Patch Corset Part 1: Pattern Development

A few months after first dressing steampunk I had an idea: get a corset and cover it with steampunk patches.  A few months after that, I started collecting steampunk patches.  Something like a year and a half after having the idea, I've finally achieved it.  

Of course, instead of simply applying patches to a bought corset, I made my own.  And it was quite a process.  I knew I wanted a corset that would have a lot of real estate to attach patches to.  So I started experimenting with the Butterick 5662 pattern.  I started by making a mock-up for the largest size included with the pattern.  By the size chart, this was about a size too small for me, but I thought since the mainstream pattern companies' corset patterns run large, maybe it would come close to fitting.  I was wrong and it was way too big for me, but the mockup looked pretty good and I decided to continue messing with it.   (Note: this looks good, but I can pinch an entire panel together and it is therefore way too loose for a corset.)

For my next mock-up I went down one size in the bust, two in the hips, and several sizes in the waist.  I made this mock-up out of duck to get a more accurate idea of how the finished corset would behave.  You can see there is a more drastic curve to the corset's shape.  This fit me pretty well, besides needing a bit taken out of the back to make a lacing gap.  

But I didn't like the shape of the neckline or the bottom edge.  I wanted it to come down further on my hips.  So I  added some fabric to the bottom of the corset at the hips and to the straps and folded an pinned until I had shapes that I liked.    I apologize for the crappy picture, but hopefully you get the idea.  I then took half of the mock-up apart and used my modified mock-up to draw the final pattern.  

From experience I knew I needed to make a mock-up of the final pattern before using it to make the real corset.  Especially since I knew I only had one chance to get the patch corset right and I couldn't make any changes in the middle.  But I was still really anxious to get on to the real corset, so I only made half a mock-up of this final pattern, trying it on with the other half of my previous mock-up.  As this was mostly to check the style and not the sizing, this short cut worked fine.

As I have quite a lot to say about the actual construction of the corset due to it being unusual, I will split this into two posts and finish the second half another day.  For now, have a teaser of the finished corset.