This technique works on both real people and dolls =)  And it is super EASY!

This tutorial is shown on Senna, a doll with a Senior Delf body.  You’ll need a partner to help you do it on yourself :)

Materials

  1. Spare t-shirt to be cut up  (or for a doll, a piece of fabric)
  2. roll of duct tape
  3. sharpie/pen
  4. non-fabric scissors

1. Don your shirt and get taped up.

Since Senna doesn’t have an old shirt to cut up, I made her a trash-bag style one-piece out of a fabric scrap.  It fits over her head and has armholes big enough to wiggle through:

Taping: It’s important that throughout the taping process you make your form scrunch up as snug as possible, so that your corset will be fitted!  Note: for a doll, use only small strips of duct tape (~1/3 width) for better accuracy.

The first step is to mark your main points: waistline, top border, and general place where it will end on the bottom, just so you know how far the tape should cover.

After you define your edges (I switched to masking tape since I had no more duct) define the chest area with an X as pictured, snugly.  *if you want the corset to make your chest look bigger like this, smash your chest up and in with your hands as you tape and try to get the tape to hold the shape as firmly as possible.  You’ll also want to have reinforcing pieces of tape around the bottom sides of the bust to keep it squeezed upwards.

Next, start to cover the torso with vertical strips of tape, being careful to mold it around curvy parts like the chest.

Make sure you didn’t miss any spots; use smaller pieces of tape to fill in gaps.

As a general rule of thumb, the top edge in the back ends just under the shoulderblade.  Double check to make sure everything fits snugly, and if it doesn’t, tape it tighter!

2. Mark out your pattern

Be really careful if you’re using a sharpie or pen around your doll! It’s a good idea to have something to clean up mistakes – you don’t want to leave any permanent marks.

First, mark your waistline, center back, and center front as reference points.  The next part is the fun part – you can get two very different patterns from one taping sesh!  Above, I decided to make one side have straight horizontal edges and the other side has a sweetheart bust and come to a point in the front and back with an arch over the side hip.

Next, you get to decide where you want your seams.  The curvier the chest is, the more seams may need to be through it.  Having a built-in bust cup is also possible, though I haven’t done one so I’m not the expert.  If you mess up on this part, you can always go over it with a different color sharpie/pen.

Style + Seam Ideas

3. Freeing the captive

You can do this by cutting down the center back line, careful to not catch a bra if present.

Now you have your two patterns, A and B.  Make sure that during the cutting process you label all your pieces so you know how they fit together! FRONT – CENTER – BACK – SIDE – #1, #2, etc.

4. Drafting the pattern

Darts —->  if your pieces aren’t flat, such as in the bust, it’s a good idea to add in a dart to keep the shape.

For one side of Senna’s pattern (of course, the one that had fewer seams) I made a small cut to the center of the bust to accomodate for volume.

Now you should have two *labeled* sets of patterns:

Next: creating pattern pieces with your tape sections. Ideally if you’d like to use this pattern more than once, draw this out on scrap fabric that you’ll reuse. The other option is to draw your pieces directly onto a tough canvas/background like stiff muslin which can be used as the corset inner lining itself.

Pin the pieces to your fabric, and draw out your seam allowances.

For dolls – I personally like to have smaller seams, so I gave 1/4″ allowance.

For people – 1/2″ seam works, or whatever your preference is.

WHEREVER YOU MAY HAVE CORDING, GROMMETS, OR A BUSK, etc – make sure to leave double seam allowance!  i.e. center back and/or center front!

Be sure to maintain the waistline mark as a reference point through your pieces, and keep them numbered/labeled.

* if you don’t want a center front seam: you can make your front piece lie on a fold; just don’t include a seam allowance there and make sure when cutting that you have darts marked on both sides (if you have any).

That should be it for drafting your pattern~ it’s a good idea to finalize and make sure it fits by basting together your pieces (or pinning with safety pins) and trying it on to see if adjustments are needed.  If so, it’s better to have it adjusted before you make the corset!

I threw together a few pieces with Senna’s pattern, extended to be dress length:

Looks like it fits! ^___^