Foundation Garments.

I'm not sure if this generation understands the term "foundation garments." It's an art form that feels so vintage and over the years, our body and mindset has morphed to create different ideas. Foundation garments are a woman's supporting undergarment, such as a girdle. We refer to them as body shapers now - and they're also used to enhance a certain body area. 

Here is blog post from Melanie who sewed her own corset top for her wedding. She started with a store-bought pattern and figured her way around. 

"I’m not going to talk extensively about fitting and how I tackled changes because really I had no idea what I was doing."

- Basically all of us more than half the time.

To play around with this foundation garment, we started off with a swimsuit block. This is just because it was probably the easiest option. We needed something that fit around the entire body well, as well as something with a crotch we could alter easily. 

My model is a size 0 to 2 in store and I decided to use her bust, waist and hip measurements to make a suit that fits her. Something went wrong along the way and it was too big for her and for me (I'm a 4 to 6 in store). Should I mention that I want to go into the custom-made field?

On the bright side though, it's always better to have it to big and fit it down, then have it too small and fit it up. When we started off, the bust points were totally off, so instead of taking out a big chunk from the side seam, I took it from the CF which moved the bust point to the right spot. I pinned about 6cm on CF and this would go to zero at the bottom of the crotch. 

Still needed to work the side seams a little - this is probably the best lesson I have learnt in draping class. It's not about just taking out (however much you need to) from anywhere on the garment, it has to be eliminated from the problem area so that the fit will sculpt he body. 

An amount needed to be worked out of CB as well, and just like the front, it goes down to zero at the crotch. In my opinion, if this were to become the best fitting base garment of all - it might be better to do it in a fabric that has almost zero give. Transforming that into a 4-way stretch will probably give a better fit than going from a knit to a no stretch woven. 

Last step - instead of using an actual bra cup (none that we made were in our size), we traced the outline of the bra that was already being worn. It's an easier step, but if the bra size is wrong, then the fit won't be accurate. 

Here's a look at what the bra cup would look like on the pattern. I did not make any of the changes pinned to the actual pattern - so it should look slightly different. 

This is probably the easiest route we can go with foundation garments, but it felt like a whole chapter that could be explored for a really, really, long time.