Measuring and drafting your pattern

(Part 2, Constructing your corset, is available here!)

I can’t take full credit for this tutorial, I used Cathy Hay’s notes on fitting from her free booklet and Roethke from Craftsers tutorial on corsets together to form my own custom pattern for a corset. What you find below is the process I took to get my own custom fit corset.

Why did I make a new tutorial when such awesome ones exist? Because I have a long torso. It means nothing fits me. I have to be careful when picking out dresses and tops with fitted waists because they never seem to hit me in the right spot, making my hips look about 2 sizes wider than they are in reality. I also have wider hips than underbust (don’t we all?) So a straight rectangle, like in Roethke’s tute, wont work for me. I needed something more customized and the notes on fitting from Cathy Hay were a really good resource for this. If you’re going to make a corset, you might as well go all the way!

DIY Corset Tutorial For ALL Shapes and Sizes

First, measure yourself. You can have a friend do it for you but I’ve never had an issue doing it myself. Cathy has tips for doing this in her booklet. She also suggests you use the metric system, which I fully agree with. Its more accurate and the numbers aren’t associated with the fashion industry’s idea of what a size 6 is. You will need the following measurements:

• Bust (optional)
• Underbust
• Waist
• Hip
• Xiphoid process to hip
• Xipoid process to waist
• Waist to hip

Notes on measurements…

Why’s the bust optional? A lot of people like to make underbust corsets and to be honest, they’re easier to make. You can extend the top to cover the your bust if you want, but if you’re a busty sea wench you’ll need more instructions on how to add gussets for the girls. Cathy Hay offers a Part 2 of her booklet which includes this stuff if you suggest her site to a friend. Do it! You can, of course, ignore gussets and just squish your boobs into the corset. If you do this measure your bust “squished” to the right size.

Underbust: Right under the boobs, where you want the corset to end.

Waist: Bend over, stick two fingers against the crease that forms in your mid-section. Stand up. That’s your waist! Its typically the narrowest part of your trunk, but that isn’t 100% for everyone.

Hip: Brace yourself. Your hip is the widest part of your butt. Its also about where your thigh bone sticks out the farthest for you anatomy buffs.

Xiphoid process: I admit, I had to look this one up too. Roethke uses the term in her tute, and its the bottom of your sternum. Basically where the top of your corset will lie.

Drafting the pattern

Get some big paper or, if you are anal like me, get on the computer and open up Adobe Illustrator or Coral Draw. (I don’t recommend Photoshop, Paintshop or Paint because you can’t be as accurate, but feel free to use these if you like!)

You’re going to be drafting half of the corset, so the horizontal measurements you just took will all get cut in half.

1. First, divide your underbust measurement in half and mark out a line.

2. Next draw a line starting at the middle of that using the measurement of your xiphoid process to hip.

3. Now divide your hip measurement it by four. Use this new number to draw a horizontal line extending to the left of your vertical line.

Draw another on the other side.

4. Connect the ends of your underbust and hip measurements. A box! I’ve labeled the picture below so you can see what’s going on in terms of layout.

5. Use the xiphoid process to waist measurement and make a mark on the middle vertical line. This is your waist line. Extend this to the ends of your new box. Tip: If your waist line is very different from your underbust and hip line you can adjust the side lines to accommodate that now. It will make them curved in or out on the finished product. If you don’t want that look ignore this tip and read the note about fitting at the end of step 8.

6. Mark about 2cm to the left of the Front Center line. You’ll want the front panels to be a bit longer than the back and sides for closures.

Divide your box into quarters from the Back Center line to this new mark. Just use straight lines, its the easiest. You can get creative later if you want.

Get rid of that old center line you drew in step 5.

7. Cinching your waist! This is my favorite part, where you get to shave off a few inches from your waist and squash your internal organs. I don’t cinch much, my corset is only cinching off 12cms from my waist. Decide how much you want to cinch. Divide this number by 12. Use this new number to mark little lines on your waist line next to those lines you drew in the last step.

8. Connect the dots! Draw lines connecting the marks on your waistline to the lines at the top and bottom. Those diamonds you just made are scrap!

The areas pictured below in red are the pattern pieces. You can start to see how the pattern is going to come from this, but we aren’t done yet!

A note about fitting: Remember that waist measurement you took? Get it out. You’re going to measure the waist lines that fall inside the red areas, or the pattern pieces. Take that number and multiply by 2. If that number is too close to your natural waist line, push your cinching marks in more, making the waist line of the red areas smaller. If you followed the tip in step 5 you might be OK. You can keep pushing the cinching lines in and measuring until you are satisfied. Just remember that the combined total of those waist measurements times 2 will equal the waist of your corset.

Optional step: Your corset pattern is basically done at this point, but you can add some shaping if you want. I wanted my corset to dip down on the sides by about 2.5 cm so I marked that on my center line and curved that to the front and back lines.

You can make any shape you want here, so be creative! You can also make the pattern pieces more curved if you want, but be careful. If you do this I suggest making a corset out of cheap fabric or muslin first to make sure it fits. If you want to get really creative read through Cathy Hay’s booklet entirely. She gets down to the nitty gritty of fit.

Back to the pattern!

9. Alright, do not cut out your fabric yet. You have to add seam allowance! Retrace or duplicate the pattern pieces onto another piece of paper or artboard and spread them out about an inch apart from one another.

I use .25″ for my seam allowance. (I know, switching from metric to US, but my sewing machine only has US measurements!) If you’re on the computer go ahead and figure out how to do this…

Just kidding! Duplicate your boxes and throw a .25″ stroke around the outside. Poof! Seam allowance! See why I use a computer? If you’re drafting by hand pat yourself on the back for having more patience than me. Now grab a tiny ruler and start marking out your seam allowance all the way around by hand. You can also wing it, but that’s entirely up to you.

Note: Some people like their corsets to close completely and some prefer them to be slightly open where they meet. Its up to you, but this tutorial is for a closed corset. You can easily rectify this by leaving off the seam allowances on the center front and center back, or even shaving off a few more millimeters from those sides.

10. Number your pieces so you don’t forget what’s what.

You will need to cut four of each piece with the fabric folded and selvage meeting at the ends just like you would for any other pattern. Never sewn before? Just fold the fabric in half with the right sides together to get two mirrored pieces. Do that twice for four total. Then go find a nice easy skirt pattern to sew before you attempt to do this. Just kidding. Give yourself props for picking an advanced pattern to start with.

Congratulations!

You just drafted a pattern for a custom fit corset!

Print it out if you need to or transfer it to pattern paper. I changed my colors and strokes to look more like a real pattern, but its just printed on regular paper.

There aren’t very many secrets to sewing this together, so if you’re somewhat intermediate to advanced in your skills you can probably figure it out. If not, sit tight and watch for the rest of the tute next week. Now is a good time to search for fabric and a plastic 2 liter bottle or jug to use for boning.

(Part 2, Constructing your corset, is available here!)