Cutting out fabric

Now that I had the altered paper pattern I needed to pin it onto the fabric for the outer shell.

The houndstooth fabric was stretchy in one direction and not the other so I needed to consider which way round I wanted it to be. As I am going to use this fabric for the skirt aswell I chose to cut the fabric so the stretch was horizontal. This will mean that when I make the skirt it will be tight fitting and the pattern will be the same way round as the corset.

For the velvet fabric I needed to cut it so that the pile was facing down; when the user adjusts the corset by pulling it down the pile will not be damaged and wear away.

I made sure the scissors I used to cut out the fabric pieces were tailors scissors and were very sharp to make the pieces as accurate and neat as possible and therefore reduce my chances of making mistakes later on.

Cutting out the pattern

First, I cut out the McCall's paper pattern pieces for the top A/B. The shape of the top was not exactly how I wanted it so I made a copies of the pattern pieces and altered them to suit my design; I changed the low hemline from rounded to an inverted point shape and shortened the length at the back.

I made a quick toile to see how it looked and check if any changes needed to be made. I found I didn't need to alter the pattern further. I now have the paper pattern I am going to use to make the corset.