Are you making a bodice or a corset I ask?
What’s the difference?
I here you retort, well that’s the topic of this blog post, and the answer is actually quite a lot.
I used to think it was all in the layers, a corset had two or more while a bodice had just the one. But I have since seen bodices with more and corsets (my own vintage historical ones) with less. So I looked into it.
It turns out that (and this is still not definitive, so if you have other evidence to offer up please do) a bodice is made to the exact measurments of the wearer while a corset is made smaller than the wearer! Yes if you want a corset to look right, it should be at least two inches smaller at the waist (plus at least an extra inch smaller to allow for the gap at the laces if you want it).
There are lots of theories on the differences between the two so there is no way to say this is it definitively, but as the modern day ‘bodice block’ is made to the wearer’s exact measurements then ‘ease’ is added when the garment is made (more ease for a shirt and less for a fitted top) this does seem to fit as an explanation. Bodices were of course around first dating back to the 1600s, there are shape and style differences, cloth qualities and bodices are normally much more heavily boned than corsets, but this is the major factor that I’ve found makes the most sense.
