This month we have four questions:
- Tips on transferring marks to the garment
- How to sew a challenging area on an 1891 Ageless patterns corset
- Question about bias cut panels on Teens corsets
- How to adjust a pattern for a client's challenging hip area
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with your questions, letters and advice by March 1st, 2010 for next month's column.
Jennifer asks:
What are some of the preferred methods of transferring patterns to fabric?
Which are the best methods of transferring the lines for boning channels to the garment?
Suggestions as to make accurate markings for grommet placement?
With corset coutil and stiffer fabrics I trace the pattern directly onto the fabric with a coloured pencil. Softer fabrics I pin and cut the traditional way.
For boning channels, I neatly draw thin lines onto the coutil with colored or regular pencil. The lining fabric will cover the coutil and lines. To mark the grommet placement, I use a ruler and dots with a coloured pencil (I sure do love coloured pencils!)
When placing patterns onto fabric, I take a leaf out of the tailor's book. Tailors never pin the pattern to the fabric - they say that it ripples and distorts the fabric when you're cutting. Instead, they weigh the pattern down (I use books) and draw around it with tailor's chalk, transferring all marks and notches (easier if the pattern paper is stiff). Then they remove the pattern and cut.
However, chalk can mark, so I don't like to use it for marking boning channels unless I know the surface I'm chalking will eventually be covered with a lining. Generally, I use pins and remove them as I stitch (before the machine sews over them - dangerous!) I also mark eyelets with pins and a ruler next to the point to be perforated. Luckily, as a mathematician, I have a good eye for placing the eyelet holes evenly!
Marcus asks:
Agelesspatterns has a very pretty 1891 corset which is waiting to be made by me. It includes steel and whalebone and has gores and I intend to make it in sateen covered coutil and lining.
One of the steels is going along one of the main pieces and continues on the gore. That’s where I cannot figure how to reduce bulk, because there are nine!? layers of fabric meeting at the gore/main piece seam where I have to get the steel through.
The coutil/outer fabric is folded inside (4 layers) and put on the gore (2 layers) the same with the lining (3 layers). This makes me wonder if there is another way to connect the main piece and the gore?
Please do help me. I wasted already too much material and cannot afford any more scraps.
Most of my antique Victorian corsets are constructed from only one or two layers of fabric. The use of a lining is a modern creation that modern corset makers use to make pretty insides. I do not sew boning through my linings. Perhaps it will help to sew the lining separately. Another suggestion is to apply a boning channel to the exterior of the corset to hold the bones.
Marcus, I agree with Laura - we modern corsetmakers tend to over-engineer our work, using many layers of fabric that can make the whole process far more complex than it needs to be. I'd strongly suggest using only one layer, or two layers fused or flatlined together - check out some of the examples at www.LaraCorsets.com to see for yourself.
Annette writes
As for fabric grain, I understand it pretty well in terms of clothing, but I've heard Lara of laracorsets among others talk about some sections of teens corsets being cut on the bias.
Why teens corsets and not earlier ones? Because it helped with the sleek line rather than the pronounced curves? How should we be thinking about grain when we plan our corsets?
I have several antique corsets in my collection which are cut on the straight of grain, but with different panels cut in different directions. It seems to be somewhat random and was most likely done for making the most economical use of the fabric. I would say the majority of my antique 19th and early 20th century corsets are cut on the cross grain (with the grain running parallel to the waist line). Actually most teens corsets seem to have been cut on the strait of grain with only bias panels to be found.
The bias cut gores were most popular in the Edwardian corsets and I believe were introduced around 1900-02. It remained popular in corsets through the early teens.
I recommend use of straight grain where strength is needed most, the waist line, center front to stabilize the busk and center back to stabilize the grommets. The rest is up to the maker and their design.
Daisy writes
Hello,
I am doing a late Victorian corset (1890s) for a lady with her own personal ‘bum roll’. Her shape is straight out from the waist to her bottom. A standard corset has been shown be too tight on the hips and not be able to be laced snugly at the waist without creasing around the side and back waistline, because the back wants to ride up.
Question: If I flare the back pattern pieces below the waist, will the panels then have too much bias on the edge to still be an effective fit? How should I pattern for this shape? Is there a particular pattern that I should look at, as she will probably want to use the corset for a ‘generic’ Victorian corset. Yes I know there is no such thing, but we understand our clients’ needs!
Thanks,
Daisy
In body types like your client's (and my own) it is necessary to flare the lower half of the pattern from the side back hips through back to allow room for the "booty shelf". You may need to shorten the waist at the back to allow for the extreme curve. This is where the combination of precise cut and stable fabric matter most. Stable fabric like a coutil for the base will prevent any major warping. Do mock-ups to perfect the fit and shape the corset onto her body.
"Actually most teens corsets seem to have been cut on the strait of grain with only" ...OCCASIONAL ..."bias panels to be found."
sorry folks.