What is Coutil?
For the sake of newbie’s to corset making I’d better just briefly explain what this stuff is, although I’ve covered this before many a time. Coutil sounds fancy but it’s just a fabric designed to make a corset from. It’s normally cotton although you can get cotton/polyester blends and it comes in a satin finish or the more common herringbone weave. The satins are very expensive and you use them on the outside of the corset, I work with the lining kind mostly but they both do the same job – they stop the corset from stretching. Thinks about it, clothing stretches with wear. When you squeeze into your jeans in the morning you swear they’ve shrunk (I had this this morning lol) but by the evening when you take them off they’re nice and comfy again…until they go through the wash again. Corset training corsets need to be made out of this special material because a corset that stretches during the day is not going to be any good for waist training in now is it? So thats the lowdown on why we use coutil in corsetry.
How Can I Tell if it’s Quality Stuff?
Now the best way to check you have a coutil that won’t stretch too much (all fabric stretches a little bit) is to take a section in your hands and give it a good tug, see if it gives at all. If you’re met with an unyielding snap as the fabric becomes taught then you know it’s of a decent quality. You’ll get a feel for the material the longer your working with it. You’ll instantly be able to tell what kinds of corset patterns/styles can be made with a coutil when you pick it up i.e. corset training worthy, a single layer corset, costume only/needs to be doubled up for strength, etc.
If your buying online it becomes a little more difficult to guarantee the quality of your purchase. Checking the size of the herringbone weave is probably the only way of judging, but this can be hard when you’ve only got a photo to go on. Basically the smaller/tighter the pattern in the weave, the stronger it’ll be. So little quarter inch lines of herringbone are going to be stiffer than a loose half inch weave.
Price is another good indicator of quality. The old saying ‘you get what you pay for’ rings true here. If it’s really cheap in price you can expect your coutil to be cheap in quality. Wholesalers would be the one exception but that normally means buying large quantities.
It’s still a gamble though when buying online, so my suggestion is to ask for a sample to be sent to you, or just purchase a quarter meter if they’ll let you. Most places sell corset making fabrics by the half or quarter meter and equally most will send you swatches either free or for a couple dollars for P&P. Once you’ve found somewhere that sells what you want then stick to that supplier. New suppliers should again be tested with very small orders or sample swatches.
Lastly, don’t be scared to send material back if it’s not as described. If somewhere won’t take it back then make a fuss – theres no excuse for inferior products and you shouldn’t have to put up with bad quality materials when you make a corset.
