I'm trying to teach myself to fit. I've made a toile (Dore, laughing moon, didn't change the pattern first as I'd tried that and it went terribly, the toile hardly wrapped around half of me, can't see where I went wrong, but I digress,) and I'm trying to get rid of gaping and ripples.

The problem is, when I get rid of one gap (bringing it in, at the bottom of the belly) I get more ripples, and I haven't even tackled the ripples that are there in the first place! I've no idea where to go from here. I don't understand the mechanics of it other than ripples are caused by the fabric being pulled too much in one direction. I think I'd know where to start if there were only a few (let out the seams on either side of the ripple?) but they are everywhere. The size of the pattern fits my measurements pretty well. If anything I'm slightly smaller, which I thought should make it easier than being bigger.

Hopefully it's partly the material? I'm using a medium weight calico. Steel bones, one in the middle of each panel, and two at the back for the lacing. I've been very good at keeping the panel shapes and sizes the same as the pattern - maybe thread tension/the way I've sewn the panels together, where I've placed my bones, what sort of bones they are? (they actually seem to make the problem worse) There is so much that could be the problem but I don't know how to identify which problem it might be in order to solve it. I've tried googling and looking for books on corset fitting.

Has anyone got any suggestions? Or know of any links that tackle corset fitting in detail (apart from foundations revealed)?
I'm aiming to make something with no ripples or gaps at all. Wondering if I should give up and accept them and that they're something I'll learn how to get rid of slowly over time and over making lots of corsets, rather than figuring it all out on this one.

Also wondering how people possibly adjust toiles that they are wearing themselves. I can only see properly where the fit is bad if i wear it seams-in. But I can only adjust it (mostly taking the seams in) when I'm wearing them on the outside - but then of course I can't seem to see the fit, so I'm constantly turning it inside-out and out-side in. How do people do it? Starting to think that they must have magic powers.

Sorry to rant and ramble. It was that or throw the toile out of the window!


Photos - you can click on them to make them bigger

With bones

Without bones

Back lacing

Hi lithillify,

To me it doesn't seem terribly wrinkled... it's just normal for the single layer medium weight calico. Actually it looks quite good if this is your first toile. Wrinkles usually appear if the sewing was too fast, but like I said this doesn't look odd to me, as the wrinkles are natural property of any fabric. When you make the "real" corset , you will probably make it of stronger material, more layers and you can always add more bones, so I don't think wrinkles will be issue on your corset. What would I check is the fitting on the bust - I don't see well but it seems corset is a bit too big on the front bust , and are those bones on the front supposed to be in a V shape?

Wrinkles: It's really not looking that bad. A lot of your wrinkles will go away if you close the ends of the bone casings - right now, they're not fully supporting the fabric, so it's able to scrunch up. If you fasten the bones securely in the casings, it will hold the top and bottom edges away from each other and smooth a lot of your little wrinkles. Alternatively, you can put your bones in with masking tape on the inside. Then you don't have to worry about sewing the bone casings or closing them at the ends. If your bones are a little long or short, they can still be fastened securely and evenly to the fabric.

Don't bother trying it on without boning. It really changes the shape, and not in a useful way.


Fit: Yep, fitting by yourself sucks. If you can find a fitting buddy, that can really help. A lot of us do without, and it's frustrating and difficult. I usually put things on seams-in, then use pins and pens to indicate where things need to change. Darts don't have to be pinned in right at seams - you can always rotate them in to seams later, but when it's on you the important thing is to indicate where and how much the excess is. You can also draw on new edges if they need to get shorter, or mark indications for how much higher or wider something needs to go. Fitting is always an iterative process - you mark the obvious changes, fix them, then do it again. You also don't want to try to do too many things at once - often if you make too many corrections all at once, it's hard to tell which change had a good effect and which didn't.

It's also really important to take good notes, so if you put it down and come back you'll know what you were trying to tell yourself. Photographs are also really handy (front, back, and side at minimum, but 3/4 back and front images are really good too). Even if you don't have any fitting buddies, a housemate or partner can take well-lit, well-focused pictures.


Honestly, this is looking pretty good. I think it may be a little too tall for you (I would take out height between the under-bust and the waist, rather than just at the top edge) and you could probably let the hip out.

It would be really helpful to see a photo of the back from square on - you can have someone else take it or just shoot over your shoulder in a mirror. A little hand mirror is useful to see the camera screen and line the shot up well. Without seeing the back, it's very difficult to know if it's too small in general.

There's nothing wrong with this toile you just haven't boned it in the right places i'd say. It needs to be boned on each seam and you will find that it helps to stitch the bone channels at either end so that the bones don't move. I think if you do that you will see a huge improvent but really, corsets always look more wrinkled in pictures and your's doesn't look that wrinkled at all for a toile. You also need to put a bone right down the centre front to keep it flat and straight there.

Thankyou for the brilliant help everyone!

I had the bones at the seams before, but I found it really hard to then figure out how/where to take in the seams because the bones were in the way (that's why they ended up in a v shape at the front - I took the middle seam in at the bottom.

I'm still struggling with it - the belly is quite rounded, and I'm trying to get it flat, but it's hard to alter it with it on because there is so much tension in the fabric already. I'll try to take the hips out first I think before tackling the stomach, maybe that will help. And thankyou for the height advice too - I haven't got to that bit yet, but it makes much more sense that way.

Does anyone have any experience of padding out a mannequin in order to use that instead when figuring out where to adjust toiles? I thought it might help. At the moment my process is:

1) struggle to get it on (I'm definitely sewing a busk into the next one!)
2) try and fail to make any useful alterations
3) decide its on the wrong way
4) turn it inside out and struggle to get back into it
5) fail to make any useful alterations
6) struggle to get it off, nearly dislocate a shoulder, throw the toile on the floor and then watch tv instead

I've changed where some of the bones are, which helped. I'll try pinning it again with it on - I got stuck the last time I tried that - got very punctured when taking it off! Maybe safety pins? Onwards and upwards! Thankyou all for the help again

p.s about masking-taping the bones in place - I have completely failed to make that work. Maybe I'm using the wrong masking tape? But they just won't stay in place.

So I've made bone casings, and I'm wonder-webbing them to the toile so that I can move them around without having to unpick and sew back all the time. I'm not sure if this is a brilliant idea, or if I've missed something completely basic that would be much better, but it's working for me at the moment.

I put bones down the front too, and that's helped. Thankyou Juliab!

Slowly slowly getting there. I'm making another toile at the moment because i needed to take the hips out more than there was seam allowance. I'll post more pics when I've done that.

Thankyou for helping, (I know I've said it already, but) I'm finding it quite hard to teach myself, so I really appreciate it.