Sewing a Bustier Corset DIY #1 Pattern and cutting

Vladimir Kozorovitskiy
Jun 29, 2021
7 min read

Updated: Sep 10, 2022

Hello dear sewing enthusiasts!

Welcome to the free sewing tutorial on making a bustier corset by yourself DIY.

I attach a pattern, made for the American size 6 to these tutorials.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE PATTERN FOR FREE:

In this mini-course I won’t show how to alter or custom this pattern after a specific size. This topic is covered in detail in our training programs.

I strongly recommend to all novices to start their exciting journey to the world of corsets with ready-made patterns.

You should know how a corset is sewn before you can understand how its pattern is drafted.

You are welcome to our training programs if you want to learn the drafting in detail and the professional sewing tricks.

Now let’s get started.

Corset pattern and necessary materials.

So, let’s start to make our corset.

First of all, print the pattern, which consists of 6 sheets.

This pattern contains seam allowances. Now I will explain briefly where I provide for seam allowances on the corset pieces.

Seam allowance comprises 1.2 cm along the upper and lower vertical curves of all the pieces.

The cradle has seam allowance of 0.7 cm.

Seam allowance of the main cup pieces, which are cut from lining and lace, is also 0.7 cm. The upper cut of the cup has 1.5 cm of seam allowance for lining. There is no seam allowance for scalloped lace trims. I will explain that when cutting.

The cup pieces, which we cut from neoprene (you can also use underwear foam) have seam allowances along the whole cradle line. Please note that the outer lower cup is absolutely similar to the respective piece from lace or lining. However, the inner lower cup made of neoprene has a slightly different shape: seam allowance along the curve is cut off. The upper cup is also slightly changed: seam allowance along the joining line of the upper and lower cup and along the upper edge of the piece is cut off.

Now I’m going to tell you about materials and tools, which we need.

So, what materials do we need for the corset making?

First of all, it is corset mesh. It is also called marquisette. It is sheer nylon mesh, which stretches slightly on crosswise grain and it doesn’t stretch on lengthwise grain. We need about 0.5 m of this mesh.

Lace. There are no limitations here. You can choose any lace you like. It is desirable that it is thin and delicate. It is compulsory to have scalloped edge as the corset cup will have protruding scallops. We will also need 0.5 m of this lace.

I will use neoprene for the cup. It is elastic fabric, which is about 2 mm thick and it stretches in all directions. We will need about 10 cm of this fabric. You can use underwear foam if neoprene is unavailable.

You can use any white fabric for lining. There are no limitations. You can use the leftovers or patches of any white fabric. You will need about 10 cm if you use a single piece of fabric.

We will need about 2.5 m of bone casing. It is the tape, which is sold as bra accessories to insert metallic bones for cups. In addition, we will use this bone casing as tunnels for plastic bones.

Of course, we will need two metallic bones of 36 size.

We will also need about 20 cm of a hook and eye tape for fastening.

I will use an elastic tape with scallops for finishing the upper edge of the corset. We will need about 0.5 m of such tape.

2 cm wide tape is necessary to finish the corset bottom, which will also serve as a band. We will need 60 cm of such tape.

And finally we need 0.5 cm wide plastic bones. These bones are sold per meter and we need about 2 m.

What tools do we need for our work?

- a sewing machine.

- an iron, it is possible to use a household iron.

- it is desirable to have a self-healing craft mat and a rotary cutter. The thing is that it is the most convenient to cut such corsets with a rotary cutter. However, if you don’t have a mat and a cutter, you can use scissors.

- a cup pressing mold. It is a hemisphere with a diameter of 12-13 cm. It can be made of foam, wood or plastic, covered with a layer of padding polyester, wrapped with threads and glued with fusible interfacing. It is very easy to make it.

- needles for hands stitching, regular white threads and pins.

- I recommend using a write-erase pen or a disappearing ink pen for fabric marking. I use the pen FriXion by Pilot, which makes a 0.7 mm thick line. Such pens are better than disappearing ink pens as their lines will disappear immediately when pressed with a hot iron. However, the marking made with a disappearing ink pen can leave yellow strips after pressing. Besides, the lines of the disappearing ink pen don’t last for a long time.

Cutting the corset.

Let’s get started with cutting.

I fold the corset mesh- marquisette in 2 layers and arrange all paper patterns except for the front central pattern, which will be cut open from one-layered mesh.

There are arrows on all the patterns, which indicate the most fabric stretchability. As I said marquisette stretches slightly along its cut and it doesn’t along the edge. So, I arrange the patterns according to the position of the arrows, which show the most stretchable direction, thus they are placed along the fabric cut. The fabric direction is crucial as we don’t want our corset to stretch in the waist.

In general, corset making requires special attention. Please don’t hurry and pin the paper patterns to mesh to ensure the least deformation. I recommend using a rotary cutter to achieve the highest level of accuracy. Moreover, I cut the pieces from a single fabric piece with larger seam allowance first and only then I cut the pieces accurately according to the pattern.

So, I arranged and cut the pieces from the single piece of mesh. If you need to transfer additional marking lines or notches on the mesh piece, you should arrange the paper patterns face down to see through all necessary lines. This applies to the central and two front side pieces.

I start cutting the front side pieces. You can cut on either side: right side or wrong side. It is up to you. Cut as accurately as possible. It is better to move the mat, not the pattern when you are cutting.

I use a write-erase pen to transfer all necessary lines to the upper mesh layer: the position of the bone, the cup sewing line and the notches.

I will also transfer all the lines on the second lower mesh layer.

I do the same with the front center piece. I apply the pattern to the surface and try to cut very precisely along the pattern. I move the mat when I need to move the pattern for easy cutting. Then I turn the piece over and transfer all the necessary lines: the position of the central bone, the notches and the cup sewing line. You can also indicate the start and the end corners of the curve seam.

I will cut all the pieces in an absolutely similar way. The back pieces are very simple and there are no additional lines, so it is easy to cut them from mesh.

It is necessary to unpin the mesh pieces from the paper patterns and pin them together when you cut the mesh pieces off. Try not to shift the pieces along each other. I transfer the necessary lines on the second piece of the front side pieces.

You can cut the corset pieces from mesh and lace together if your lace doesn’t have visible pattern. All in one go. However, my lace has a pattern, so I need to arrange the patterns, so that the lace pattern repeats.

I place lace facing up, pin the front central pattern and cut off. Unfortunately, we don’t need the scallops there. However, there are specific techniques when you can have the scalloped edge in the bottom. They are described in the other courses. By the way, if you want to continue learning and get an access to dozens of courses and hundreds of tutorials, subscribe to our training programs. You can find all the details on our official website.

The central front lace piece is cut off.

After that I fold the lace in two layers and try to ensure the lace pattern is similar as much as possible on both symmetric pieces and it coincides with the lace pattern on the front central piece.

I cut off the front side lace pieces.

I will do the same with the back.

So, the corset body is cut off. Let’s move on to the cup cutting.

Cutting the cups.

We have two paper pattern sets for the cups: one set (on the right) is for cutting from lace and lining and the second set (on the left) for cutting from neoprene or foam.

I arrange the double-folded lining fabric, so that lengthwise grain runs on the right side of the cut and crosswise grain runs horizontally. I arrange the cup patterns accordingly, so that the arrows on the patterns are parallel to crosswise grain. I cut off the lining pieces with larger seam allowance and then I make a more accurate cutting. To avoid confusion when sewing I transfer the joining number marks on each of the two symmetrical pieces and make notches.

The lining pieces are cut off.

I take the second set of the patterns and cut off the cups from neoprene. Lengthwise grain runs horizontally along the fabric fold. I arrange the arrows on the patterns perpendicular to the fold or lengthwise grain, pin and cut. I mark the control notches for piece joining. By placing the marks, we not only mark the correct overlap of the patterns, but we also mark the right and wrong sides of the patterns.

The cup pieces from neoprene or foam are cut off.

I unpin the paper patterns from the lining pieces and place them on the remaining lace.

The cutting principle of the lower cup is the same.

However, the upper cup should be cut off from lace, so that the scallops are positioned correctly. First, the scallops should be symmetrical, so I fold the fabric to ensure the scallops coincide and the edge is similar on both pieces. Second, I need to make sure that the lower edge of scallops is at the level of the upper cut of the piece and is not in seam allowance as the scallops should be loose at the top.

I cut off the upper lace pieces.

My lace has very large scallops and for beauty I decide to add another scallop between them, which will be handstitched. I prepare two more scallops.