I NEED a new corset!

I simply must break this sewing slump, and what better way than a badly-needed new corset?  Y'all recall how proud I was back in the spring when I did the denim Butterick 4254 mid-Victorian?  And how comfortable it was at the time?  Yeaaaahhhh ... it's now too big for me.

denim B4254vD after 6 months' wear

While the fabric probably stretched a little, the simple fact is I have lost weight over the summer, and can no longer pull the lacing tight enough to be an effective back brace.  According to my doc's scale I have dropped 13 pounds in three months (June versus September) ... unplanned, unintentional, and I am still trying to figure just how.  Ladies, please do not flame me for this, but the weight loss is actually very annoying!  I need to refit all my patterns.  Custom-fitting regular garment patterns is hard enough with a stable target, but fitting a corset while still losing weight is cuss-worthy.  Adding salt to my wounds, all those measurements my Mom took for me in June?  Useless!

Lacing gap ... it wasn't really there back in the spring, as y'all might recall, and I should have kept working on fit instead of getting impatient at the time.  Then again, my weight was still stable in the spring.  I didn't start needing a belt for my jeans until late July or August, and only dug out my formerly-too-small jeans from the donation bag this past month.  And yes, I seem to still be losing weight, so I will NEED to make sure I have a two-inch lacing gap for this next one (and hope the weight comes off evenly).

As nice as the shaping is on the B4254 pattern, I want to try another (newer) pattern from Butterick: 5662, released this past year.  This time, I will start fitting it four sizes below what their measurement chart recommends, since my B4254 at three sizes smaller (size 14! instead of 20) than the chart is now too big.  So I'll be tweaking a 12 (!!!) considering Butterick drafts with a 5/8 inch seam allowance.

Necessity seems to be the mother of motivation, in addition to invention.  Let the corset pattern fitting adventure begin again.