The lovely lady at Corsetmakers has some fascinating advice - and a vavoom figure! - give EASE at bust and hip and reduce only the waist. This gives somewhere for the flesh to go - even on slender figures, avoids the dreaded muffin top, and allows a smaller waist.
This is why in such shows as the 1900s House when the Mrs went suffragette and refused to wear a corset (because she and her daughter couldn't swim due to their periods, even in period dress) - her
clothes did not fit - and she was pretty rangy. They were loose at the bust and hip and gaped at the waist - exactly the result of the advice given this sempstress.
I could easily go down from 27(natural) to 24 - the 'beginner's waist training reduction - with no prob. Could I go down to 22.5? (yer wan's additional reduction upon tight-lacing) I'm excited to find out!
All of my handmade corsets have thus far not been waist reducing, per se, just to get the period silhouette (most people did not tight-lace.) But I remember fondly how GORGEOUS one of the principals looked when I tight-laced her for Little Mary Sunshine - I pulled the waist way in - meeting - and left the top
and bottom at flex (it was not a fitted to her jobber after all). O my goodness! Lillie Langtry would have envied her figure (which was not naturally spectacular)
