I have been under the impression that coutil should be pre washed and dried multiple times prior to cutting in order to pre shrink it and reduce stretching.  I do remember reading somewhere that coutil is finished with a starched finish and washing ought not be done because that finish would be removed.  My first two corsets were made with domestic coutil which I washed in hot water and dried on high heat a total of 3 times before cutting.  I am planning my third corset making  adventure (after I tweak the pattern a bit more) and have a lovely piece of satin coutil that has not been washed.  Before I proceed I want to ask what you all think about pre washing coutil---is it something that you do or not?   

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Still working on my new 18th Century style corset. Pattern's fixed, pieces cut, boning channels sewn. Here's the latest pic - check out the pattern matching!

More photos on my Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/Mentionablesltd

So I'm working on a pair of front-lacing Elizabethan-esque stays at the moment. I'm boning with good old cording. However I just thought of some things to watch out for and one of them was potential buckling at the front center. How should I prevent. this, I was thinking of just throwing some 1/4 steels down the front, but would that hold up?

I'm glad to finally have something worthy enough to post, instead of just lurking and drooling over all of your beautiful pieces!

This is the corset that I'll be wearing under my wedding dress in April. Thanks for looking!

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Boned Spiderman Corset with tulle

:D

www.candycorsets.ecrater.com     

 Hello everyone, I'm Josefa I live in Santiago de Chile. I'm 21 years old, I'm in my 2nd year in college (I'm studying Visual Comunication Design) and a huge vintage glamour burlesque fan, and of course a corset lover.
Long story short in my country the onlys corset that exist are the gothic style ones so I bought one, a patent type of fabric underbust with plastic boning, and though it did gave me a nice silouette it wasns't good for tightlacing 'cause the boning soon begun to lose its shape.

After a lot of research on corsets history, making and tightlacing, and seeing the prices of real corsets sold online I decided to make my own corset so first I had to order supplies from the U.S. 'cause we don't have steel boning or busks here, as the shipping was a little expensive I bought enough boning to make 3 corsets.
While I waited for my package to arrive I made a pattern, I wanted an overbust corset and no, I couldn't find a pattern either, so I read a lot of articles on pattern drafting until I made one that fitted my measurements, I am 34D-25-33 inches, and made my pattern to be 21 inches at the waist line.
I don't have a sewing machine so it took me 3 weeks to make it, plus we had an earthquake on February 27th, so I had to sew with canddle light for a few days.

sorry I'm in my underwear :S


I used 16 spiral steel bones and 2 lacing bones, I haven't putted on the grommets yet 'cause I can't find a place where they can put them and don't know how to do it myself without a setting tool. Any tips or advice are more than welcome, 'cause I'm working on an underbust now :)


  

I've noticed lately that there are quite a number of people posting their first corset, and to a man they're telling us how they've been lurking for months/years and have learnt all they know from this community. And these first corsets are all great.

So I think we need to stop for a moment and pat ourselves on the back, people - it looks as though Johanna's vision back in - 2004, was it? - is being realised. Go us, go corsetmakers, and go all corsetmakers, young and old! We rock pretty damn hard, and the evidence is starting to come thick and fast! Woohoo!

Hi all,

After reading through several years worth of spectacular knowledge in this community I feel a bit apprehensive of posting about my own feeble attempts at creating a corset. But my need for feedback surpasses my own inventiveness at this stage, so here goes ...

The corset on some pillows:


More behind the cut ...
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We're finishing up a few odds and ends before our next major release. Our mighty Ops guys continue to slay spambots and balance load times on a highwire without a safety net (which is kind of tough dressed in full ninja gear). Down on solid ground, we're celebrating this week's virtual birthday party with a warm toast to pants. If you can rearrange the letters of your favorite city, state, and/or country (feel free to combine these elements) to spell one of Frank's favorite treats (e.g., pants, wire, paper, etc.), he'll send you over a can of whipped cream to top it all off (provided you return the empty can for his midnight snack)! And, with that, let the word scrambling commence!

Stuff you should know:

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To our paid users, we send squirrels in love!

If you have a paid or permanent account, you can send five free Squirrels in love vgifts through Monday, March 15th at 4pm, PST! You'll see both the free and the $0.99 squirrels displayed until they've scurried off to their new homes. Please send only one vgift at a time. In other words, you'll need to complete check-out and start a new order for each vgift you send. If you're not receiving vgifts (from friends and/or Frank), you may have disabled them. To enable vgifts, visit Edit profile (under Profile), scroll down to the bottom of the page, and select 'Do not disable' from the drop-down menu. Have fun!

Help is on the way!

We're pleased to announce the winner of our first charitable vgift poll, Doctors without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières, which provides critical medical care to under-served populations around the world. Priced at $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of the proceeds we raise from the sale of this vgift (we'll cover credit card fees). We invite you to start recommending nonprofits for our next fundraising drive at ljnewscontests. We'll take suggestions through the month and post a poll in the news during the first week of April to let you choose the recipient. We thank you, again, for your passion and generosity.

We've crowned a header

Congratulations to ohterlus for submitting the winning header, which will go live next week and keep us leafy through mid-April! You can submit designs for our next header contest at ljnewscontests now until March 31st. We'll post a poll in the news to let you decide which header will sit at the top of LiveJournal from mid-April to mid-May. All artistic interpretations are welcome. The winner will get a $25 LiveJournal gift certificate. All other contributors will receive $5 gift certificates. Our heartfelt appreciation for sharing your talent and creativity!

For this week's winning photo and more adventures with Frank & Meme, we'll catch you under the cut!

( Read more... )

I'm in the process of building a late 18th Century Tabbed Corset. I will be documenting my progress on my Facebook page.
You can watch this new corset come together at http://www.facebook.com/Mentionablesltd

If you've ever made a similar corset, I would love feedback or suggestions!

Thanks,
Diana

Ok so i've been lurking here for the best part of a year and a half and i have actually made and posted one corset granted it wasn't very good at all so i took it down. Anyway i'm planning to make another corset, again another pattern drafted by myself but this time with the necessary reduction and hopefully the right bust shaping ect. I've made a toile already but i haven't bought a busk to put in the toile for me to see how it will work. This however got me thinking, whilst i appreciate the ease in which you can take the corset on and off with a busk (or any kind of front closure) do i really need one?

For starters i'm unlikely to wear this corset much and it would most likely be for a specific occasion, a ball in fact. The way i've designed it is to have the top mostly straight across and i worry that without a busk even though i've drafted it to do so it wont separate the bust in the middle. Am i wrong in thinking this? I have very little experience with corset making in general despite the amount of lurking and research i've done.

Also does anyone think it's possible to make removable fashion covers for your corsets, because my first idea was to make a simple black corset and then make a dress to go over it with the dress actually fitting over the corset with the eyelets and such so i can all be laced on together (if i was to actually do this it would make less sense to have a busk). Would this cause too much wrinkling of the cover/ or possible damage with prolonged use?

http://maps.google.de/maps?ll=50.003536,6.8932401&z=14&t=h&hl=en


From Wittlich to Plein (zoom out a wee bit - it's north of Wittlich) And it's f-ing cold outside.

Oh man - why am I doing this??

So I went with the option which seemed the most popular and cut back one of the SA's more than the other, to reduce bulk.
I think it has worked nicely, but I thought I would post an update post just incase I have made any glaringly obvious mistakes :)

Once again, thankyou ti everyone who offered advice on this one!

It isn't perfect, but its only a tester I'm making for myself. busk, then 2 7mm spiral bones, then a 7mm spiral bone on the seam. Im not keen on how it looks, as I didnt do the two by the busk perfectly straight on this side, I was in a rush, and the curved seam makes it look even worse...



inside w/pink boning tape...

Modified Laughing Moon Dore
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I just found what looks like redrawn versions of some of the patterns in Corsets and Crinolines.

http://www.fashion-gorgeois.com/pattern-cutting/womenswear/corsets

There are some other fun patterns there too!

I have a lovely pattern for a spoon busk corset but the issue I have is that spoon busks don't come in the length I need. I need at least a 14in busk. I was wondering if I could still use the pattern but with a regular busk reinforced with boning on either side of it? I'll be drafting the pattern myself from a book so if the pattern needs to be altered to make a regular busk work it's not an issue.

Many thanks in advance.

Cross-posted to my personal journal