Start by folding your fabric in half with the selvedges together. For those who are new to sewing the selvedge is the woven edge of the fabric, not the raw, cut one. It's also the direction of the grain line which is the strongest direction of the fabric. You can see it on at the top of the photo below. It's important to align the pattern pieces with the grain line so they lay properly on the body. Place the first piece with the center front 1 inch from the selvedge and trace around it.
I don't pin the pattern to the fabric, I usually set a small weight or two on it to hold it in place. After the piece is traced add 1 inch seam allowance to the sides. If you are tall you may also want to add an inch at the top and and inch or two to the bottom edge. Draw the top and bottom edge lines all the way to the selvedge so the center front has 1 inch seam allowance too.
One inch is a giant seam allowance. It's possible to make adjustments with a narrower allowance, but it gets difficult to pin with less fabric to grasp, especially if you are doing the fitting alone. I square the seam allowance on the mock-up and shape it on the finished piece. See how the end of the seam allowance forms a right angle with the corner of the pattern piece?
If you prefer drawing the seam allowance around the pattern piece with out tracing it that's OK. Either way, don't forget to transfer the notch marks to the fabric.
You can double check to make sure the next piece is aligned with the grain line by measuring to the selvedge,
or to the grain line of the piece just traced.
When you trace the final piece, the back panel, add seam allowance only to the seam line that connects to the previous panel, not to the center back edge. Now cut the pieces out and make a small snip at the notch marks.
Done! We'll pin the pieces together and sew the mock-up on Wednesday.
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I'm trying to find some lace at the moment and I'm wondering, how wide should the lace be? I think it was Ryan who mentioned the other day being worried about the lace being too wide, but I don't remember reading anything about the proper width. Sorry for straying off topic. I haven't actually gotten to the tracing yet.
ReplyDeleteThe width of the lace is person preference. If it's wide you can let the lace hang or stitch it to the corset. I am short, and if I use wide lace and let it hang down, which looks very pretty, it could obscure the smooth line to my waist so I'll be using a narrower width. Look at pictures and see what you like!
ReplyDeleteI feel like I'm doing something wrong... You said we only needed half a yard of fabric for the corset. I bought 1.5 yds of muslin in case I screwed up at some point tracing the pattern to the muslin or sewing the mockup. But after tracing the first two pieces of the pattern to the muslin yesterday, I laid the rest out, and the 1.5 yds of muslin is only just enough to fit the pieces. Is that crazy?
ReplyDeleteHmm, I can normally get two corsets from one yard of fabric. How wide is the muslin you're using?
ReplyDeleteOkay now I'm really embarrassed! I just remembered that fabric comes in different widths! Mine is 36" wide. I guess that would explain it because isn't fabric normally 45" or 60" wide? Hey, lesson learned. I just bought the cheapest muslin they had, no wonder it was only $1.99/yd. Durrr... How wide is the fabric you normally use?
ReplyDeleteAt least it wasn't an expensive lesson! Coutil is usually 54 inches wide, and when I do buy muslin I'll purchase something wide.
ReplyDeleteDone and ready for sewing!
ReplyDeleteI see that we should not add seam allowance to the center back. Do you also add seam allowance to the center front? It doesn't look like you did but it's hard to tell and wasn't explicit. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSeam allowance is added to the center front. Yikes! I need to make that more clear!
DeleteHow do you trace the sewing line/the pattern edge to the other side of fabric? I usually draw sewing line and all the markings very carefully to the side that happens to be upwards when I trace pattern to fabric. But the other side is always a problem.
ReplyDeleteCenter the pattern piece more or less by checking the notch marks on the pattern to the ones you cut in the fabric. You can usually eyeball it from there making sure each side has amounts of seam allowance. Coutil is stable enough that it holds it's shape, but for slippery fabrics just double check the allowance with a ruler.
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