Remember the draped corset idea to make you go cross-eyed?
Well, here is the flat pattern taken directly from the drape! Inspired by the complex diagonals and seams of some Edwardian corsets, of course.
This thing is utterly terrifying. I haven’t changed anything or smoothed out the lines, simply traced it direct from the draped pieces. I worried only about the waistline since the other markers (low hip and underbust) were so insanely placed due to the way the pieces wrap around the body that I was going mental just looking at them. I do anticipate plenty of problems arising at toile stage, but it’ll be fun to see what happens (even just looking at it now, I can see at least one error that I have made!). And my reason for draping rather than using the Body Contour method or trying to work out a flat pattern? To ensure that the pattern pieces as created would, straight from the word go, lie flat when used to trace a pattern. I mean, look at those shapes! I would never have been able to guess at those shapes if not by draping the actual fabric directly onto the mannequin… still, it actually only has 10 pieces per side, for all it looks like a hundred!
Today was a pattern drafting day in general. One piece for a private client order with full hip gores, the wonderful nightmare shown above, and another very exciting draped piece (that I am writing up for FR, so I can’t share it here I’m afraid). I had also wanted to re-size the 1890s corded corset that I did a tester of at Christmas, but I ran out of time as I was working on a bespoke client order as shown below:
This piece is a kind of cross between a lattice corset and my caged designs, with shaping reminiscent of the black cherry corset.
Top: new “caged lattice” pattern.
Below: “black cherry” pattern (before alteration – I don’t have any “after” photographs, but the side seam came inwards at the hip and a couple of other points were tweaked and moved around).
You can see how I’ve done a similar 7 piece pattern draft but how the difference in figure and proportions is resulting in a longer, leaner hourglass shape. This is one of the reasons why I like to have client torso photographs to work from, it helps me visualise more clearly where to place shaping and reduction. Beautiful shaping is possibly the most important aspect of corsetry, whether the client be athletic, curvy, thin, voluptuous or so on. It’s very much about producing the best shape for the individual, and I hope to continue to improve upon this with time and study.
I’ll be having a toile day soon, so I’ll let you know what happens with the 10 piece pattern then.
