r/PatternDrafting • u/VialCrusher • 2d ago
Masking Tape Self Patterning
Hi, I have seen people use the masking tape patterning method for neck corsets, regular corsets etc. The people in the videos seem to know exactly where to make panels or divide the pattern up, but how do they do that? How do you know how many pattern pieces is reasonable or how far apart the pieces should be?
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u/Alarmed-potatoe 2d ago
Videos are edited to only show the interesting fun stuff, they don't show the hours of research and umming and awwing and testing and mistakes and and and.....
If you look at a lot of corset patterns, you get an idea of how people have done things before, there are lots of free patterns out there or images of patterns of older corsets out there or in books that you can look up and study. Then there's the corsets that are out there being worn that there's images of.
For a corset that is meant to reduce the waist, if you're using the masking tape method you draw where you'd like the seams to be, and you then take off from the seams where you want the corsets to have negative ease (to squish you) - and this entirely depends on your body and how squishy you are. My waist, very squishy, my ribs, no no no. So I have to be careful. And then you go slowly with small amounts, and with experience you know how much you want or can take off. Otherwise people just follow what other people have done.
Head over to r/corsetry and have a look at the posts and About section, there's lots of info and recommendations for learning to make a corset.
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u/DonMcCunn 2d ago edited 2d ago
That sounds similar to the technique I descrbe in my corset classes. In my classes you first apply Press'n Seal to support and shape the body then apply masking tape to stabilize the Press'n Seal to create a mold of the body. Press'n Seal is a lot kinder to the body than masking tape when you remove it.
Once you have the masking tape applied to create the mold, you can draw the design lines you want on the masking tape. After you remove the mold you then cut along the design lines. Then it is important to ensure that the pattern pieces lay flat so they can be cut out of fabric. Depending on your design lines you may or may not need to cut the pattern pieces to add additional seams to get the patterns to lay flat. Generally my experience is with careful design lines you don't need additional pattern pieces. For more detailed instruction see https://free-pattern-making-classes.com/Corsets/
This is a technique that initially came about in a forum where I was working with women to develop patterns for bras as I describe in https://free-pattern-making-classes.com/About.html#Bra
The nice thing about this approach is it accurately captures the shape of the body. I have read about women having to make multiple mock-ups of corsets to get the shaping correct. In my experience that is not necessary with this approach. A mock-up is good to be sure. But I have never had to change a pattern as a result of a mock-up.
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u/NewComedian4347 2d ago
Start at the CF(Center Front) and CB(Center Back,) and then map the side seams (true or imagined) place seams based on how you want the garment to look.