cutting pattern on cross grain?

[kids041]

HI I am new to the whole corset making world. I am currently in mock up stage of a corset that I drafted myself, following the directions on Foundations Reveled. They seemed to work ok. I had some questions about it, posted pics in the corset making group I belong to on Facebook, and got back some interesting comments about it. IT was pointed out

Comments

[mala_14]

The reason that the waistline is supposed to be on-grain (either the lengthwise or widthwise grain) is to reduce stretching at the waist where the most tension is. This generally means that the pieces have the grain lines running around the waist and straight up and down in the middle of the pieces

[kids041]

thank you for your response. That sounds very well thought out (great explanation), and I guess I will continue to cut with the grain going up and down for this corset..
I did just as you suggested last night, and took in the hip area on the one side on the mock up and it did fix the tilted busk. I am just still trying to figure out what to do with the squish roll in the back. One person suggested adding more material to the top of the corset to accommodate it. My only fear with this is then it is very loose at the top, causing me to want to tighten it more. Any suggestions? Maybe only adding more material to the back panels? I am just not sure how to handle that.

[mala_14]

Check out this post that deals with the "muffin top" effect. http://corsetmakers.livejournal.com/1924914.html

It suggests adding more space in the hips and around the top of the back and under the arms. Tightening more doesn't seem to cause a problem because there is so much space in the corset for the extra flesh to go.

[rabid_bookwyrm]

I think you should let out the hip and ribs by at least one inch per side, possibly more.

Hips: You don't necessarily have to let the hips out, but if you do you'll likely be able to lace down a little tighter. It looks like they are very snug right now.

Ribs: If you open up the ribs, you will give the flesh piling up at the top of your corset somewhere to go that isn't outside your corset.

Think about it this way: You don't want the corset to be universally tight, because then your un-laced body will go sproing! as soon as the pressure lets up. You want the waist to be the tightest, tapering off smoothly to no pressure at all at the top and bottom edges. Especially over the hips, you want the corset to let up fairly quickly, because there's no way to compress your body pelvic girdle, only the fat and muscle on top of it. Otherwise, you can't tighten the waist because the whole bottom half of the corset gets hung up on your hips.

It looks lovely, though, and I think a little bit of playing will get you a really good fit.

[kids041]

Thank you everyone for the comments. I think I will try adding the ease like you have suggested.
Question- do you mostly add the ease to the back half, or evenly all the way around?

[virginiadear]

It might be useful for you to know that the human body carries more than half its mass in front of the coronal axis. (The coronal axis is where front and back meet, but is easiest to locate by looking at the figure head-on and having someone try to "trace" that figure's silhouette with the fingertips, with a pointer, or some such: what you want to detect is the tip of the pointer or the finger or fingers just touching the "outline" of the body; it or they won't over-lie the front of the body, i.e. you don't see, say, the shoulder or upper arm behind the tip or pointer; and they won't disappear behind the body, or the shoulder or neck or upper arm with the body or its parts in front of the fingertip or pointer tip. Think "corona," like the corona displayed during an eclipse of the sun [and look up a photo of that---I'd link to one for your convenience, but am experiencing some very frustrating computer/internet problems these days and won't risk messing up this connection; machine's not mine and neither is the ISP.])

If you had no

[kids041]

After listening to advice given here,I have decided to add some "ease" into the top and bottom of my corset.
Here is my question- When trying on your mockup- How do you tell if the ribs and hips will fit if you are not able to tighten down as much as you want to get the 2" gap? I tightened my mock up to an even gap in the back, but the top and bottom are still loose (which I know I want) but I can't tell (since they are loose) how they will fit when tightened all the way to the desired gap.
Any advice would be appreciated.