Thursday 21 April 2011

Butterick B4443 Part 2 - inner construction

The powernet corselette is as complete as it can be at this stage.  I'm cross with myself because in my haste I realised I didn't have the poly boning that I wanted to use so have resorted to Rigeline.  It will be fine, just not my preferred type of boning.

Here's the stages following the pinning of the strips

 Press all seams open using your ham for the bust area
Fold the piece in half, wrong sides together and press the bottom edge

Prepare your Rigeline (if using this "lovely" product)  Some people balk at the sight of a flame in the sewing room, but I find this technique works well for me.  Once you have cut your pieces, round off the edges and hold close to the candle flame.  DO NOT put the Rigeline into the flame or else you'll end up with a gooey mess.  The heat will melt the edges and ensures it doesn't unravel, or those horrible spikes don't break through and get you!



Sew the Rigeline down using large a zigzag stitch ensuring you leave a gap of 2cm at the top and approx 1.5cm at the bottom.  Here you can see the wrong side which will be placed against the dress, and the right side which will be closest to the body.

Remember to use a ballpoint or stretch needle when you sew your powernet pieces together.  I also used mine to stitch down the Rigeline so that needle is now in the bin, it won't be any good for a new project.

That's it.  I won't be doing any more to this section until the dress is almost complete.  You can give the corselette its own closure and I prefer to use lingerie hook and eye tape but you can use a light weight open ended bodice zip (good luck with finding one, they aren't easy to get hold of), or you can attach the corselette closure directly to the dress and dress zip - Clear as mud?  I'll show you when I get there.

Enjoy your day, it's another lovely one here, the birds woke me up at 5 this morning.  I'm not complaining, more sewing time!

4 comments:

sew vala said...

would love to sign up and do the corset course, no way am i confident enough to do it alone, my kit keeps looking up 'make me next' although my dress ie still waiting, oh dear, so many makes sew little time

Andrea Franklin said...

This might be a silly question, but when you cut out your corsolette, did you use the bodice pattern pieces or did you cut it smaller since it's a stretch fabric?

Pin Queen said...

Hi Frankie, thanks for your question! Over the years I have designed my own pattern which fits me very well and suits the top of most dresses. To begin with I would use your dress bodice pattern and trim off the seam allowances from all side pieces. It's best to shorten it too as it shoujld ball approx 2" from your waist. Hope that helps? Thanks for reading, and following my blog.

Baby Bear said...

Hi I found this site whilst looking at powernet and it's other names.
Some time ago I bought my partner a body shaper/panty girdle and as you can guess it's the wrong size. Not worth sending back from NZ. So it's sew your own time. I've seen powernet in various weights and prices. Some appear to be three time the price of others. Could you recommend a pattern, correct fabric, weight and supplier. It wants to be very firm. Most of the ones in the shop she pulls and says too light.
Cheers BB