So I'm curious about your experiences with sewing machines.  I've never used a computerized sewing machine.  My machine has been a refurbished Janome Heavy-Duty Mechanical machine and though it sometimes struggles with really thick seams/casings/binding, it can push through anything.

But I just inherited a machine that was my late grandmother's.  My parents bought it for her shortly before she died and it just came into my possession.  I was TOLD it was a really good machine.  (Actually I was told my mom thought it was a Bernina, and I was excited, but it turned out to be a Brother. )  It's this model. And I've finally mostly figured out how to work it and use the computer to select stitches.  And it's got all the pretty but useless decorative stitches and came with a huge number of feet.  My grandmother was a seamstress and worked in sewing machine stores, so I would expect her to have a good machine.  Plus I was told it cost over $1000.  Now I'm not so sure about any of that.

I tried to attach a binding to a corset that I have in progress and the machine just locks up when I try to stitch through the layers.  The computer locks the needle for "safety" and a warning alarm goes off.  I guess this is to prevent hitting solid objects, but it's just fabric.  It won't even TRY to push through, the needle penetrates about 1/4" and then freezes.  It's very annoying, because the machine sews easily and smoothly through several layers, but as soon as it struggles, it locks.  Given, this is a fairly thick corset with heavy duck as strength fabric and interfaced fashion fabric, but I'm thinking that I will run into this problem at SOME point for every corset I make.

So I was wondering if other people have had this problem and if there's any advice that might help make this machine useable for corsetry.  Otherwise I guess I'll be switching machines depending on if I'm working on a corset or a regular sewing project.  Because I am really happy with several features on this machine and like the way it sews.  But I'm afraid it's just not heavy duty enough for me.

Whenever I'm fitting a corset on myself, especially an underbust, I have endless problems getting the upper edge to fit well. It always seems to be gapping somewhere, unless it's decidedly too tight everywhere, or unless I'm always standing in only one particular posture (and who does that?). It's easy enough to get it fitting well when I'm standing perfectly straight with my arms at my sides, but as soon as I move or bend I'll get a considerable gap, usually at the back. I do have a rather large, rounded ribcage, but not so much as you'd notice it unless you were really analyzing. This doesn't tend to be a problem when I'm fitting other people (at least, not a significant one), but I also don't have experience fitting all that many different people yet, so...
People with more experience: Is this a thing? Do some people just really have this gapping problem and others not so much? Is there anything to be done about it short of making the entire top line super tight or adding shoulder straps? (I'm currently playing around with the idea of attaching the upper back of the corset to my bra straps somehow, like with a loop of elastic, but can't work out a way of doing it so that I could attach and unattach it myself without spraining something.)

Can I use this stuff for capping the cut ends of plastic covered hoop wire?

I'm making bustles, not hoops, so the clasp closures don't make sense. I've used boning tips on the cut ends before, and while it works fine, it's kind of a pain to do because it's fiddly and crunches the hoop wire. The tipping fluid would be faster and easier, assuming it works for the hoop boning.

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I just came across this post on Tumblr:



This is a problem that I've noticed in my own corsets - and I don't even have much of a belly to start with. Can anyone share some tips on avoiding the Corset Gut? I usually try to keep the front seams relatively straight, with most of the reduction happening around panel 4 (of 7) but maybe there's more I should be keeping in mind.

I'm working on an overbust corset made with a silk/rayon slipper satin interfaced with fusible tricot as the fashion fabric layer.  At some point I ended up getting a bit of fusible web stuck to the outside, and I think my efforts to remove it have just made it worse.  I looked for information on removing fusible, which said to wet it a bit and heat it, then scrape it off, but I think I ended up damaging the fabric, because it's become a lighter, slightly fuzzy-looking patch.  (Unless it could have picked off fuzz from the cloth I rubbed the warm fabric with in my attempt to remove the rogue fusible?)  I did gently prewash the satin at the beginning, so just getting wet shouldn't have caused problems.
At this point I'm expecting that I'll have to just add some lace over the spot to cover it up, unless anybody knows any tricks that might help.  I feel like anything I try to do to restore it is more likely to make it worse than to actually improve anything.

I'm also wondering how other people deal with working with satin, I haven't really been able to find corsetry-specific tricks to working with satin, and it's infuriatingly unforgiving.  Is there any appropriate way of cleaning smudges and such off of it without causing damage?  Particular steps to take to keep it safe?

Im fretting a little as i am making a one layer corset intended for waist training, the coutil i usually use is med weight (natural coutil from RTT, i know people poopoo it, but it is great for moulding into shape with steam).
I just got the black coutil from Vena Cava
http://www.venacavadesign.co.uk/Products/Small_Weave_Herringbone_Coutil.html

im worried about its flimsy-ness, i understand it may be deceptively not a good idea for a single layer, but id feel more re-assured if anybody else has used this same stuff for a single layer corset successfully?


heres the right side (this pic should be bigger if clicked on) ---This is me twisting it to show how lightweight it is
              

this is a 20", it has no boning in it yet - hopefully i will be able to try it on one of my 'victims' soon.

Id love to hear from anyone who has used this particular coutil!

Please feel free to check out the following website. The content is free and will grow very significantly: I expect to add a new post most days. It is specifically designed to provide helpful and interesting information for makers like you.

http://www.rediscovering.net/

Questions / comments welcome.

So starting from this post I've let my mind wander over various construction methods. I was going to do a roll-pinned vs. non-roll-pinned experiment with the welt seam method (all the pieces of one panel at the same time, see here or sidney eileen's site). I figured that since I'd never used that method before (always doing the sandwich, assemble lining and outside seperately, line them up after) and I was making a corset for a friend this week anyway I'd get some experience under my belt, so I am now doing that one welt-seam style. I like it so far, the seams look neat and it's going to save me hours of basting now that I have to line up all the pieces only once. However, it seems a bit like the shape of the panels is distorted compared to how they look in my sandwich. I don't know if this is mostly a visual illusion, but I want to find out, so now my construction method experiment has just expanded itself.

Since I just finished a degree in psychology, I'm trained to think in terms of rigorous scientific experiments, so this is the idea:

I will make 4 half corsets (2 left and 2 right) out of all the same materials, but with different construction methods. Then I will measure them, wear them, take pictures of them, and report the differences.

The pattern will have the following features:
- At least one seam must be perfectly flat, I mean, there will be one seam where the pattern pieces match up when laid completely flat, when you lay the pattern pieces next to each other the gap is perfectly symmetrical. This is to have a seam that has no distortion from wiggling the fabric into a certain shape.
- It will be an overbust corset, in order to maximize the number of 'areas that matter' that I could spot possible differences in.
- The center front will be 30 cm, because that's the only size busk I have 2 of right now, hehe :p

The layers:
- whatever flimsy fashion fabric I find at the market on monday. Hopefully something slightly shiny or prone to wrinkling so the results of the experiment really stand out.
- calico flatlined to the above
- more calico or maybe denim or some twill as a lining, I don't want to spend money on coutil for this experiment

The construction methods will be:
- Flat regular welt-seam
- Roll-pin-as-you-go welt seam as I theorized here
- Sandwich
- ???????????

The ?????? bit is where I most want your input. Making 4 halves makes a lot more sense than making 3, and I'm sure there's another construction method or variation that is worth comparing. So what should my fourth construction method be? The obvious idea is the sandwich, but with the two outer layers roll pinned instead of flat. However I'm open to replacing any of my 'experimental conditions' with something more interesting.

A while back a customer of mine asked if I would be able to make her a leather corset. She had some colored leather she bought a while back and would like to have a custom made overbust corset. We corresponded a bit and decided on a leather corset with satin coutil external boning casings.

The leather the customer brought was quite a shocking color. I have never made anything in orange before, but I had fun making this corset non the less.

Because the leather was quite thick, I decided to cut the leather just a notch smaller than the pattern pieces and baste it to the coutil. Then I joined the pattern pieces together by sewing only the coutl, since only the coutil had seam allowance. I placed the boning chanels over the place where the leather was stiched to the coutil.

All steel boning in the casings, and a gold bust at the front.


( Bigger pictures behind the cutCollapse )