Making Stella's Bustier

It begins. . .

 

    To make Stella's gown, I started with what I know best – corsets. Also, since I have to order steel bones and a busk, it's better to get that out of the way so I can order all the hardware and have it on time. Now, I have one problem with this corset in that it's not really a corset, it's more of a bustier with the need for cups and all that fun. To my surprise, I don't have a single bustier pattern, nor do I have any of my bra pattern drafting supplies (lost in a move). So I had to do what I always end up doing – Frankensteining (a process where I splice together patterns from different sources to make the desired pattern).

The patterns I used to make Stella's bustier is Kwik Sew 2489 and Simplicity 5113 (only the torso part).

 

First I made up the bra – and wow, the cups turned out really weird, I wish I had taken a picture (this is why you have a camera – dummy!). It look like an old lady bra or something – I dunno how the designers of kwik sew think boobies are shaped, but they thought wrong. . . At any rate, know that if you use this pattern, you will need to reshape the cups.

    After making the bra, I made the torso up and then sewed the two parts together. Now I had my mock up! Time to fit it. I pinned the mock up to my sewing dummy, leaving a 2 inch gap in the pack (squish room for the corset). Then I began the fitting process (and I got to correct those cups!)

    The initial assessment showed me the garment was too big for me, so I resized it with pins (all the yellow marks on my corset are pins to correct my seams!)

    After pinning, I took the mock up off the dummy, marked all the pin placements with a sharpie, and resized the parts. Then I took it all apart to use as my new pattern.

 

COST OF MOCK-UP

• Fabric / Thread - $0 (I had this on hand)
  
• Patterns - $0 (I had both the patterns on hand)
  
• Time:
  
  • Initial pattern making – 1 hr
    
  • Cutting out – <1 hr
    
  • Sewing - <1 hr
    
  • Fitting – 1 hr
    
  • Resizing pattern – 1.5 hr
    
    
    

So far, so good. I will need to make a second mock just to make sure my new pattern fits (I hate ill-fitting clothes)! The second one will be made out of duck cloth (torso) and soft cotton (cups). Hopefully it fits and I can use the second mock up for the finished garment's interlining.