Pattern making seventh

Making the final pattern/s (probably)

OMG, I had to math.

Cutting the mockup

Corset by Sparklewren

So now that I had a mockup that I was delighted with, I had to cut it up. Yep, all that effort and I took my scissors to it.  I took a purple roller-ball pen and carefully drew down the lines of the sewing before cutting off the front pieces of the mockup so the shapes could be transferred to cardboard.

This would have been much easier if I'd drawn the under bust and waist lines across the whole of the mockup, rather than just on the edges; because, of course, the edges were cut off weren't they? And the original pattern pieces were in no way like the mockup, so I kind of had to guess where the waist was. I think it worked.

I carefully traced the cut mockup front pieces onto cardboard and labeled the new version as V3.0. And then I drew 2 of the pieces again as I realised I'd drawn the waist and under bust lines in the wrong locations. Of course.

Transferring lines

Modifying the pattern, again

Then I got creative (naturally) and decided while everything was in pieces I would make an alternative front pattern. Why*, I wondered. It didn't stop me.

So, I had to turn the 3 existing pattern pieces into two, to create a strong triangular section in the front (similar to the corset in the image to the right).

I started out by attempting to work out the angle the triangle (centre panel folded in half) would have at the bottom. So I added up the measurements across the bust, and then took the total height, then drew them on paper and then realised I HAD NO IDEA HOW TO TURN THAT INTO AN ANGLE. Sooo long since high school maths (or even Uni maths). I knew I had to use Tan, but that was about it.  After much Googling, and then working out how to use the Tan funtion on the calculator again (I wanted Shift+Tan, didn't I) I had an angle.

3 pieces into 2

Of course, it was the wrong angle, because I hadn't taken into account the 3D-ness of the bust. So I shuffled the bits around and worked out I could do it empirically, just because of the way the pattern was designed. I drew it up again on more cardboard, quickly cut it out, sewed it to the original back and tried it on.

I didn't worry about the boning this time, but I think it will be fine. It was sitting properly I think.

I cut up half the back in the same way and made the new pattern from that. The other half I shall use for an experiment. Yes another one. We'll see how it goes and it will keep me gainfully occupied until I can actually get some steel bones and coutil fabric to start the real thing**.

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* Because I'm stupid, and completely incapable of doing any sewing project simply. I'm sure you're picking up a theme here.
** Grrrrr. That's for another post.

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