Welcome back to the second installment of the first ever Foundations Revealed Sew-Along! Last time, in Part 1, we scaled the pattern up from the boxed originals, made a few very simple modifications, and stitched up a mockup.

This month, we're going to work on refining the fit, and start thinking about the final design.

 

Fitting!

At this point, you should have your first mockup complete. Put it on loosely and wiggle around to settle it right, then begin to tighten it up. The goal is not to pull everything as tight as possible: try to keep the lacing gap even from top to bottom. You may find it helpful to use multiple laces, so you can control how much tension is in each section. Even so, depending on how tight or loose different areas are, this may be difficult (or impossible).

A bit loose here, a bit tight there. The most obvious in this picture is the top edge (too low) and the back (too loose). The hip is also quite tight, though that doesn't come through in the photo.

How does it sit? Mine had several problems, as you can see from my fitting notes:

• Rem 1" per side from back above mark.
• Add hip section C (?) (I didn't wind up adding hip section C)
• Curve out hip sections seam.
• Add 1.5" per side to back hip, possibly more
• +1" to top, no incr. of bust measure

I always take notes about my fittings, and pictures if possible. I rarely get the chance to work on a project all in one go, so if I don't have any fitting notes and photos I'm back at square one. Also, while it was on, I marked in pencil all the places that needed changing. This was particularly necessary in back, where I could feel the exact place it started to get too loose, but there was no seam or edge that conveniently marked where to start taking in.

Pencil is good because it doesn't bleed through or run, so you're not going to put great ugly spots on whatever you're wearing underneath. Easiest to use a slightly blunt soft graphite pencil, not a mechanical pencil.

It's also worth taking a quick measure around your waist - if you've used a relatively soft material, like I have, the fabric may have stretched. It's good to get an idea of how much. My waist measure, with the mockup on and laced closed, was about 28", so the fabric stretched a bit. That's fine for this mockup - I never expected it to fit very well, and I really just needed to get a good idea where the biggest fitting issues were going to be. For my next one I'll be more careful to strengthen the waist so it doesn't stretch out.

Flat pattern alteration

Got all your notes and measurements? Great. Obviously, the next steps are going to depend heavily on what you need to alter about your corset. There will be lots of fitting fun over on the forum - definitely hop over there for specific advice if you're having trouble.  

Alterations are always best done with a large piece of white scratch paper taped to the table - it's much easier to trace on top of white paper, and you can draw reference lines and pivot marks and new edges very easily.

For convenience in this article, I'm going to fall back on mathematical conventions and label all new versions prime: B and B', I and I'. In my own work, I give each pattern iteration a date and version number. I'm going from v. 2.0 to v. 3.0.

Here's where I'm starting:

The original pattern, for reference.

And here's where I'm going:

Original lines in dark grey, alterations in teal, final pieces filled in light grey.

Bust: I need to add height without adding to the bust measurement, so I'm not going to just extend the top edge from the edge. I'm basically going to stretch B and E in one dimension.

I started with pieces B and E: I traced them on top of each other (so my alterations would happen to both at once), then drew a reference line bisecting B. I slashed the top edge off, lined the two pieces up on a reference line with a 1" (25mm) gap.

When you're slashing two pieces completely apart, it's always important to give yourself a reference so everything gets lined up right in the end. Often it makes the most sense to use the grain line, and that's what I did in this case as well.

Once I had both pieces taped down, I put another piece of tracing paper over top and blended the seam lines together. I intended to use the original inside V, but the arms of B looked too weird and skinny, so I moved that point up ½" (13mm) and took the new side lengths of E from the side lengths of B with a compass.

Left: B and E v. 2.0, traced, slashed, and spread. Right: B' (v. 3.0) traced and the inside adjusted higher.

In hindsight, it wasn't really necessary to trace E - the overlap between B and E was never going to change during this alteration, and I could have transferred the new E' (v. 3.0) seam lengths to the old E (v. 2.0) top length. However, it would be very handy if you planned to increase the bust measurement - trace both, alter B as you please, and E will come along for the ride, preserving the original shaping between the two pieces.

Once I had B' sorted out, I carefully aligned the original top edge, B-F-G-H, taped each piece down and laid new B' over top to show where the new top edge needed to start. I drew in the new edge, fading it out completely at the seam between G and H. Then I extended the body seams up to the new top edge, and traced off each piece one at a time.

The arrow marks the new top edge, with and without B'. You can see how the new seam lines extend to the top.

Back: The upper back was really loose. I took in H, N, and I by 1" (25mm) total, by pivoting the seams in slightly. Trace off a new version of your piece, with lots of extra margin. Tape the original down and mark where you want to pivot around. Lay your new version over, matching them up exactly, and use a pin to anchor them on your mark while you pivot the top layer around. Trace your new seam line off, clearly marking which is old and which is new (different colored pens are very useful in this process). You can perform the operation several times, pivoting around different points to create the new pattern piece.

A pin helps keep everything lined up right as you're rotating. Trace each new part separately, then smooth the alterations in to the original or each other. At the end, all your seam lines will be exactly the same length as they started.

Hip: There are two different changes I need to make in the hip: curve out the seam between K and L so it cups my hips, and add 1½" (38mm) to the back hip, N and I.

K and L were pretty easy - I traced the original pattern, then used the markings on my hip curve to draw identical curves on each. It took a little experimenting to make the curve a reasonable size - I originally drew it quite large. In the end, I only added about ½" (13mm) total, tapering to nothing at the top and bottom edges.

K' and L'. The original seam was straight; the new curved seam adds about ½" (13mm) of material

I also added ½" (13mm) to each side of N's tail and to I, tapering the additions off to the waist. I did the alteration mostly by eye with my tailor's curves.

Between adding to the hip and subtracting from the top, I' has changed the most in silhouette from the original I. It's lost the straight diagonal line and now looks much more like a typical piece from a vertically seamed corset.

Once the alterations are done, it's time to add some seam allowances and make up a second mockup! I'm using ¼" (6mm) seam allowances on all the really curvy seams and ½" (13mm) allowances on the straighter seams. The ¼" (6mm) allowances aren't big enough to fell, which is my preferred seam finish on corsets, but it makes matching and sewing the curves really easy.

Yellow for ½" (13mm) and blue for ¼" (6mm). The front and back edges get cut-on facings, not seam allowances. The top and bottom edge allowance gets trimmed off right before the binding is sewn on - it protects the true edge from fraying.

Second mockup

Construction on your second mockup (if you feel you need one; I certainly do) should go about the same as on your first. I finished the seams exactly as before - pressed away from the center front and stitched down.

I like to use my mockups to play with design ideas - on the last one I had fun with the stripes of some leftover home-dec canvas. On this one I'm using the remains of a pair of canvas trousers that wore out in the seat. I made sure to mark all the really thin areas (visible when the cloth was held up to a bright window) so I wouldn't accidentally use the weak sections. The weathered fabric provides some wonderful visual texture and character.

The knees had bagged out, and even after pressing they didn't quite lie flat anymore. I had to work around the baggy sections until right at the end, then split the fabric along cutting lines and trace the last two pieces. The eagle-eyed among you will note that there are two left N pieces - it was the only way to get everything in the available space.

Reuse, reduce

You can't really see it, but I marked the top of each piece as I traced it. The mark (T) shows the top and the right side of the fabric. You could mark pieces with the letter name, if you're having trouble keeping them apart. The markings can safely be on the right side because they'll be cut off when I trim the top edge before binding.

And the result?

The bust is much higher, now, but a little small. Looks like there's one more mockup in my future.

This side didn't get trimmed down to the finished edge. I like the longer hip, actually - I think I'm going to keep it

Pretty snazzy. The back and hip are fitting extremely well. I really like the longer hip on the side that I didn't trim down. The bust is slightly too small, now - I should have added width after all. I'll do one more mockup with a slightly different bust, and then on to the final!

Remember: you have until May 15th to be part of the fitting article, published next month. Here's what I need from you if you would like to participate.

 

Design and planning

Let's also take a minute and talk about some design possibilities. If you're planning to incorporate the Geometry theme into your corset, now's a good idea to start thinking along those lines. You don't have to, though - any corset based on this 1908 pattern is fair game for the prize, geometric or otherwise.

Will you add cording? It probably wouldn't have been used in the original piece, but corded hip or bust gussets lend a very cool effect to an outerwear corset. What about embroidery or flossing? You can alter the edges, too - cut the hip edge into a fanciful shape, or raise the top edge and add straps to make a corset-vest.

Making a multi-layered corset with this pattern would be tricky - the bias edges of B, F, G, and H in particular aren't likely to make matching easy. But if you're up for the challenge it does open a lot of possibility. What about quilting two layers together before you cut anything out (or cut them out with very large allowances, like in Mark's article on cording), and then treating them as one? If you traced all your pieces out with plenty of seam allowance, you could even customize the stitching patterns so they matched up across the seams in some very neat ways.

Speaking of seams, how will you finish them in the final product? You could fell them, trim them and cover them with bias or twill tape on the inside, or just stitch them down as I have done (which will leave raw edges inside). For mine, I really like the effect the second line of stitching has, but it would be nice to have finished seams that won't ravel. But to fell them, I'll have to use larger seam allowances, which makes sewing up more difficult. Decisions, decisions!

 

Head over to the forum for fitting help, discussion, or to post questions about the article!

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