Almost all powernets and swimwear / dance Lycra / Spandex fabrics stretch in both the warp and weft directions (Up, Down, Left and Right, look at the arrow heads in the pic).

With Two Way stretch, the fabric will only stretch in one weave direction, either the warp OR the weft direction and is rigid in the other weave direction.

For the corselet we can add more figure control at the waistline to pull in the waist and control under the bottom to "lift" your bottom. Remember that we must "anchor" the control panels and take them around the body; we will anchor the panels to the front control panel.

The panels are cut from the same Powernet as the rest of the corselet.

First place your corselet master front and back blocks up against each other at the waistline.

Now we can draw in the new panel, from the front control panel edge to the centre back seam.

We could just draw a simple strait band but all you ladies have lovely curves so lets make the panel curvy!

But do not make the band too wide; the garment still needs to be pulled on over the hips.

Using tracing paper or carbon paper / tracing wheel copy the waist control panel to a new sheet of paper and add 5mm seam allowance to the centre front and back edges only.

With the bottom lift panel think about a "sling", so start the panel high up on the front control panel edge and curve down to under your bottom level at the back of the garment.

First place your corselet master front and back blocks up against each other between the hip line and the bottom hem line

Draw a curved band from the front control panel edge to the centre back seam.

Using tracing paper or carbon paper / tracing wheel copy the bottom control panel to a new sheet of paper and add 5mm seam allowance to the centre front and back edges only.

Remember to transfer the position of the control panel's from your corselet master blocks to your working patterns so that you can trace the panels positions on to the fabric for sewing.

When you have sewn the control panels into the corselet, you can sew up the centre back seam.

You will now see how the control panels go completely around the body.

But first the artistic bit. We need to draw the shape of the two way stretch satin centre back panel.

Copy your master back panel on to a new sheet of paper and extend a line from the top hem, waist line, top hip line, hip line and bottom hem.

Next mark a centre line down the paper at right angels to the other lines.

Next at the centre line / top hem line point, mark 1.5cm either side of the centre line.

You may like to make this 3cm measurement a little bigger for sizes above UK size 12.

Now for the next measurement you will need a mirror or the help of a very close friend.

You need to measure the across the prominent part of your bottom at hip level.

Mark your bottom measurement on to the hip line about the centre line of your pattern.

In my UK size 12 example this bottom measurement was 17cm.

Now draw with the aid of a flexi curve or French curve a smooth curvaceous line from the top hem 3cm mark, through the bottom width / hip line mark down to the bottom hem.

Then mirror image this line on the other side of the centre line.

You will need to redraft your other inner Powernet control panels to take into account the new two way stretch centre back control panel.

Remember with this centre back panel the direction of the stretch is up and down the body.

All that is left is to mark and cut out all the fabrics.

And sew it all together.

All you need now is a 50's black "sheath" cocktail dress, long evening gloves, a string of pearls and in the morning you can have your breakfast at Tiffany's (The "greasy spoon" transport café just off the A50 in Staffordshire, England. )

I must get a new mannequin with more human proportions for photographing my work, unless there is a willing UK size 12 34"B person in the Stoke-on-Trent area who will model for me.

Girdle

The first foundation garment that can be drafted from the corselet blocks is obvious, a girdle, by simply using the bottom halves of the patterns from the waist line down.

But you will need to curve the new waistline hem for a good fit.

Place the block panels together at the waist line and draw a smooth curve from centre front to centre back, copy to new paper and add 5mm seam allowance all round.

You can also include the waist and bottom control panels but remember to redraft the waist control panel (it will also be cut in half at the waistline line).

As with some 50's and 60's girdles you may like to include a deep, stretch waist band on your girdle but again remember to "drop" the waist line on the pattern parts to take into account the width of elastic waist band.

Most fabric shops and sawing outlets sell wide elasticated band for making stretch belts but try to get the proper wide Plush hem elastic. You can sew it on in the same way as you sew on narrow plush hem elastic (two step zig zag then turn and three step zig zag).

A "Merry Widow", Basque, Guêpière.

Two design features of a Merry widow are strapless bra cups and boning support to keep the cups in place.

First we will copy the corselet mater blocks to new sheets of paper and modify the bra cup cradle area for deeper under wires (MS08 shape) and the strapless three panel cups.

If you have not done so already please read part four of the bra-making series for instructions on how to draft a strapless bra cup then copy the bra cradle draft to the corselet front and centre front panel blocks.

Basically the merry widow is just a back fastening shortened version of the corselet. When you have sorted out the bra section of the corselet front and bra wing back we need to raise and reshape the bottom hem of the corselet all around. This reshaping will be one of personal design as is the option to change the shape of the centre front control panel (but you will need to get out the calculator to redraft the complete front for the new control panel shape).

A good starting point for the reshaping of the bottom hem is the Top Hip level line, so if you place your corselet panel blocks up against each other at the top hip lines we can sketch on a reshaped bottom hem.

Use the blocks that do not have the centre back control panel as drafted in the last article.

When sketching in the new bottom hem think about how you will attach the suspenders /garter tabs, will you have a simple hem line and have long adjustable suspenders or will you curve down the hem line into suspender attachment "platforms".

YES, you are starting to design your own underwear, not just picking some fabric to run up someone else's design/pattern, isn't it fun?

As with most merry widows we will make the garment with a back fastening, Hook and Eye tapes so you need to remove the 5mm seam allowance at the centre back seam.

The hook and eye tapes wrap around the edges of the fabric (see part three in the bra making series for sewing on hook & eye tape).

Because the garment will not be pulled up over the hips we can remove some fabric from the back panels to tighten up on the figure shaping, but do not over do it or you will not be able to fasten the hooks and eyes also there will be to much "spring pull" on the cup underwires leading to a bad fit.

Instead of reducing the entire garment think about inner stretch control panels at the waistline as with the corselet pattern.

The corset historians amongst you will see this stretch control panel at the waistline as a direct evolution from the "stay band" that was sewn into some Victorian corsets and was still being sewn into some Basques right up until the late 1950's.

As with a lace up corset, we need boning in the merry widow to stop the garment collapsing into the waistline and to help support the strapless cups.

The bone cases are sewn inside the merry widow and are made from plush faced casing, just like the plush under wire casing used under the cups.

When we drafted the corselet master blocks we only applied negative ease to the "round the body" measurements, the up & down body measurements remained unchanged so there is no stretch problems with sewing the bone cases to the garment.

Sew on the bone cases after you have sewn on the plush thin elastic hem bands at the top and bottom.

You can place the boning were support is needed i.e. directly under the cups on the front panel seams, at the side seams to help keep the cups in place, on the back panels to keep the back in place.

You may like to have a bone in between the cups on the centre front line to give more support to the cups.

Remember that for the larger bust you can sew boning into the strapless cups (see bra making series for instructions)

For most of the boning you can use flat steel boning,  but if you are boning over a curved line such as the centre front control panel seam lines you must use flat spiral steel boning

And finally, if you split your merry widow pattern in half at the waist line, and curve the new waist line hems as with the girdle pattern, you will have a long line strapless bra and a suspender / garter belt pattern.

So that is Five foundation garments to have a go at:

Corselet, Girdle, Basque, Long Line Bra and a Suspender / Garter Belt.

When you have got the hang of doing the stretch calculations try different control panel shapes and different hemline shapes.

Do some designing! Have fun!