Please help me fit my corset!

[theladyrebecca]

I finished the corset mockup today, and tried it on. It's definitely too big - it closes all the way at the bottom, just about all the way at the top, and there's only a small gap at the waist. So it needs to be significantly smaller. I think I want to take about .75-1" out at the CF, because the bust seems rather spread, but maybe that's how it should be? I'm struggling with where to take the rest out (I think I want at least 3" taken out total), because, though it's closing all the way at the bottom, the hip gusset shapes feel pretty right, and I like the curve they give. I'm thinking I can maybe take back out the .5" that I added in the middle of the back piece, which I had continued through the gusset piece as well. And maybe the other .5" should come out of the side back piece at the side seam?

I'm also thinking I need a little more length in the bust area. I made it with seam allowances (including at the top and bottom), and while I think the bottom will still look fine .5" shorter, the top dips down quite a bit, and seems to me to need at least the seam allowance added, if not .5" more. I may even decide to add additional seam allowance to the bottom, too. What do you all think?

The other most noticeable issues are that it gaps a bit under the arm, and should probably taper in up to 1" starting about 3" to the top on the side seam. The most center front bust gussets are also way too big. I tried pinning out some of the excess, and it's looking like I will need to take as much as 1" out of the top of those gussets.

I'm hoping with the plethora of pictures, you all can help me with fit issues! I only have one flat steel at the CF, and one at each lacing edge in the CB, the rest is just one layer of somewhat lightweight canvas, unboned. (Do I need to bone corset mockups?) I curved the CB bone around the tummy, to get the natural form look. I do have the area in the back at the waist and side where it kind of wants to crunch in at the waist. Is this normal without boning, or is this a fit issue?

And yes, I realized that I should have used an unpatterned fabric. This is really hard to see!



I'm wondering if the curve around the side at the bottom hem shouldn't go up quite as far. Also, I think the weird wrinkle in the top of the back was because I was wearing my bra in these pics. I forgot to take a pic of the back once I took it off, so I'm hoping it went away! The corset felt a little loose in that area, though, too.



Closeups of the hip gusset shapes, and that wrinkle at the waist:


I realized part-way through my photos that I was wearing it with my bra on, so these are without, which actually made the corset top even gappier.


You can see just how gappy the bust was at the top here. I think in the second photo, I had pinned it smaller. There was a definite curve under the bust, which you can see in the second photo - not sure if that's a shape issue, or if it's just a lack of boning. Any ideas?


I would love any and all suggestions!

Comments

My

[fairegoddess.livejournal.com]

My non-expert thoughts:
- Bone that thing, girl. Grab some heavy duty cable ties from the hardware store and put one on each seam. Nothing will look right, imo, until you get some structure in there.
- Can you put the corset on inside out to see seam lines more clearly?
- I think the back hip gore is too big and too far back for you.
- I suspect part of the reason that hip curve is weirdly high is because of the wrinkling. Don't alter that until you bone that seam to smooth it out.
- I'm having a really hard time seeing where the bust gore seams are, but maybe they're in backwards? If the gores are shaped like Ds (one straighter edge, one curved edge), the two straight edges should be towards the center of the bust section, with the curved sides curving around the outside of the breast.
- Bust gores: boning will help a little, as it will compress and re-shape the breast a bit, but I think your bust gores are too big, and perhaps a little too short?
- Reducing all those gores will help with the lacing closed issue. It may also help with the bust edge height, once it's not flaring out on you.

Re: My

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

Boned! I totally forgot to put it on inside out, though, so I apologize for the not-being-able-to-see-anything. That's what I get for using old stash canvas. The bust gores were definitely in the right way, though.

Out of curiousity, what makes the back hip gore seem too big?

I did take in the CF-most bust gores, and they will wind up being lengthened a bit in the next mockup as well.

[mrs_maupin]

Jugding from the wrinkle at the waist, you might need to remove excess fabric from the waist area in the back and at the side - pinch the pleat, measure it, and alter your pattern pieces accordingly. You wan add legnth back at teh bottom afterwards.
Gently pin away the excess fabric at the top at the bust - the fit seems okay up to the uderbust.
You'll need to remove excess width at the top back and at teh bottom back to get a straight gap, but it's already quite good, especially without boning.

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

It looks like the boning took care of the wrinkle. Thanks, though!

[pinkdiamond.livejournal.com]

Try taking in centre front first, the bottom of the bust gores are sitting quite far out and are not really offering much in the way of shape or support that far out, especially not for this time period :) I find myself needing to do the same for each and every mock up I make of this style. The bottom of the gussets should be under the bust point, and they can be deeper. So rather than take the gussets in at the top you can add a bit of height and make them more U than V shaped and then you get an amazing bust, I managed to fake several cup sizes in my steampunk corset. I do find the wind up much longer than I expect, each and every time. I have a very high bust naturally and so wind up with the longest corsets imaginable but that still includes tall gussets.
Right, time to get that sucker online. It was a good learning curve and I need to make it over in different fabrics including one for Elsa.

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

Taking out the excess in the CF definitely helped. I think the bust gores still want to stay fairly v-shaped, but I did wind up taking in the most center ones quite a bit.

[ravenessdotcom.livejournal.com]

I put boning in, but I just duct tape it in for the mockup. On the inside.

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

This idea was absolutely brilliant. Thank you so much!

[hiraimi.livejournal.com]

You are having exactly the same issues I am, lol! I'm going to follow this post like crazy. I pondered starting the hip curve a little bit higher to try to take care of some of the horizontal waist wrinkle - in essence raising the waist a bit.

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

Had you added any length to the waist prior to that? I added 3" because it was so short!

[hiraimi.livejournal.com]

I hadn't - I just took the 1880s pattern out of C+C and scaled it up, and added to the pieces to make it fit my measurements (I added too much, as it turns out!). But it seems I'm a tad short-waisted, so I often have to take out at the waist anyway.

When I was making my 1830s corset I added to the waist because my previous set of long stays was way too short - and I added maybe an inch too much, so it buckles horribly! Waist-length is my nemesis, clearly.

[totchipanda.livejournal.com]

Also following! I had some of these same issues as well.

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

I love that we're all making this corset. :)

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

I agree that you need to bone it before you can really tell what's going on. I generally either make boning channels in the seam allowance, tape the bones in, or both on mock-ups.

A thought on the waist wrinkles: You said you added substantially to the length between the waist and the bust. Perhaps that's pushing the waist lower than it really should be for this design. I wonder what would happen if you took some of that extra length out?

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

Now that I've boned it, I think the length is right? Please take a look at my latest post and let me know what you think!

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

I think it would be good to bone the mock-up. Tape some kind of boning in the centre of each panel or wherever the full length bones are in the pattern. Boning might get rid of your waist wrinkle. At least that wrinkle tells you where your waist is and it looks right in relation to where your hip gores start.

Bust is tricky. I recommend wearing your chemise for mock-ups rather than a tank top because that can also affect how your bust is sitting. I would say that the full-length panel should sit over the centre of each boob with the gussets giving the shaping on either side. I also second the suggestion to lengthen the gussets a bit. But also make them narrower. Boning over the bust will be super helpful.

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

You were spot on with everything. Boning the mockup took out the waist wrinkle, and making the bust gusset narrower really seemed to help. And I remembered to wear my chemise!