam even though the corset was overall too small for her. Now I am starting to think there needs to be continuous boning across that horizontal seam but that would really defeat the purpose of having cups at all.

Friend C

I expected Friend C to have the most issues with fit, not because of her circumference, but because of her height. She is at least 5’10, probably closer to 5’11.

As you can see the corset actually fit her best of all. Proportionally it looks good and it fit her very well at all points, bust, waist, and hips. But once again we have buckling at the seam line.

Myself

I knew from the outset that this corset would be too small for me but I wanted to see if I could better understand the buckling seam issue by actually having the corset on my body.

The first thing I noticed once I had the corset on was the smoothing effect that the cups had (apart from the buckling). The cups are a great shape on their own and provide full, comfortable coverage. However the second thing I quickly noticed was excess fabric and sloppiness of fit through the entire seamed section of the cups and underbust segment, even on me for whom this corset is way too small. I did discover that I could obtain a slightly better fit by pushing and tucking my breast down and into the cups rather than our modern tendency to hoist and lift. This technique would be useful for obtaining a flatter, smoother chest appearance as would be appropriate to the early 1900s silhouette of fashion.

In conclusion I love this pattern, even with the buckling seam issues. It has straightforward and simple construction and I think it has the potential to provide a very nice and comfortable understructure for period costumes. With no guidance from the pattern designer as to the intended boning pattern I will just play with alternative methods until I hit upon the right one. I think it will be a valuable experiment to remove the cup boning entirely as well as to try adding additional or differently placed boning.

Jeremy’s drafting instructions are fairly easy to follow and understand. They produce the expected results. I am very much looking forward to trying the draft with my own measurements as well as the draft for the tailored version. These are definitely patterns worth trying!