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.

M4861 first attempt: My Blue Monstrosity

OK, I will stop procrastinating now ... if only to avoid a lynching in chat tonight.  There are more folks asking to see these pics than just Val - even though Val was the one who earned these pics by completing the corset challenge.  Just so no one can say I didn't warn y'all ...
*** WARNING! *** WARNING! *** WARNING! ***
Not even my bad photog (lack of) skills can hide this ugliness!

In my defense, I made this over 14 months ago, while commuting to clinicals, in pain, tired, and desperate for something to use as a backbrace ... and it was my first stab at a "real" corset.

*sigh* I guess there is just no getting around posting these pics of what I now call the Blue Monstrosity (and mean it!).

There is no actual boning in this, just hemp craft cord.  It was actually pretty comfortable to wear ... UNDERNEATH my scrubs.  There are both antiqued brass and silver eyelet pieces, for those wondering if the camera flash is fooling with your eyes.  I used home dec scraps, which in retrospect wasn't the best idea for a pattern with a total of four bias seams on it.  I also didn't do a fit muslin ... this pattern runs large ... but perhaps I can call the Blue Monstrosity my full mockup instead?  Especially since I made another (better looking and better constructed!) backbrace this past December.  Hmmm, now there's an idea to salvage my pride and sweep the broken feet of clay back together ...

Aother way of looking at it came from the pink-hating Cat the other night in chat.  Comparing my latest denim mid-Victorian to last spring's Elizabethan, she said she can see a huge improvement.  So maybe I can show my age and spin it as "You've come a long way, baby!"

Or maybe I should just burn it ....

McCall's 4861 waist corset done!

It's not only finished, but photographed for proof!  Getting the eyelets through 4 layers of fabric (2 stiff canvas, 2 cotton duck) plus the buckram proved to be a PAIN, and as hard as I whacked the setting tool to set the eyelets ... I done broke my wooden cutting board I retired from food prep to crafting.  Oops.  Oh, yeah ... the pic:

My jeans are a bit loose around the waist after two and half days of only eating soup, so the spacing in front for the eyelets is a bit small.  I've been wearing it for almost an hour, and it is both sturdy and comfortable.  It will get the real test tomorrow on the supposedly 9 hour road trip.

I'm particularly happy with the back panel  :)  I now have a pretty backbrace.  Some of y'all know I have never taken a pic of the previous version, except for a cropped photo of the inside where I had stitched in a contrasting thread.  It's still too ugly to show y'all, but now I have a nice one to show off.

M4861 bound but not gagging

First up, my daily driver - the still unnamed Brother CS-770 computerized - does not tolerate hitting the poly boning with the same humor as ole Timex (the cheap 14-stitch mech).  I got the E6 error two or three times when I misjudged where the poly boning was, and one small thread knot on the bobbin side .. which thankfully was also on the lining side.

Hubby chose the binding, folks!  :)  Actually, I agreed with his choice.  I have navy blue binding, but the print's darkest blue is still obviously lighter than my navy blue binding ... so we went for the contrast to match the sides of the lining: light pink.

Now I need to clear off my table ... especially electronic and electrical devices ... to pull out my eyelet stuff, which includes a hammer.  I tend to whack my eyelets pretty hard and a couple times I've missed the little eyelet-setting thing-a-ma-jig and whacked my thumb, so yes I swing the hammer with a bit of force.  Ten goldtone eyelets, one black shoelace, and I will have my new backbrace!

M 4861 lining

I woke up a couple hours early this morning, sweating like I had just ruckmarched in August ... but the stuffiness headache is gone!  The head cold is still here in the form of major drainage, and I cannot go further than five feet away from a tissue, but I do feel better, and here's proof:

I cut out and sewed the lining for my waist corset/back brace this morning, and have already started to attach it and the outer layer to the canvas core.

I no longer have enough of the cotton duck print left to cut more pieces, but I did measure the uncut selvage: 22 inches of 44/45" wide duck has yield a layer and a half of this pattern.

I will say those bias seams (two per side!) really annoyed me this morning.  The extra stitching, tacking the seam allowances down about 1/16th to 1/8th from the seam itself, does help mitigate the bias effect a little but not enough to mollify me.  These bias seams put this pattern firmly into the "costume" realm -which McCall's does market it as - and not as a functional corset (without serious modification).  When I decide to do another underbust or waist corset, I will choose a different pattern.

Waist corset M 4861 (E) in progress

I was going to put that my waist corset is now boned ... but I promise this is a family-friendly blog! (*snicker*)  I'll post up a pic after I cord it alongside the poly boning, as I am using unbleached canvas for the core and the boning tape it white, so it probably won't show very well until the tannish-brown hemp cord is alongside it.

I spent a bit of time earlier today googling images of medical-style back braces, and have to admit that was disappointing.  Most are for immobilization of either the lumbar region, the total spine, or up around the neck and shoulders.  The back of this corset covers the thoracic spine area, which is also where the most pain is for me (T4-T5, originally).  The ones for support showed vertical boning, which I already tried for the previous version and am not completely satisfied with. 

A couple showed a boning scheme similar to what the pattern instructions illustrate, which is making me reconsider my opinion of the boning scheme.  This particular one uses so little fabric and takes so little time, it's worth trying it.