Make your own under-bust corset!

Introduction:

I am writing this tutorial because I've never seen any instructions on how to draft your own patterns for corsets, so I figured I would save everybody else the aggravation of re-inventing the wheel like I ended up doing. (Arrgh!) It's really not that hard to make a very basic under-bust corset, so I hope you will be inspired! Please do not reproduce the instructions, but you are welcome to link to this site if you like. And, if you use these directions, I would like a picture of the finished result as your only payment!

A few caveats, though! First, this is NOT the only or even neccessarily the best way to draft your own corset pattern, it's just a good way to get started. Once you make one, you'll probably see a half-dozen ways to improve it! Second, this pattern is for a simple, UNDER-BUST corset. It can be extended to an overbust corset, but it's a somewhat complicated piece of 3D geometry that I'm going to leave to you to figure out! Third, it is designed to have front and back lacing, not metal busks. The busks are easy enough to adapt into the pattern, but check your seam allowances carefully, and you'll probably want to add a little material to te front edges! Finally, this pattern was designed to take advantage of and compensate for the characteristics of vinyl, leather, and tapestry. It doesn't really work as well for lighter fabric corsets, which gain a large part of their strength from multiple layers of fabric. That said, get to corset making!

--Sam Lewis, DarkLeather.Net

Materials:

Butcher's paper or the like; for drafting the pattern
1.5 Yards of heavy material; canvas duck for practice, vinyl, canvas, or tapestry for finished pieces.
Heavy upholstery thread
Busk material; I use heavy polystyrene, but you could use steel, plastic, or most anything with a little flexibility but a lot of strength.
Boning material; same as the busk

Measurements:

Measure your waist, under bust, and hips as you normally would and note them. Don't cheat! It will mess up your calculations, and, besides, nobody else will know. Now, look in a mirror and decide where you want your corset to fall on you. This is by far the most important step, so think carefully. It would not be altogether unreasonable to draw the outline on yourself to make sure of it! Once you determine the outline, you need to measure the front, the back, and the side both up from the waistline, and down from the waistline. The pictures below show you where you need to take the measurements. I hope.

Front	Back	Side

Record these measurements, too, then head to page two!