Centuries-Sewing Historical Costumes and Clothing

Velvet Corset pondering

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Just thinking out loud on how to put things together.

I want no outer stitching showing on the velvet, so all of the boning will go on the inner twill layer. The velvet layer is then basted to the twill layer and the pieces treated as one.

The question is to flat fell or not to flat fell.  This isn’t a tightlacing corset so it doesn’t really need it, but the only way I can think to keep it from showing outside on the velvet is to do it seam by seam and then baste down the velvet layer afterward.

I’ve looked at harmanhay ‘s purple velvet underbust and all the posts on that which has been very helpful. After staring at the photos for a bit it looks like regular seams with the allowances tacked down to keep them in place but I might be wrong about it.

Comments

6 responses to “Velvet Corset pondering”

  1. harmanhay Avatar
    harmanhay

    As far as I remember, this is what I did. I did all the messing about with boning in the twill layer as far as possible, and attached the velvet layer later. I found that there wasn’t an issue with the velvet layer shifting about once it was made, although there’s also nothing stopping you stitching by hand in the ditch to hold layers together. Velvet layers have ditches too, there’s no reason why they should show.

  2. love3angle Avatar
    love3angle

    You could do that easily by hand and it wouldn’t show at all. You would also only need to do it in maybe 1 seam per “quarter” or even just a few tacks in the seam at the waist level.

  3. admin Avatar
    admin

    Yeah, I want to avoid any top stitching if I can.

  4. admin Avatar
    admin

    That is another option I shall think upon =). What I am worried about is the velvet layer shifting if it is separate from the twill even with a ton of basting. I’ve read about one method on the corsetmakers community that involved sewing in the ditch of the seams to hold each layer in place but I am wary of trying to do that on velvet.

  5. aranel13 Avatar
    aranel13

    Agreeing with the above comment. All your stress should be handled by the twill rather than the velvet, so you shouldn’t need any specific reinforcement for the velvet layer. Flat felling velvet shows like a glaring oops.

  6. love3angle Avatar
    love3angle

    How about dealing with the layers separately?

    Flat fell the twill layers and add your boning. Sew the velvet layer completely separately and press open the seam allowances. Then put the velvet on top of the twill and bind the edges.

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