When your learning how to make a corset, the many methods and corset design styles can get confusing. “How many layers of material should I use when sewing my corset pattern?” Is something I get asked a lot. The three layered method for corset making is a simple one (the way I do it at least – there are many different ways to skin a cat as they say!) and it’s useful for making very robust corset training corsets. It’s also often employed when a particularly thin outer material is being used to make a corset. A thin cotton (I like to use quilting cottons sometimes as the Alexander Henry range has some amazing graphic designs) would show through to the corset boning – not such a problem for sprung steel as its smooth and coated white, but spiral steel boning can show through white thin fabrics as its a dark metal and the bone spirals can cause ridges on the fabric surface.
The method is very straightforward – when you make a corset three layered you have your coutil lining, you have your outer fashion fabric and you add a third layer to back your outer fabric, (normally coutil again). After cutting the three sets of corset pattern pieces, lay your outer fabric over its lining, make sure it’s flat, and sew them together a little way out from where the seams will be. Then you treat them as one single corset pattern piece. It’s that simple!
