Foundations Revealed

The free tutorial that enables every corsetmaker to create the most unique, beautifully fitting corsets you’ve ever hand-crafted. Download the pdf here, use it, enjoy it, adapt it for your own ends, and tell us what you think in the comments.

And there's more: get your free bonus chapter on adding complexities like bust gussets, hip gores and corded panels to your designs when you tell your friends!

How to make your own personalised custom Victorian corset pattern - a tutorial suitable for beginners!

One of the most frustrating challenges in corsetmaking is to get the darn thing to fit properly. Corsets are such unforgiving, tightly fitted garments that a good one must have a perfect fit; there's no room for error.

After getting frustrated with commerical patterns, you're probably starting to wonder how to draft (draw out) your own patterns from a list of measurements. Here's how, in a step-by-step format specially designed for complete beginners.

I've devised these instructions for you based on corset designs of the late 1870s. You'll still need a mock-up to check before cutting the expensive fabric, but you will be very surprised how well it fits...

Naturally I noticed the vintage corset lying in the antique store, but since extant pieces are usually cut for Scarlett O’Hara, I passed it by. A few minutes later, my companion was brandishing it about. “I think this would fit you,” she exclaimed. It had to be late 1880s... she held it up to me, and she was right. Even over a t-shirt, it was clearly a perfect fit.

Danine looks in detail at this extraordinarily lucky find, and then makes us a pattern.

Photo by Stuntkid

Considering that you are reading Foundations Revealed^TM, my guess is that you are not a weekend-warrior seamstress. If you are anything like me, you probably require a separate room just for your sewing sanctuary and storage of your many beautiful fabrics. You may even be contemplating quitting your day job so you can start your own business making and selling corsets.

Turning your “hobby” into your career can be a very frightening endeavor. Before you give your boss and your spouse the big speech, take the quiz to find out if you are ready to make a living as a corsetmaker!

Photo by Julian Andrew Holtom

Jema Hewitt shares with us pictures and the pattern of a beautiful Victorian corset from her personal collection.

Made by the Charles Bayer (CB) corset company around 1899-1900, it has five main pattern pieces, with one bust shaped godet and two hip godets on each side. It is a very sophisticated and elegant piece of pattern cutting.

Jema shares the pattern, detail pictures and a little history, working out when the corset might have been made, and then takes us step-by-step through constructing a new corset from this pattern, including a new seam technique just for corsetry that negotiates curves perfectly and encases all the raw edges neatly.

If you read historical fashion magazines looking for corset ads, you'll see these words over and over again: "Available in white or drab coutil, or fast black sateen".

But what color is "drab" exactly? And where can you get that coutil that color today? The answer is that you can dye it yourself using a very easy process. No toxic chemicals are involved, just a very cheap material from the health food store.