so, going to a 3 day party in 2 weeks and i have 3 gowns to make :|

here is the beginning of it all--undies!



me in my corset ^-^
thermal long-sleeves = the hawtness


( and on the mannequin with chemise and pantalettes )

I have 1 extra GA ticket to both nights in Boston. If youre interested in either night leave a message here or email me at Njustin14@yahoo.com and make sure you let me know which night you are interested in.

i was in california thursday - weds, despite the trip there and all its fuckups i had so much fun. i was not sober at all the hole trip. serious binge drinking. i met these really hot russian guys that were like obsessed with me and kept telling trisha she looked prego hahahaha. she didn't they were just being dicks to her. and my new obsession is coffee bean, i NEED it. its my new top reason for moving to california ;).
havn't left my rooms since i came back. lori killed my fish while i was gone, pennylane missed me so much my poor baby. she was so depressed and would not leave my side at all weds night or all day thursday. i had to walk her to the litterbox nad everything. :(
but i did come home to some presents my mom left me in the cloest, a portable dvd player, a bunch of sobe life waters, hello kitty playing cards, hello kitty sented highlighters and hello kitty pocket pens. i miss her :/.
so much drama going on tonight, not needed to be displayed on the internet.. atleast not yet. haha. my moms been calling me all day telling me what shes buying for me for christmas.. she went to betsey johnson to get me the new snowbunny ring and she called saying i need a new mom to afford my taste and that she spent alot of money at BJ.. which makes me one happy daughter.
shes sending me a pink christmas tree that emma and jack bought me along with some hello kitty decorations :) thankgod some people care about me, not just in the gift giving way but just to think of me the way they have been since they know im completly miserable. my moms worried that im depressed. i just gotta stay as positive as i can. i need to work hard to get out of this and forget about this horrible mistake i made. haha. once im back in new york ill be happy.

So, have previously made corsets, but not nice ones (i.e. with proper coutil, steel bones, busk, etc.) So this is my first serious attempt.




OK, so, horrible picture of me, but hopefully a decent pictures of the corset! I bought the silk brocade facing at a Dark Garden sale, and really like the color. I wish that I'd gotten a bit more reduction out of it!  (I modified the Dore pattern to make it a bit smaller at the waist and breast, and a bit larger at the hip, but I'd STILL like more reduction!)  Even laced all the way, it started slipping just a touch after about an hour. Although it's fairly comfortable, so not a bad attempt, I think.  And the next one will be better.  ;)

More links to construction and other pictures on my blog (if anyone is interested/cares/really bored at work.)

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Well, I finished my 'Silverado' corset ready for last weekend. I got quite a few comments on it, not least from a bunch of boys who don't quite get the whole corset thing and were just fixated on my chest the whole night. Heehee.

Anyway, this is the 2nd corset I've ever made - outer fabric is a really cheap satin brocade which I strengthened by ironing on interfacing before flatlining it to some heavy twill. Lining is herringbone coutil and it's got 26 flat steel bones in it.
I'm quite impressed by my putting in of the grommets but I managed to stuff up on the bust gore and couldn't work out how to fix it (4th picture) - any advice on how to sort it would be good since a few people have said that they want me to make one for them too and I want them to have nice corsets (so they really should commission someone else to make them!!!)

When it was properly laced it gave me quite a good shape - unfortunately in these pics I just put it on and didn't tighten so I could take some pics. Anyway... onto the pics

( Pretty eye candy...of sorts! )

( pictures under cut. Willow from Buffy as a vampire. )
Although it would be out of black coutil or something similar instead of leather, and the cups (which are also leather and not the same as the ruffles) would be double-layered coutil, or at least that's what I'm planning on.

Looks like it's pretty standard underbust with shoulder straps and cups added. What would be a good pattern to achieve this (or at least as a starting point...)?

I don't intend to make it with sleeves.
The ruffles at the chest are annoying and I don't think I'd reproduce them - instead replacing them with a bit of lace, probably.

There's some odd ridges in the cups you can see in the first picture... any idea what those might be, or are they just products of the creation of the corset?
How would I make those cups and attach them? I'm thinking a kidney-bean-like shape, and sewing them between the two strength layers...

This seems to require a busk.... damnit.
Yeah. Anyway, throw any and all of your thoughts at me!

A cute overbust made for a friend. I'm wearing it in the picture and Im a good few inches smaller than her so it isnt looking so gorgeous, but I will put the pictures of her in it up when I have got some!

It is lined in black spot broche, has a piece of spiral boning on each seam and uses 5mm eyelets at the CB. I used a gold busk. The binding is bluey-turqoisey petersham ribbon, which is what I used for the boning casings as well.
EDIT: I sewed matching glass beads over some of the pattern on each piece, I think you can just about see it on here but if anyone wants a close up just ask =]
 
(sorry its blurred)( picture of the inside )

I'm out of thread for the current corset project, don't have enough time to paint, and really, really don't feel like working on my web site, so I decided to write some musings on corset drafting. I'm not confident enough to write a full-blown tutorial on the subject yet, but hopefully some of this will be helpful to some of you anyway. If you have any thoughts, feedback, or other criticism regarding anything I write, please let me know. I am still figuring this stuff out.

I have noticed in various threads some discussion regarding measurements, particularly in regards to what measurements are needed for corset drafting. I use a measurement set that is small in comparison to many corseters. For circumference it's bust, underbust, lowest rib, waist (often the same as lowest rib), point of hip (high hip or highest part of pelvis), and hip (taken right above the articulation point of the hip joint). For height (taken either between the breasts or down the side), it's distance from bust to underbust, bust to lowest rib, bust to waist, bust to point of hip, bust to hip. Other measurements I might use are cup size (bra-top only), back length (nape of neck to waist), and back shoulder width (only needed for very high back with shoulder straps).

Most other needed measurements can be derived from these measurements, based on the proportions of the human body. It's very rare that someone would have proportions too off for derivation, and in those cases a mock-up (preferably in person) would be required for a good fit. The most common instance would be a woman with a bust that is two different cup sizes.

A great deal of corset design is a combination of body fitting and body sculpting. As far as I'm concerned, corsetry is a form of sculpting, because you are taking the human body and creating a garment that changes the shape to fit a fashion profile. Even when that sculpting takes a natural form, at least a little waist reduction is required to prevent the corset from shifting and chaffing while it is worn.

( Ramblings Continued, for those who are interested )

Thanks to those who helped by replying to my post about the fanlacing problem.

I actually took all of the advice given just to see what would happen.
I repositioned the grommets so that the ones taking the most strain were on the waist line.
I used silk fused to a medium weight interfacing for the pull straps.
I added to the hips to even out the tension problem.
My client tightened the laces and wiggled a little then tightened some more.

( Photo )

I will hopefully be making an underbust corset for a man who wants a more feminine figure. I have yet to find out how long he will be wearing the corset per day but I believe it will be for quite a while.

Best styles and fabric to use? The corset will only be worn under clothing so I thought of maybe using coutil but wondered at how comfortable that would be.
I don't think the local fabric stores here carry duck and the twill is alright but I find it has a little more give than I'd like.
I know it's hard to ask for a 'best' style with no measurements but I thought some of you must have made corsets for men and might have a preferred or more comfortable style that you like to go with.

EDIT: Corset will be worn approximately 6-10 hrs of wear at a time


( Information I have gathered )

I know it's a bit early and everythink, but I think everyone who wants to be a member of the corsetmakers' website Foundations Revealed should get their wish this coming Holiday season.

I've set up special Gift Subscriptions so that all the good little corsetmakers around the world can threaten you on pain of death to arrange a subscription for them.

You can get one, three, six or twelve months' one-off* combined subscription to both the corsetmaking site and its sister costuming site, so you can choose how much to spend on each corsetmaker based on their individual naughty/nice situations.

Just thought I'd make it easy for you, see. You can arrange it for them by clicking on the ad on the homepage, or by clicking straight through to the signup page here. The subscriptions will start by default on January 1st, but if you drop me a quick email I can always move the dates forward or back if you wish.

Love, Catherine age 36-this-weekend xxx



* "one-off" meaning it doesn't renew like a normal subscription, so no surprises for your Paypal account in a few months' time!

This sounds like it could be fun....

Pick a paragraph (or any passage) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

Masterlist is here.

Thanks!

Dear Corsetmakers,

Which grommet press do you use? I was hoping to save quite a bit of money by buying the CSTEP-1 (http://www.metalgrommets.com/catalog/01875-package-deal-p-141.html), but upon testing these grommets and the grommet press, I could not be more disappointed. The grommets have a minute flange diameter to hole diameter ration compared to the 00 grommets I received from Corsetmaking.com. While the self piercing function works great on muslin (it would be impossible for it to not), it is absolute rubbish on the four layers of coutil I tested it on. The grommets rip out of the fabric very, very easily. The screw which was supposed to hold in the bottom die piece doesn't even go in all the way and serves absolutely no purpose. These grommets are not tight enough and not wide enough to be at all suitable for corset making purposes, in my humble opinion. Which grommet press do you guys use? I am sick of hand setting but I suppose I will have to make due with it until I get a refund for this machine. I am extremely upset that there will be a 20% restocking fee plus shipping both ways--that is, IF I am able to return this press, which seems unlikely.

I am thinking that if I manage to scrounge up enough money again I will buy the http://store.corsetmaking.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=CMS-GST-HM&Category_Code=GST&Product_Count=15 with http://store.corsetmaking.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=CMS-GST-HMD00&Category_Code=GST&Product_Count=17 dies instead. Has anyone had experiences with this setter?

I've been wanting to wear the corset I own/made more since coming to college, to show it off.
I'm also in the middle of making another - a very slow middle, let me add.

It's about mid-bust and comes to a point at the bottom. It doesn't have a modesty panel so I usually wear a light shirt underneath it.

Problem is... I never know what to wear on the bottom. All my jeans are a problem - high-rise ones get pushed under the corset and get annoying, low-rise get caught in the back of the pants and sometimes even on the tip in the front.

I can wear skirts with it, but I find that they have some of the same problems - underneath, they get pressed into my stomach, and I have to either pull them up high enough that they don't fit properly (lengthwise) or leave them low and end up trying to hitch them back up under the corset as they slide down, or wear them over the corset and then ruin the line and silhouette.

What do you wear with your corsets, and what have you found looks best?

<enter angry quip about how LJ ate my entry here>
Ive always loved corsets, and this community has helped me out a lot.
I recently had a surge of motivation (and a last minute invite to a convention with nothing to wear) so I decided that I would try to make myself a better fitting corset that I had made in the past.
Ive been working on and off on altering the Butterick 4254 pattern to better fit my measurements, and I figured that this would be a good time to try it out. My alterations included adding some length to the bottom and removing a bit from the waist. I think it needs a bit more taken from the hips, but that will be my next project.
I started with a mock up of the lining fabric, and found out that my alterations had worked quite well. I decided that I would rather have an underbust corset, so at that time I cut the bust out of the mockup. (After it was all finished, I found I had cut it a bit too low, but I didnt have a lot of time to make this)
Im decently proud of the final product, as I made it from scraps I had and on a time constraint.
( Pictures under cut )
I would appreciate any critiques. I don't know a whole lot about making corsets, just what Ive read here and learned from sewing in general. I'd love to learn more!

What is your preferred (read: cheapest) material to use for mock-ups?

Edit: Thank you all for your input! I have a lot of food for thought here. :)

So, the website Dragontown Corset Supply says:

Ideally, a corset should have flat (white) boning only at the center front and center back to give the wearer support. All other bones should be spiral, as they are designed in particular to conform to the most dramatic curves, and will give more comfort to the wearer, as well as decrease wear and tear on the corset itself.

Personally, I used all flats in mine and it's quite comfortable. Any thoughts?

I'm about to start making a corset from Laughing Moon's Silverado/Dore pattern. I'd like to avoid cutting up the pattern pieces. What's a good way to copy them onto other paper, with my measurements? Carbon paper?

Thanks.

i'm mad and i feel sorry for my future shrink.

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mark twain is so smart.

like, jeopardy smart.

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