Oh noes! Corset woes!

[janestarz]

Last time I checked, my weight was still hovering around the 90 kilograms mark. This means that I've very definitely lost 16 wonderful kilo's since the New Year. Especially my face looks slimmer, and my hips are certainly sizing down too. My boobage is...well, my boobage. There's very little changing there, though I do think I might have lost 1 cm on the bust area overall.
All in all, this means I had to try on some old costumes. My red kirtle is definitely too big to ever wear again. The whole idea of a hemp-boned bodice is that it supports. This means the dress has to be tight. Not have gappage. I haven't tried wearing the blue overdress that goes with that, but I think it's time for a new kirtle anyway. After that, we'll see about the blue thing. All in all, as hideously Disney as the costume is, the Snowwhite works for some strange reason.

Me outshrinking my red kirtle led me to have a strange nagging feeling at the back of my head going "er...Jane? Jaahaaane?". So this weekend NoKey put his knee into me. Literally. I mean, when lacing a corset, you need to have something to push back from. I feared the old corset (which was originally a mock-up) would be too big too. It's a size 18, after all. So some gulps and gasps later, there I was, as snugly laced up as before. Only this time in stead of a nice 2 inch gappage in the back, the sides on the top overlapped. Not a good idea for a corset, no.
I put on a t-shirt underneath my corset and NoKey drew the lines of a nice overbust on it, and we adapted the pattern. I had already once very optimistically drawn a size 16 corset, so we worked on that one. I had some scraps of linen left, and I made a mockup of that, with hook and eye tape in the front.
I put on the corset again, then put the mockup over that, and NoKey could pin the sides together over most of the back (except with the hips). Meaning, that if I were to make a size 16 corset, I'd have the same problem as with the old size 18: overlapping in stead of gappage. (I had taken out the seam allowance center front and back, so this was an accurate display of So Not Going To Work).

I then jumped in the deep, and drew up a size 12. I mean, my sizes as measured on an uncorseted body indicate that I'm still a size 18-20 according to the Laughing Moon chart, but either I'm seriously doing something wrong with the seam allowance (aw, come on, five-eights of an inch is really easy to measure out - I don't even need a tape measure!) or the sizes are just all wrong. Taking out some scraps of the Day/Nightdress to try out some paneling: black for panel 13, 14, and 15, gold for 11, 12, 16, and the bust gores.
Sewed it all together, sewed shut the center front, put on corset and tried it on again. The gappage was gone. *phew*. Actually, the size was just right.
Except for the boobage. The boobage stood open and just flopped on over (it being unboned). So, instead of gappage at the back, we now have gappage at the front.

I threw in the towel then, and decided to go on with this later. The main problem is that I can't continue with the rest of the Jateen outfit until I have some more accurate measurements of how my shape will be once I'm wearing the corset that is going to be worn with the outfit. Going with the measurements of me in the size 18 is dangerous, seeing how a size 12 might reduce my waist even more than the size 12.
For example, let's measure this out for you.
Before the diet, my waist was a subtle 88 cm.
Right now, 16 kilos later, my waist is still 85 cm.
With the corset on, my original waist was reduced to 83 cm, a reduction of 5 cm.
Now, whether or not I've been laced tighter than before or not, my waist with corset is suddenly 73 cm. This concurs with a size 40 in the Burda charts. (I used to have 44 bust, and 48 hips, nowadays 42/44)

All in all, I have high hopes for the size 12 corset, but then with smaller bust gores. It really showed gappage, and though my Titans are huuuuuge, since my waist is going down the rest of the gores doesn't fit at all any more. How confusing is that? Who knows what the size 12 will do to my measurements. I am planning on a nice Victorian/Elizabethan crossover (nooo bumroll), but it all depends on the undies.

Comments

[watzalikzeggen.livejournal.com]

Gefeliciteerd met alle vooruitgang! 16 kilo is hartstikke goed! Zou jij het dieet wat je volgt aanraden aan anderen? Mijn moeder heeft volgens mij dezelfde problemen als die jij had (ze eet bijna niets, maar komt toch aan) en volgt de meest rare hongerdieeten die werkelijk niets helpen. Uit jouw verhalen begreep ik dat Diplan heel erg gericht was op het in stand krijgen en houden van je stofwisseling, is dat zo? Ik zou zo graag zien dat mijn moeder gewoon weer normaal kan eten, want ze wordt echt steeds wanhopiger.

In ieder geval veel succes met het corset en alle kostuumdingen!

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Diplan is wat Manon doet. Ik doe aan de Weightwatchers. En eerlijk gezegd kan je moeder ook echt te weinig eten. De Weightwatchers kijken naar hoe groot en zwaar je bent, en hoeveel energie je nodig hebt op een dag, afhankelijk dus van je lichaam en wat voor werk je doet. Bouwvakkers mogen nou eenmaal meer eten dan secretaresses, en mannen hebben meer spierweefsel dan vrouwen dus verbranden ook meer.
Daarnaast zeggen de Weightwatchers dat je niet alleen een bepaald aantal punten per dag moet (ja moet, mag, whatever) eten, maar ook dat je minimaal 5x groenten en fruit (3 ons groente 2 stuks fruit, of 2 ons groente, 3 stuks fruit), 8 glazen water, en 2 eenheden calcium naar binnen moet krijgen. En dat vetloos eten ook niet goed is. Met andere woorden: vooral een gezond en gebalanceerd dieet. Wat voor persoon ben je, wat voor werk doe je?

Ik ben van 8 boterhammen met vette kaas naar 4 met kipfilet gegaan, en dat scheelt echt al zo'n hoop! Gewoon gezond avondeten deden we zowiezo al, maar de tussendoortjes eruit, dat is heel moeilijk. Alhoewel het water dan weer helpt tegen hongergevoel.

Ja, ik zou de weightwatchers echt aanraden, vooral aan je moeder. Ik denk dat ze te weinig eet en dat haar lichaam dus heel zuinig verbrand. Met andere woorden: haar lichaam denkt dat er een hongerwinter is, slaat zoveel mogelijk op, en verbrand heel zuinig. Dan kom je dus nog steeds aan.
Misschien is het wel verstandig voor haar om bij te houden wat ze precies eetn en om dan naar de dokter te gaan met dat lijstje. Ik denk dat hij/zij hetzelfde zegt. En dan vragen of bij de Weightwatchers gaan helpt.

[watzalikzeggen.livejournal.com]

Wat ben ik toch een oen, ik haal al die dieten ook altijd door elkaar ;) Mijn moeders probleem is dat ze volgens mij al dertig jaar aan het lijnen is en in die tijd vooral verleerd is wat gewoon eten is (en haar stofwisseling permanent op vakantie is). En ze is zo bang om aan te komen dat alles van de aardappel tot de banaan onderhand van haar menu geschrapt is. Ik ben laatst heel boos geworden omdat ze nu weer iets doet waarbij ze drie crackers en twee happen sla mag eten (dood aan Sonja Bakker) en nu moet die onzin maar eens over zijn :-)

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

M.a.w.: eerst maar eens naar de dokter. Dit klinkt bijna anorectisch.

[silverseabear.livejournal.com]

F*ck measurements by size. Corsets should be custom made, and I know you know how to make your own patterns and take your own measurements. The number of measure ments you take will depend on the style of the corset, but at least a dozen in different areas, directiuoins, etc, are the best way to get a corset that fits properly. Very few women are able to properly wear off-the-shelf corsets. With your skills, there's no reason not to look fabulous in a personalized corset.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I'm not that mathemetically gifted, though NoKey is. I am great at adapting patterns because of my length. I've talked about this with m1ss_ann_thropy, who is better at sewing corsets than I am, and she said the size chart of Laughing Moon is a laughing stock - it doesn't work. She also determined exactly what the faults might be of the corset, and that lengthening the waist by 5 cm helps. After all, the corset is supported by the hips (so it can't slide down), and by lengthening the waist, the top will go up a little higher.
I'm also convinced those bust gores in the pattern are completely off. With my 70F I'm going for an A cup bust gore, because the C-gores I put in the last mock-up were too large.

In any case, I'll just keep trying until I get it right, because before that time I'm not going to be cutting in my silk.

[m1ss-ann-thropy.livejournal.com]

Lol... no actually I love the measurements chart for the Dore (and how easy adjustable it is) and the Laughing Moon size chart is generally much and much better then any other commercial pattern I have come across, it's just the Silverado people have been known to have issues with. Especially the bust area. A lot of corsets patterns tend to be shortwaisted. Nowadays a lot of people are longer waisted, especially taller people like yourself ;) You can always draw the pattern pieces longer if it's only the bust and not the waist that needs changing.

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I must have misread you then ;-). I'll try the Doré now, I've had it with the silverado and its terrible bust gores. They're a pain to put in anyway.
Thanks for your help, I now also noticed that my first Silverado was too large in the top: the 2" back gap was smaller in the bust area. I just thought that was how it was supposed to be, of course, but know better now. Gotta love corsetmakers