Caroline's corset blog

Musings and progress from Caroline - projects she's working on, tips and tricks, and thoughts on corsetry

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Category: What I'm up to

  1. Crescent collection

    Posted on

    I have been attending a fashion and pattern cutting course since January (just one day a week)  and have loved it. The theme we have had to work to (London Mechanic) has thrown up a lot of ideas - I have been researching all things River Thames (Man-made River is my title) and I kept going back to one image of the first Thames tunnel. The colours (browns and golds) were lovely, and the swirling shapes of the supporting structure disappearing into the distance reminded me of crescent shapes.

    16623_ThamesTunnel1

    I kept waking up with images of crescent shapes interlocking together and thought I would start with a bra and see where it took me.

    I initially draped the shapes on to my mannequin but the resultant cups were too flat so I took a bra block and chopped it around in CAD to arrive at this 5-pannelled piece.

    IMG_20190508_184416_270

    I wanted to create an ensemble pattern that is comprised of a bra, a cupped corset, an under-bust corset, a skirt, and a dress by working down the body with horizontally panelled shapes that inter-locked and loosely resembled crescents.

    Here is the under-bust;

    front 1

    And the skirt;

    front (2)

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    The cupped corset dress is the final garment - in the next part of this blog I'll talk about whether it was successful or not as this is proving the most challenging part of the project. Here is a view of the back of the dress so far;

     

    IMG_20190519_104341_553

    And the cups I'm currently wrestling with;

    20190526_093133

  2. Latest design - swooping horizontal seams and more points

    Posted on

    I was hoping to get this one out for my May Patreon pattern but I have had so much College work to do over Easter that it's proving difficult getting all my designing done! I need to tweak the design a little - make it more cinched at the waist and also do some experimenting with the grainlines of the panels as I'm getting some bias wrinkling at the back (it looks good from the front though - super smooth!). The grading could prove so difficult I end up shelving the idea of creating a commercial pattern from it, but I'll give it a go!

    front 1

  3. Nice to hear my efforts are appreciated!

    Posted on

    I had a lovely response today from one of my patrons on Patreon that brought a tear to my eye;

    ''Fantastic customer service! You always go above and beyond expectations. Every corset pattern I've made from you is lovely. Your directions are amazingly descriptive as well including pictures. I simply cannoy explain how much I appreciate you and your talent! Your Patreon is the best $5 I can spend.

    You can quote me on that!❤️''

    Danyette Rosenbusch