 Have you ever found yourself repeating a past mistake, but not realising until it's too late? Got carried away and had to unpick your hard work? Miscalculated how long something will take and ended up stitching into the wee hours? Worst of all - ever tried to recreate a previous success, only to find you've forgotten exactly how you did it? Laura shares her foolproof system for preventing wasted time and effort with some simple organizational tools.  This month we have four questions: Tips on transferring marks to the garment How to sew a challenging area on an 1891 Ageless patterns corset Question about bias cut panels on Teens corsets How to adjust a pattern for a client's challenging hip area
 Stripes create an unusual visual interest in your corsetry, but you cannot match stripes perfectly along every portion of every curved seam without performing a considerable amount of piecing work - or can you? Laurie shows you how she comes close to doing so (without creating her own fabric) by a simple technique of visualizing pattern matching choices before stitching up the project.  Joanne Arnett is no ordinary weekend seamstress: she is currently sewing her way through every corset pattern in Norah Waugh's book, Corsets and Crinolines. She is documenting the whole project in her blog, her many avid readers following along with every stitch. She believes that the stuff you don't see is often more interesting than the stuff you do see. Making corsets, she says, is like building bridges on the body.  Corsetmaking presents a number of challenges for us to tackle with innovation, study and hard work. We soon discover that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. Different structures require different raw materials and processes, and opinions differ on which materials produce the best results. Jenni conducts a unique experiment to compare the effects of four different types of steel in her bespoke corsets.  While the original corset was made in drab coutil, I couldn't resist the temptation of bright pink for Valentine's Day. Coutil dyes really well; add a sexy black lace trim and you have a corset far too good for a mere housemaid! Yes, this corset is a labour of love. Yes, doing all that cording takes ages. Was it worth it? YES! This is a lovely corset, comfortable and fun and easy to wear and it looks so unusual and smart. |