Costume making tips

Farthingales is not just about selling product. You can find lots of information about making costumes and corsets on the www.farthingales.on.ca web site and you can access it from www.farthingalescorsetmakingsupplies.com to.  Just look for the "Tips n Tricks" section, you'll find it listed near the bottom on the left side of the Home Page (where the above links will take you).

Why set grommets when you can sew on Lacing Tape?

Applying Lacing Tape with Bone Casing

1. To ascertain the length of lacing tape you need, measure the back edge of your corset where the lacing tape will be sewn to. (Note: you may have to remove part of the pattern if it has the grommet section on it) You will need two times this length – one for each center back.
   
   
   
2. Open the folded edge of the lacing tape and place the lacing tape right side to right side of the corset back with raw edges together.
   
   
   
3. Stitch, following the fold line. Flip the bone casing into place and keep the raw edges (just sewn) in between the folded edges of the lacing tape.
   
   
   
4. Top stitch and you are done.
   
   
   
5. Slide in the bones of your choice 50-8206- series or 50-8308- series both fit. Bind the top and bottom edges as usual.
   
   

Make Your Own Garters

How to Make Garters

Making your own garters is simple and means you can design your own garters to!

You don't even need a sewing machine, but we've used one here.

Choose your supplies, you'll need:

• elastic (how much depends on how long you want them)
• links (these attache the garters to a garment)
• garter tabs
• slides or buckles to adjust length

I've chosen black elastic, with black links, black garters and silver buckles and I've made mine longer than most people would want.

Elastic # 47-7339-90 Garter # 91-8985-90 Link # 02-8629-90 Buckle # 91-8645-20

All you need to make a single garter, just multiply by the number of garters you want…and it’s totally your choice. Some people like just one garter per leg and some like as many as 4. We sell supplies in “half dozen” (6 pieces) so you could have 3 garters per leg.

Cut your elastic into pieces the length desired…maybe 6 inches.

Slide one end through the enclosed hole in the link and stitch it.





Slide the buckle onto the elastic with the “flap” on the “right side” or satin side of the elastic. The elastic should be between the “teeth” and the bar and not through the silver loop.





Next, hook on your garter, or if you’re not using a detachable version slide it on to the elastic.





Now take the end of the elastic (that does not have the link sewn onto it) and thread it through the back of the buckle…through the silver loop.



Sew the cut end of the elastic so that it is permanently attached to the silver loop of the buckle.





Your buckle should look like this:



Adjust the length of the garter to where you think you want it and them close the buckle “flap”.









Your garter is ready to wear. If you need to adjust the length, just open the buckle “flap” and slide the elastic to where you want it then close it.


ALLWAYS remove your garters from the garment before laundering. This is really easy when you use a “link” at the top.

You can get garter making supplies at www.farthingalescorsetmakingsupplies.com

They also sell ready made garters, sold by the 1/2 dozen.

Lace corset

I made the lace corset on a foundation of "flesh" coutil in hope that it might look like just lace on skin when on the body. And it actually does but I'm not happy with the pink lace.  The colour just isn't right but it's good to know the idea works.  It's a waist cincher corset; pink lace on flesh coutil with beige petersham bindins and pale pinl satin ribbon. The lace was bought locally and everything else came from Farthingales

Blast from the past

I hadn't looked forward to cleaning up my many memory sticks but then I discovered photos of corset we made while in L.A. for various clients....some famous and some on their way to fame.

This was a simple black waist cincher and it worked so well with the white guitar - that I had not known the client had. It was one of those moments "Couldn't have planned it better."

New Corset Copied from a Vintage One

This is one of two corsets I made recently after taking apart a vintage corset I had bought a few years ago and making a pattern from it. It was an awesome exploration process. I used fine herringbone coutil 74-1140-01 which was the exact same pattern as the vintage coutil and made mine a single layer corset just like the vintage one. The original bones were a selection of bailene and spring steel but I used spiral bones for the bailene ones. I included garters as the original had them. I tried to replicate all elements and everything but the lace came from Farthingales Corset Supplies

Ribbon Corset

I've loved this ribbon since I bought it about 8 years ago but had not come up with a project for it until I got thinking about making another ribbon corset. Don't know why I didn't think of it before. The ribbon is 2" wide so it was perfect for this project. I used green ribbon as it seemed to make the floral pattern stand out on the red ribbon. I'll be including instructions on how to make this type of ribbon corset and other types in the next book