You will need a sheet of paper wider than 1/2 your waist measurement, and at least 14 inches tall. I use either butchers paper or rolled drafting paper, but anything big enough is fine. Don't bother with heavy paper yet; this is only the drafting step!  On your paper, draw a horizontal line. This represents the waistline on the pattern.
	On the waist line, draw a vertical line near the left edge of the paper. This will be the front of the corset. Extend it up and down the amount you decided for your font profile. From this line, measure 1/2 of your hip measurement, less an inch. If your hips are 36", you measure 17" ( 36÷2=18 and 18-1=17)  Draw another vertical line at this point for the back of the corset, and extend it up and down the amounts you decided for your back profile. Finally, draw a vertical line at the distance you determined to be your side line, and extend it up and down the amounts you decided for your side profile.
	Here's where we start getting creative! Connect the ends of your three lines with a smooth curve to represent the top and bottom of your corset. Don't worry too much about getting it exactly perfect the first time; you can finagle a bit with your seam sewing at the end...
	Now we worry about the waist, which is sort of the point of the whole exercise... You want a waist measurement that's about four inches smaller than your actual waist, so for each half pattern, you need 1/2 your waist measurement, less 2" If your waist is 28",  you will figure on 12" on the pattern. (28÷2=14, 14-2=12) If you subtract your waist from your hip, in this case 17-12=5, you figure how much you need to reduce the pattern for the waist. If you want a six piece side (as in the example), you need to divide this number by five, in this case, leaving 1" This is the width of each "hole" in the pattern. Divide the  waist by six, and you determine the width of each piece in the pattern.
Mark these measurements along the waistline carefully, then find the center point of each "hole", and transfer it to the top and bottom profiles of the corset. Next, draw a sweeping curve from your points along the waistline to your points on the top and bottom profiles as shown above. To save yourself a great deal of aggravation, make the two sides of each "hole" symmetrical. It makes the sewing so much simpler... A NOTE: For most women, the under-bust and waist measurements tend to be fairly close. As long as they are within 2" or so of each other, this method works. If there is a greater difference, you will have to make allowances for the difference at this point, email me at sam@darkleather.net for more details, if you need them!
	Now label each piece in order, and mark the top of each piece. Trust me, you won't be able to tell them apart later... Now, cut out each piece carefully. These pieces are your guideline for making the actual cutting patterns; they don't have seam allowance, so DO NOT try to make a corset from them!  On heavier paper, lay out each piece and trace it, then add a seam allowance of 3/4" to all four sides. (Yes, it's excessive, but there's a reason!)  To lay out the other side, just flip over your pattern pieces. Symmetry is wonderful!
I will, at least for the moment, skip over the sewing details, on the assumption that most people who want to make their own corset already know how to sew a garment... Just sew all the  center seams together and continue to the next step!
	Open your seams and press them flat as best you can. (This is the pain in the butt part.) The 3/4" on either side will end up as your boning channels, so you need to be very careful here. Keeping as much tension on your material as you can manage, sew the edge of each flap down as close to the edge as you can. You're going to pucker the fabric slightly, but keep it as smooth and regular as you can!

Once the channels are sewn, you need to add your front and back edge stiffening. If you use the plastic, you can tack it down with hot glue and sew the seam allowances right through the plastic. Otherwise, you will have to figure it out on your own! There are a fair number of tutorials on finishing the edges of corsetry out there, so I don't think you'll have any trouble. Add the grommets; again, if you use the plastic, you can punch the holes right through it, otherwise, follow the instructions for your preferred method of grommeting. Finally, cut all of your boning slightly long and thread it into the two channels along each seam. At this point, you should have a bizarre looking twisted bunch of material that wants to fold in seven different directions at once. This is, believe it or not, what you want!

Now, the moment of truth; put that sucker on! You'll need help for this bit, so snag a friend. With your corset on and tightened to where you want it, double check your top and bottom lines and see if they are in fact where you want them. Or, more precisely, if they're 3/4" above and below where you want them. If yes, take it off, trim your boning, sew your seams, and you're done; if no, have your friend mark along the edge of the material to fix whatever doesn't suit you, take it off, trim your edges, trim your boning, sew your seams, and then you're done!

If you want a lined corset, the usual rules for lining apply, mostly. In simplest terms, make another corset, set them right side to right side, baste all the seams together, sew along the sides and top, turn it inside out (or outside out, actually...), baste the bottom seam and topstitch it!