Hi Scarlett,
I just finished watching and reading your corsetry training videos/pdfs, and I have a few questions. I”m hoping that you can help me out.
I”ll give you a bit of info (it helps the questions make sense). I live in Edmonton, AB, Canada, so everything that is corsetry specific has to be ordered in. My obvious choice is Farthingales because it’s Canadian (prices and shipping make more sense), but of course that takes time. I can sew (sort of). I haven’t made anything clothing related in many, many years, but I have quilted and craft-sewed over the years.
Here are my questions:– Does it make sense to add in the seam allowance when you are drawing out your pattern? I’m afraid if I just eyeball it, I’ll mess it up. If I was to add it in, could I just enlarge the pattern to allow for the seam allowances?
– When you iron out your seams, do they iron one way or open? I’m used to ironing with seam allowance on both sides of the seam, but I noticed in your video that you generally don’t do that. Is there a reason for ironing them together?
– When you use a light-weight fabric for the front, would it be ok to iron on a fusible interfacing to it? Would that cause any issues in the construction?
That’s all that I can think of before I get started. I really enjoyed your course, and I look forward to trying it on my own.
Thanks,
Natasha
Hi Natasha,
Adding a seam allowance to the pattern is fine, I don’t put it on because everyone has slightly different preferences and people making historic corsets that are 100% historically accurate will use the seam allowance as bone casing so will want a larger seam allowance etc etc. But by all means do draw the pattern out then draw on the seam allowance before cutting if this work for you, I often do with my personal patterns.
Ironing seam allowances all to one side serves two purposes; firstly because the corset is pulled tight – sometimes extremely tight! – the panels are effectively being pulled apart and if you ironed the seam allowances apart, you could get gaping between the stitches where you could see through to the layer below. Secondly, like I said the seam allowances used to be used as the bone casing so they would be stitched together. As it stands we use bone casing that we place over the seam allowance and stitch down next to the seam thus strengthening the seam and removing the possibility for the gaping I mentioned above. The fashion fabric layer then has its seam allowances ironed the opposite way to the lining to even out the bulk. So if lining allowances are all ironed toward the back the outer fabric allowances should be ironed toward the front. The correct method is to open the seam allowance and iron flat then close it to whichever side and iron again.
I often iron on a fusible interfacing with lighter fabrics for strength, especially if making a plus size or corset training corset. I make summer corsets and less heavy duty ones without the interfacing and both come out just fine but I imagine interfacing helps extend the life of the corset. Also I’d recommend sewing a lightweight corset with ever so slightly wider seam allowances (not adding wider seam allowances to the pattern but sewing the panels slightly smaller) as they have a lot more give than the coutil lining and this stops wrinkles which you sometimes get with thin fabrics. I also pull the fabric taught against the lining when sewing the top and bottom edge, you get a lovely wrinkle-free, smooth finish that way.
I hope that helps, Scarlett
