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Hi everyone, I'm going to be bridesmaid for my sister's wedding next March and the bridesmaid dress is going to be custom made. Because it's fitted through the waist and hips I need foundation garments so rather than spending more than $100 on modern underwear I thought I may as well make a corset that I can use again. My biggest problem is for the style of dress she wants me to wear the busk of the corset has to lay flat against my ribs between my breasts and my current corset doesn't do that. I know gussets aren't recommended for larger busts but I thought perhaps gussets might provide more separation. Or is it possible to achieve this without gussets?

I don't know if I did it wrong, but that's precisely what prompted me to try using gussets and it didn't seem to make the blindest bit of difference to separation or how the busk sat. Wish I knew how to get that look.

Could you perhaps make an underbust one instead? I found the more recent Laughing Moon underbust pattern very comfy.

nope, the dress is off the shoulder so I would have to wear a strapless bra and the underwire would push against the top of the corset. Plus an underbust corset wouldn't be any more useful afterwards than a modern longline bra, I could only use it on those rare occasions that I go out for a special occasion wearing modern clothes (reenacting makes up most of my social life).

We get this look in the Regency era with the busk which lies on the breastbone between the breasts and the gussets “cup” the breasts. These are the “Divorce Corsets” of the period. (Divorcing the breasts from each other.)

The trick is to cut the gussets to your own size as opposed to the sizes offered in the pattern.

Make your mock-up installing the gussets. Try on the mock-up, positioning the busk between the breasts. If it won’t stay there, slash the gussets and add a scrap of fabric for an insert, enlarging the gussets until they create a complete cup for the breast and the busk lies flat against the breastbone.

Hope that helps…

Acacia, have you tried that technique for, um, generous busts? I've had problems in the past with Regency styled corsets that I think were more related to the inherent constraints of gravity than the fitting of the cups (I was sizing up to me, but I don't want to be sagging all over...), but perhaps I was missing something fundamental.

[Heather]

I think what makes the regency corset stay flat is the heavy wooden busk. A metal clasp bust will most likely bend outwards, no matter what the shape of the cups. So maybe purchase the stiffest busk you can find or layer some 1/2" bones behind the busk.

You basically insert the wooden busk into a pocket between the breasts down to the belly, behind the wooden busk you can use some filling so that it's quite comfortable. Just never use ply wood, aka wood from pine trees for it is easy to snap and splinter. Most common nowadays found are flat 2-3 mm thick, but I've seen them also that look like and inverted spoonbusk, instead of cupping - pushing on the stomach.

hmm, that's an idea, I could make a Regency corset, I've been meaning to do that for a while and I've already got a good Victorian corset, no sense in reinventing the wheel. I wonder if my current (16th century) busk will be long enough.

LoL! Yes, I’ve used this technique for full busts. I’ve lost a lot of weight in the past two years, but I still measure a 32G. I was larger before…

I can’t say I’ve tried this with a separating busk. Farthingales offers the super wide busks (the kind opera singers use) at the bottom of this page. This will give a wider separation, if you like.
http://www.farthingalesla.com/busks.php

For wooden busks…you all may be shocked… I’ve made quite a few Regency era corsets and I use a wooden paint stick, sanded smooth with rounded ends for my busks. I’ve never had one break (knock on wood ). These are 12 inches long and roughly 1 ¼ inch wide, made of inexpensive (probably pine) wood.

Dawn

Edit to add forgotten link

Thanks for the input everyone I decided to go ahead and buy the Mantua Maker Regency corset pattern, with international shipping and the exchange rate (especially the exchange rate!) it was only slightly more expensive than it would have been to buy Either the TV or LM corset patterns from an Aussie supplier and I'll be saving money on the boning so I should come out slightly ahead. This will remove my only barrier to making up a nice Regency dress and the wedding is 1 week before a local 'Pride and Prejudice ball' so hopefully if I make this my summer project I can get the underwear and the gown done by the end of February (and then I can ritually burn my current poly satin Regency dress or maybe not the fumes could get nasty and apart from the fabric it's not so terrible that it can't be passed on to a newbie)

I've never tried the Mantua Maker Regency pattern... can't wait to hear/see how it turns out!

I've been working on that MM stays for a while (well, I worked on them for a very little while, and then school was back in session). They're pretty good - most of my thoughts and everyone else's on the RSA boards are summed up in these posts -

General review: http://regencysa.proboards59.com/index. ... thread=192
The gussets in particular: http://regencysa.proboards59.com/index. ... thread=670

Do read the thread on gussets, if nothing else. It's pretty short, and it may keep you from making some of the same missteps that we did. (I'm the one with the shears icon).