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mr seamstress skip to main skip to sidebar mr seamstress sewing made easy wednesday november 11 2009 paper dresses okay here s the next thing i recently finished these are costumes for an important dutch literature award now the organisation wanted four female book figures which would roam a catwalk and a platform planted in the middle of the theatre audience sat on the stage for a change thus creating an interesting backdrop i suggested that we make all dresses out of the actual pages of the nominated books they really liked that idea i spent lots of hours ripping out dying folding and sewing approximately 3200 individual paper pages in the end a fifth dress was made out of silk that i had printed with the covers of the six nominees the colour red in the dresses is a direct link to the colour of the ako brand bookstores logo ako is the company that created and promotes the award the wigs aren t made of paper but wood curls they were created and designed by nienke algra posted by mr seamstress at 5 57 pm 6 comments labels ako dress dresses literatuurprijs mortier nienke algra paper hairspray musical hey everyone since i m to busy to create some new tutorials at the moment i ll show you some of the work i ve completed recently first up is the touring production of the musical hairspray on hairspray i created and refined dozens of costumes including edna s welcome to the 60 s gown the costume designer for this was arno bremers posted by mr seamstress at 5 43 pm 1 comment saturday july 25 2009 finishing the corset finally the corset is finished notice that i added some traditional embroidery on the bottom of the corset these are used to lock the bones into place but most corsets nowadays don t use them and i embroidered some black sequins and beads onto the lace it is hard to see on the picture but it gives the corset some extra sparkle okay on to a new project posted by mr seamstress at 6 22 pm 18 comments creating the laced closure 2 now that i klnow the final top and bottom edge of the corset it is time to insert the eyelets there isn t a special rule on how many eyelets you should have i once made a corset that only had 8 in total 4 to each side on the whole thing and it worked perfectly i usually like to put in a lot more then 8 since it crates more and tighter crossed lacing which maximises te effect however use your own discretion with this on this corset i ll be inserting 30 15 to each side in this case i ll us a handy device called an expanding sewing gauge to quicky determine where i will place the eyelets however a ruler is all you really need mark the position of the eyelets and make sure they match up with the eyelet position on the other side then use an awl and pierce a hole into the corset horror next insert the eyelet and with an eyelet press or hammer press it into place work one at a time and the next thing you ll know all thirty of them will be in but if you think you re finished think again sure you can put on the corset but your back will look less appealing with flaps of skin forcing it s way through the laces so we need to make a back protector it s basically a rectangular strip of fabric that covers your back and it is assembled sepperately but attached to the final corset first you need to decide how big the protector should be always make it shorter than the length of the laced closure this way you can loosen or tighten the corset without the back protector peeping out somewhere at the bottom or at the top don t make it to narrow since we want it to cover all visible skin and all the eyelets on the iside that is once you ve decided on a size cut out a rectangular pattern out of a piece of paper use this to cut three pieces of fabrice an outer layer silk and two pieces of the lining fabric black coutil use a serger to serge the outer layer fabric to one of the pieces of lining fabric then sew the outer layer to the inner layer sideseams only and sew it that the inside is a little less wider then the outside layer press the seams flat thin them out finally you turn the whole thing inside out and press the whole thing flat next sew 2mm 1 8t inch along the side like the picture below optional it is possible to bone the back protector as well i ve seen fully boned examples myself if you d want that now is the time to do it okay take some leftover bias tape and finish the top and bottom of the back protector pin it to the inside of the corset and handstitch it to the lining now it s finally time to lace up the corset let s continue posted by mr seamstress at 4 58 pm 1 comment assembling the corset 3 the next few steps are totally optional and very specific to this corset i m going to decorate the top half of the corset using lace i ll do this while the corset is pinned onto a doll i start with a band running from centre front to centre back under the arm and i am going to work my way up to the top of the shoulder straps i pin each layer as i put it on the corset and hand sew it to the corset all along the edges each following layer will slightly overlap the previous finally after lots of hours of small handsewn stitches i m left with something like this now it s time to finish of all the edges of the corset i usually use a pre fabricated satin bias band for this or you can make your own out of any fabric you want in this case i ll do both let s start with the top that is going to be pre fab black satin remember before you do this step it is still possible to shorten and trim the corset now it is also time to sew the front and back shouder straps together this is very straightforward but dont take the easy way out make sure there is no seam allowance showing on the inside of the finished corset so make the extra effort of seperatly sewing the outside and the lining let s attach the bias tape the reason you use bias fabric cut at a 45 degree angle onto the fabric is that it is far more adaptable to curves then straight cut fabric lets pin the bias tape to the corset like the pictures below and sew it to the corset directly through the fold line and remember to leave an extra bit of tape at beginning and end important take extra care at centre front and centre back the tape should look symmetrical and should start at exactly the same point otherwise you ll end up with a crooked looking corset armholes like this corset has are extra tricky since they are all curve it s trial and error with this sooner or later you ll get the hang of it i ve done this so much but even i need to redo every now and again to get it just right look for instance at the next picture the bia tape on the left shoulder has folds creases this means i ve sewn it on to tight and that the bias tape has lost it s flexibily at this point so unfortunately i need to take it off and re attach it once you are satisfied with the result trim the edges of the coret some more and after they are all even flip te band over to the inside and pin take extra care when pinning the beginning and end parts now the next thing a lot of people do is to use the sewing machine to sew though the bias tape i personally hate doing it since i think that sewing this bit by hand creates a lot nicer effect attention is in the details so take out your needle and thread and sew it all together finally it should look something like this next we re going to tackle the bottom of the corset and for this i m going to make my own bias tape out of the same pink ilk the corset is made of i ve cut a couple of long strips of fabric assembled from various pieces which are all cut on the bias 45 degree angle and i am going to use a specialist tool for turning it into bias tape first i cut a slight poit to one of the ends of the strip this makes it easier to get throught the tool and pull it along the fabric strip ironing it as i go finally it looks like this from then on it is the same process as discribed before and after some elbow grease the main body of the corset is 99 finished let s continue posted by mr seamstress at 3 37 pm 1 comment assembling the corset 2 okay now it s time to fix the outer layer and lining layer together but before we do this it might be best to try on the corset to check how it is going to fit since this is the last time you ll be able to make any alterations this step in making the corset will consist of hand sewing and is a time consuming step however i do recommend it since it makes the difference between a poor and a superb corset take a needle and some thread in a contrasting color and hand stitch the seams of the outside to the corresponding seams of the lining see the picture below okay once you ve done this step it s time to sew them together by machine there are a couple of options here which you can use to your own discretion the decision you ll have to make is where the bones will be placed allong the seams would you like to have the bone to the left right or centered under the seam once you ve decided this you can start sewing i ve decided to make a mix of left and right of the seam but none of my bones will be placed directly under the seam so in the following pictures i m sewing a line 2mm 1 8 inch to the side of my seams once you ve done all this you can remove the hand sewn thread or you can do this at a later state but it has lost it s function now now it s time to sew the first boning channel sew the channel a slightly bit wider then the bone but not to wide it should be nice and snug which will look nicer and it will make your corset less succeptable to wear and tear you can use a piece of boning to check the width of the channel but do not insert it yet that would make the corset harder to sew insert the bones only after you ve finshed with all the boning channels you ll end up with something like the picture below that was the easy part now we ll put in some boning channels that won t run next to a seam line this is one of the hardest steps to do since it is extremely difficult to get it just right first decide where you ll want your bones to be placed once you ve decided take out your needle and thread again and baste down a line on the exact spot where you ll want the boning channel to run like the picture below and use that line as a gauge to sew the boning channel and you ll end up with something like that s starting to look okay however i don t like those big empty spaces next to the centre front i think i ll put in an exta set of boning channels in to even it out and now i have now it is finally time to insert all the boning and take extra good care of capping your spiral bones use two pairs of pliers to attach them securely after you ve boned the whole corset put it on a doll so you can admire your handywork let s continue posted by mr seamstress at 1 13 pm 2 comments wednesday june 10 2009 assembling the corset 1 okay now lets put all the pieces together we ll start with the outer layer take either your front or back pieces with the respective closures already sewn in see previous posts and pin the corresponding outer pattern pieces to it i usually start with the front pieces as you can see on the pictures below take notice only pin the outer layers together do not pin the lining pieces yet see picture below pin it so that the bottom and top of the corset line up notice in the picture above that the right seam does not line up correctly now this isn t such a huge problem on its own but if every seam has this difference your garment will eventually come out crooked so in this case let s re pin it once everything is pinned right you can sew it together okay let s see what we ve got inside and out let continue and repeat these steps for the rest of the pattern pieces in this case my corset has shoulder straps if yours has to do not sew these together yet allow the corset to lie flat while you re still working on it once you ve got all the outer layer pieces together press the seams open let s lay it flat and see what we ve got now let s continue with attaching the lining pieces you basically follow the same process as you did when assembling the outer layer i personally like to sew the lining seams with a allowance 2mm or 1 8 inch bigger then the outer layer this creates a tighter lining and a nicer fit once you ve attached closed all the seams you ll end up with a corset turned inside out see picture below before we turn the right side out press the seams flat again after you ve done this take a pair of scissors and trim the seam allowance lining only now take the same pair of scissors and make little cuts in all of the seam allowances at the waist and breast area see picture below be carefull not to cut to close to the seam notice my cuts are never directly opposite eachother on the same seam okay let s turn this baby inside out and put it on a doll to see what we ve got that s already starting to look like a corset okay let s continue posted by mr seamstress at 1 19 pm 1 comment labels assembly corset doll lining press seam older posts home subscribe to posts atom rate my blog on followers blog archive 2009 19 november 2 paper dresses hairspray musical july 4 june 2 april 5 january 6 about me mr seamstress as of 2009 i wil have reached the big 30 i m currently living in my home town amsterdam i occupy an appartment in the city although i live alone at the moment i do however have a boyfriend during the evening i work in theatre as a costumer dresser currently i m attached to the national production of les miserables view my complete profile