-what are your measurements -what sort of reduction are you going for -what are you looking to spend -what sort of power tools do you own? -have you ever set grommets? -how often do you plan on wearing this -how long of a period of time would you like to be able to wear this -what are you planning on wearing this over -are you claustrophobic? -do you have a friend that you can trust with duct tape?
-what are your measurements? >.> -shy- -what sort of reduction are you going for? Not too much of a reduction, just to smooth things out and emphasize my waist.Not looking to do tight lacing. -what are you looking to spend? I'm looking for it to be cheap. Planning on using old jeans for fabric. -what sort of power tools do you own? A buttload -have you ever set grommets? No, but I can youtube it. -how often do you plan on wearing this? Not too often -how long of a period of time would you like to be able to wear this? Like how long per day or the life of the garment? -what are you planning on wearing this over? Tank tops, maybe nothing, (it's a surprise for my fiance xD) -are you claustrophobic? I know where you're going with this... -do you have a friend that you can trust with duct tape? And I use water-activated packaging tape for my mannequins. =D
Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 8:01 am
get a shirt you wont miss that comes over your hips and that friend you trust with ducttape. Duct tape works hundreds of times better than packing tape for this. You are going to need two colors of duct tape for this. The first layer will go around your torso. The strips dont have to be continuous strips, just lost of nice parallel strips. next take your other color of duct tape and apply strips at a 45* angle. don't force these to overlap. Let them fall as they will even if its a little off angle. Take another bit and cover any gaps that are left. You don't want to see any of the first color of tape. Then go back to the first color and apply strips in vertacal lines making sure to cover all gaps so none of the second color is seen. Draw on your seam lines. one in the very front one in the very back and one on the side are most important to get straight. the ones between there can slant a bit if you know what you are doing when it comes to patterning but i would not recommend it for a beginner. Last draw one line all the way around the middle. This is the line you will use to determine your grain. It only has to be pretty on half of the corset. Whatever half looks better you are going to be using for the pattern. The other half can be trashed. Cut up the back or front with a pair of emt scissors. You can get them at any drugstore. Cut along the remaining seams and flatten the pieces best you can. Trace these onto paper and add your 5/8 seam allowance. Be sure to transfer the grain line.
About fabric. Denim is not suited for making corsets. think about wearing jeans. They fit better at the end of the day because they have stretched. In corsets stretch is BAD!!! If you have a proper strength layer in the corset you can use denim for looks but it is not strong enough on its own for a corset. If you don't have much money to spend get a heavy cotton duct or canvas. The best fabric for a corset is called coutil but it costs an arm and a leg.
Duct and canvas are not the prettiest of fabrics or the most comfortable so you have to line a corset and put a fashion layer on top. Thats right most well made corsets are at least three layers of fabric. The inner layer just needs to be a comfortable cotton and the outer layer can be almost anything. Denim or upholstery fabric are good outers for beginners.
Next you need to think about boning and bone casings. The plastic bones that you get in the fabric store won't do squat or didly for a corset unless you are 18in around on a fat day. If you have even a health amount of squish you are going to need to upgrade. The best stuff is plastic coated steel and is once again a bit pricey and has to be ordered online. You can sometimes find enormous zip ties that will work if you are lucky. You cant sew through these like the wimpy stuff from the craft store so you have to sew channels for them to sit in. (will continue later)
depending on wether or not you want the channels to show and your skill sewing there are several ways to go about it so let me know what you are looking for so I can save myself several paragraphs. Are you wanting to put in a busk or are you going to be lacing yourself in every time? what sort of sewing machine do you have?
SilverPeacock
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Sachiko13
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Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 11:30 am
zip ties tend to be kinda flexible, but if you're using really heavy fabric they are very effective. You'll want the ones that are about 2-3 feet long and 1/4-1/2" thick. They can then be cut to the length you need, about 1/4" shorter than the channel they will go in to give them a bit of room at the ends, otherwise they do nasty things like come out of their channels. Also, you will want to do something to make the ends smoother. There is a substance you can dip them in that's more "professional", but the cheap solution is to just wrap them in duct tape.
Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2010 6:50 pm
I would use tool dip as a tipping fluid. its almost exactly the same as the expensive stuff. Also you need to round off the ends of the cut zipties. Ducttape will loose its sticky side if you plan to wash the corset.
I've obviously got a lot of material gathering to do... xD
I'm not too concerned about things showing, and I have an old Viking 150 sewing machine.
Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 5:09 pm
Blood-Spattered-Sundress
I've obviously got a lot of material gathering to do... xD
I'm not too concerned about things showing, and I have an old Viking 150 sewing machine.
cool, then you can make the channels by sewing them through all the layers of fabric. Its a bit tedious if you aren't used to it or don't have a chalked line. Depending on your size you are going to want 1-3 bones per panel. where the laces are you should have one bone on either side of the grommets and if needed another further over. The side panels usually only need one in each center and the front tend two each. One parallel to the busk and another a little off angle aimed at your armpits. Its so much easier to show people how to draft these things than try and explain over the net. Just let me know if you get lost
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