I’ve been asked about coutil and how to tell it from regular cottons. First let me explain what it is –
Coutil is a heavy cotton fabric designed specifically to make corset training corsets from. It has the least amount of stretch of any fabric available and is incredibly strong while also allowing the skin to breathe. Magic huh?
You can spot cotton coutil by its weave pattern. It has a herringbone weave to it, with it being stronger as the weave gets smaller. So a big 1inch wide herringbone pattern would be less than ideal. It can come mixed with other fabrics, polyester cotton mix is the most common but these feel plastic in comparison and if your going to be corset Training over 10 hours a day your skin will thank you for choosing a 100% cotton coutil.
Coutil also comes in satins, these are almost as strong but don’t have a herringbone weave so are harder to spot. It’s best to buy from corsetry suppliers to guarantee your getting the good stuff but if you come across it in a fabric store you can tell its quality from the price tag usually – it’s very expensive, and by giving it a tug to check the stretch resistance.
