Working with Layers in Corsetry

Fusing versus Roll-Pinning

by Barbara Pesendorfer
Intro
If you want to create corsets with more than one layer, there are different
ways of assembling these layers, in order to achieve a smooth and wrinkle-
free surface.

In this tutorial I‘m showing you my favourite methods like roll-pinning and
fusing and explain which method I would choose for different materials.

Of course there are various other methods to assemble corset layers and it‘s
totally fine if you have found different ways that work well for you.
I personally achieved the best results with roll-pinning or fusing however and
I‘ve been using one of these methods for all the multi-layer corsets I have
made over the past years.

1) Suitable Materials
Before I go into cutting and marking, I‘d like to briefly talk about what ma-
terials I am using for most of my multi-layer corsets.

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- Strength Layer:

For single layer corsets I mostly use

sturdy corset fabrics like spot broche
or heavy coutil.
For corsets where I want to put a
fashion fabric on top of the strength
layer I prefer softer and lighter fa-
brics though.

In the past I mostly used the stan-

dard herringbone coutil from Vena
Cava for this purpose.

A few years ago however I discovered

Various coutil qualities from Vena Cava
the soft cotton coutil from Whaleys
Bradford, a well-known fabric sup-
plier based in the UK.

It is significantly softer than the

coutil fabrics I have found from
Vena Cava or Sew Curvy and it has
become my favourite material for
strength layers in corsetry.

You can find it under the name

Coutil Cotton TB206 (Soft) in the
colours white, natural and black at
www.whaleys-bradford.ltd.uk
Coutil Cotton TB206 (Soft) from Whaleys Bradford

For garments that I want to be even softer, like long corset gowns or corset
bodysuits, I sometimes also use a very fine and densly woven cotton drill.

It isn‘t as sturdy as coutil, but if your garment doesn‘t have a dramatic waist
reduction, that isn‘t a problem in my experience.

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- Outer Layer / Fashion Fabrics:

I have used almost any fabric you

could imagine as outer layer for cor-
sets and I think with a good strength
layer as base most fabrics can be
used for corsets.

Traditional choices would be silk or

high quality synthetic fibre materi-
als like satin or duchess, jacquard
or brocade fabrics, plain or printed
cotton, taffetas, etc..

Traditional fabrics like duchesse, jacquard, silk and satin

With the right techniques however
you can also use materials like lea-
ther, PVC, velvet, beaded or sequin-
ned fabrics, lace, wool and even
stretch fabrics from jersey to span-
dex as fashion layer for corsets.

Some of these materials might be

quite difficult do work with or re-
quire a lot of time in order to lie
smooth and wrinkle-free, but that
doesn‘t necessarily exclude them as
fashion fabrics for your corsets.

Synthetic leather, cord velvet, PVC, metallic spandex

As so often I would recommend testing your materials to find out how well
you can stitch, press or cut it.

- Linings:
My favourite material for linings is a plain lightweight cotton fabric, that is
easy to work with and also quite affordable.

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 I use it in black for black or dark
coloured corsets, in cream for white
to light coloured corsets and some-
times also in bright colours, if black
or cream doesn‘t match so well.

If you prefer a smoother and softer

lining I can also recommend cotton
sateen or the luxury option of silk as
lining fabric.

Cotton, cotton sateen and printed patchwork cotton

Some of my colleages also use fabrics with fancy prints or a specific colour
or pattern as signature lining for their brand.

As you can see, there are many options and the only thing I personally find
important is choosing natural fibre that feels good on the skin and doesn‘t
get itchy or sweaty while you wear it.

- Fusible Web for bonding Layers:

There are different brands and quali-

ties of fusible web available in diffe-
rent countries.

Here in Austria I buy a noname pro-

duct from the local supplier „Textil
Müller“, but I have also worked with
Vliesofix from Freudenberg (easy to
find, but more expensive).

Other similar products I have seen

online are Wonder-Under, Bondaweb,
Fusible web
Wonderweb or Wundaweb.

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All of these products have in common, that you can use them to permanent-
ly bond two layers of fabric and treat them as one layer afterwards.

However not all fabrics take in the glue of the web well enough for corsetry
purposes and not all webs are strong enough, so I would again recommend
testing the web with the strength layer and fashion fabric you want to use
and see if the layers stay bonded or start to separate with movement.

- Fusible Interfacings:

Very thin and slippery fashion fa-

brics or very loosely woven materials
can be backed with fusible inter-
facing in order to make them less
slippery or fragile, before attaching
them to your strength layer.

I sometimes use this technique for

very thin silk satins or for very loose-
ly woven brocades.

Fusible stretch interfacing and fusible weft interfacing

For silk satins I prefer a very light stretch interfacing, that doesn‘t show
through the fabric and is quite soft and flexible thanks to its stretch cha-
racteristics.

For heavier fabrics I prefer a non stretchy weft interfacing, which I would
normally use for coats. It‘s heavier than stretch interfacing, but still very
soft and flexible.

That is important, because stiffer fusible interfacings could make your fa-
shion fabric „cardboard-like“ and stiff, so it wrinkles easily and is harder to
press into a smooth shape.

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2) Preparing the Layers
I always start with marking and cutting the coutil strength layer, as this is
the layer that gives the corset its shape.

Here I am extra careful with marking the seamlines, paying attention to the
grainline and transferring markings like waistline or bust point from the pa-
per onto the fabric panels.

Laying out the paper pattern on the coutil, carefully tracing around each panel and transferring all markings

I have been trained to work with patterns that don‘t include seamallowances
and to add them individually as needed during the cutting process.

However if you are used to working with patterns that include seamallo-
wances, feel free to do what you are most comfortable with.

I usually add 1cm / 0.4“ seamallowance along the vertical seamlines and at
the top and bottom edge of each panel.
At the center front I use 2cm / 0.8“ seamallowance to cover the busk.
At the center back I use 5cm / 2“, so I can fold it in twice and topstitch it
into a lacing panel.

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Seamallowances I would suggest for a traditional corset

In the left picture you can see that

I have aligned the waistline of my
pattern exactly with the grainline of
the coutil.

If you have a modern hourglass

pattern with straight, vertical pa-
nels, that kind of grainline gives the
smoothest result in my experience.

I always mark the waistline on my

strength layer panels, but it doesn‘t
automatically mean that the waist-
Waistline perfectly aligned with the grain of the fabric
line has to be exactly on grain.

For corset patterns with slightly slanted or diagonal seamlines it might im-
prove the fit to rotate these panels forward.

This has been done in a lot of historical corsets and I also experimented
with different grainlines myself. The following picture shows an overbust
corset with slightly diagonal panels on the front and how I have rotated them
to reduce wrinkles:

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Adjusting the grainline on the slightly diagonal front panels, so they mold better to the body.

With the waistline slightly on the

bias the fabric can mold better
around the curves of the waist and
hips and cause less wrinkling there.

I have made good experience with

rotating the waistline by about
1cm / 0.4“ upwards on one side, but
if you want to make sure to get it
right, I would recommend testing it
with a mock-up.

Rotating the panel forward by 1cm

Apart from transferring the waistline I also trace the positions of any boning
channels in the middle of panels from the paper to the coutil.
Then I cut all pieces.

Depending if your coutil has a warped or perfectly straign grainline, you

might be able to cut both sides of the corset at once by putting the fabric on
the fold. If the grain is warped due to production issues, I personally prefer
to cut the layers separately, so I can exactly match the grain on every panel.

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 The lining I cut exactly the same
way as the strength layer, also using
the same grainline.

Only on the center back I go with

1cm / 0.4“ seamallowance instead
of the 5cm, because the lining
doesn‘t have to be folded in for the
lacing panel.

Also I don‘t transfer the waistline

and the bone positions to the lining.

Cutting the lining in the same way as the strength layer

For the fashion layer I don‘t use the paper pattern. Instead I use the cut and
marked coutil pieces and lay them out on the fashion fabric, so the grainline
matches. Then I cut exactly around each panel.

Coutil panels layed out on the fashion fabric Cutting out the fashion fabric

Since the fashion fabric will be roll-pinned or fused to the strength layer
and then treated as one, it doesn‘t need any markings on it.

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 If you want to bond your fashion and
strength layer by fusing, you also
have to cut the fusible web now.

I always make sure to cut the web a

bit smaller than the coutil and outer
layer, so the glue doesn‘t stain the
iron / fusing press.

Fusible web doesn‘t have a grainline

and you can also cut both sides of
the corset at once by putting two
layers of web onto each other.
Two layers of fusible web stacked on top of each other

For this layer I also use the cut and

marked coutil panels as guideline.
I put the coutil panel underneath
the web and then cut around each
panel slightly inside, in order to get
slightly smaller web panels.

Since there is no grainline and no

right or wrong side, you can flip and
turn the panels, to create as little
waste as possible.

Cutting the web panels slightly smaller than the coutil panels

If you want to use roll-pinning to assemble your layers, you don‘t need the
fusible web, but you might want to reinforce your fashion fabric with fusible
interfacing instead.

In that case I would cut the interfacing exactly the same way as just ex-
plained: Two layers at once and slightly smaller than the strength layer.

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3) Fusing Fabrics

Fusing the fashion fabric to a

strength layer of coutil is my favou-
rite and most frequently used way of
working with layers in corsetry.

It works well for soft fabrics like

satin, cotton sateen or jacquard,
but also stretch fabrics like jersey
or spandex and even some types of
lightweight leather or leatherette.

I personally love this technique, as

Coutil strength layer, fusible web and fashion fabric
you get one smoothly bonded layer,
that doesn‘t shift or wrinkle, compa-
red to basted layers of fabric.

The downside is that fusing can

make certain fabrics quite stiff, so
it tends to crease and doesn‘t shape
and press as well anymore.

For example a lot of silks like dupio-

ni, shantung or taffetas get very stiff
through fusing.

Smoothly fused layers

Using softer coutil qualities like the TB206 from Whaleays does help with
this issue, but you might still need some skill and patience to achieve a
wrinkle-free and nicely shaped result in these materials.

Another downside is, that not all materials can be fused.

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A lot of leathers and synthetic leathers, nylon or other plastic materials
would melt or get damaged through the heat and pressure and other materi-
als like brocade or velvet might loose their volume or luster.

For these materials I would recommend the more timeconsuming technique

of roll-pinning the layers, which I will explain in the next chapter.

But now back to fusing fabrics:

Once all panels are cut, the first

step is to put the layers in the cor-
rect order.

The markings on the coutil layer

have to face downwards.

On top of it follows the fusible web

and finally the fashion fabric, with
the right side facing upwards.

At this point I also make sure to re-

Stacking the layers in the correct order before fusing
move any bits of fluff on any of the
layers - if necessary with the help of
a lint roller.

This is especially important for light

coloured fabrics, because darker
threads or hair between the layers
would very visibly show through.

I also check if the coutil or fashion

fabric has any wrinkles and if so,
I would press them out separately,
before fusing the layers.

Removing any threads, hair or fluff with the lint roller

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Once that is done, I start prepressing the layers with the iron, to keep them
securely in place when I put each panel into the fusing press.

Here you have to be careful that you

don‘t distort or shift the fashion fa-
bric into wrinkles with the iron.

I would recommend to place the iron

onto the fabric from the top, instead
of moving the iron from one side to
the other.

Also I would suggest to start in the

middle of each panel and then move
towards the edges.
Securing the layers with the iron before the fusing process

That allows you to gently push ex-

cess fabric to the outside, instead
of creating a bubble or crease in the
middle of panels.

During this step you don‘t have to

apply much pressure with the iron.

The glue of the fusible web should

just slightly melt, so the layers stick
together and can‘t shift anymore.

Moving from the middle of the panel towards the edges

Prepressing takes some time, but it‘s much better to invest that time now,
instead of having a distorted or creased fashion layer on top of your coutil
later, which is very hard to correct.

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 In case you should get a crease or
bubble in your fabric anyways, you
can still correct it at this stage.

If you gently steam the creased or

bubbly area, the glue will soften
again and you can pull the fashion
fabric off the coutil.

Afterwards try to repress it without

the crease or bubble.

Gently removing a creased area to reattach it wrinkle-free

In some cases it might be easier to

remove the complete panel, press
the fashion layer flat on its own and
then retry the whole process.

Once you have secured your layers,

you can start the fusing process.

This can be either done by hand

with an iron or - which I can very
much recommend - by using an in-
dustrial fusing press.

Prepressed panels, ready for fusing

The most important thing when fusing layers is properly melting the glue
and creating a permanent bond between the layers, that can withstand the
movement and warmth of the body longterm.

If the layers are not properly bonded, they might start to separate and bub-
ble in some areas or create wrinkles.

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The three factors that will determine the success of the fusing are heat,
time and pressure.

Any fusible web should come with instructions for the temperature you
should choose on your iron and also how long you have to press, to properly
melt the glue and bond the layers.

The web I am using for example requires 140° Celsius to properly melt and
at least 15 seconds of pressing in one area to bond the layers.

It‘s really important to follow these guidelines, otherwise the layers might
again start to separate and bubble or wrinkle after some time.

- Fusing with an Iron:

If you don‘t have access to a fusing

press, you can still bond layers ma-
nually with an iron.

The tricky part here is, to apply

even pressure to all areas of the
fabric for the required time.

Considering that most fusible webs

need 15 - 20 seconds to melt, that
can take quite a while and also a bit
of endurance in your arms.

Fusing with an iron

Steam can help to speed up the process, if your fashion fabric and type of
fusible web tolerates steam.

In that case I would steam each area properly, to melt the glue and then -
without any further steam - press down to set the glue and bond the fabric.

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As explained in the prepressing step, I would again put the iron onto the la-
yers from above and press down in one spot, instead of moving the iron from
one side to the other.

Once you have finished a panel, it‘s really important to let it completely cool
off in a flat position, before handling it again.

Pressing down onto the layers from the top Letting the fused panels completely cool off in a flat position

The fabric layers will set in the position they have while cooling off.
So if you put them on an uneven surface directly after fusing, you will end
up with wonky and disformed panels.

- Fusing with a Press:

Industrial fusing presses are very expensive, heavy and require space.
For hobby makers and even professionals, who don‘t regularly use fusing in
their projects, I would say it doesn‘t really make sense to get your own fu-
sing press.

If you are living in an area with other fashion businesses, you might be able
to find a shared space or company, where you can get access to a press.

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 If you are a student at fashion
school or university (or have been in
the past), you might be allowed to
bring your personal projects to the
student workshops and use a fusing
press there.

Or maybe you can find a local fa-

shion business, that owns a press
and lets you use it every now and
then for smaller projects...

Industrial fusing press with medium sized pressing area

Even if you don‘t have the funds and space for a fusing press, you might
be able to find access to one and it will make the process of bonding layers
much faster and easier for you.

I personally have invested in a press

after a few years in business, as I
regularly use it for my corsets.

It‘s a machine with a quite small

pressing area (40cm x 50cm) from
the italian company Comel.
As a reference it cost about 1600
Euro back in 2011.

If you have access to a fusing press,

you will still have to prepress the
layers with the iron, so they don‘t
Industrial fusing press setup in my studio
accidently shift in the press.

Once that is done, you have to choose the right settings on the press to
match your materials.

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 My default settings for corsets with
very thin fashion fabric (silk, satin,
dutchess) are a temperature of
120° C, a pressing time of 20 se-
conds and the strongest pressure
setting my machine has to offer,
which is 4 out of 4.

If I fuse softer or more voluminous

fabrics (wool, brocade, leather), I
would go down with the temperature
and pressure.

Adjusting the settings on the fusing press

Definitely do a few test samples, before fusing the original panels, so you
can find out which settings work and look best for your material.

After the machine is set, you can

switch it on and let it heat up to
working temperature.

I would also recommend to check

the pressing plates for glue residue,
loose threads, crumbs, etc. and re-
move them, so they don‘t end up on
your fabric.

Then I put the first panels into the

press with the coutil facing down
and the fashion fabric facing up.
Cleaning the press before putting in the panels

The cover of the pressing area has a bit of a grain, which I don‘t want to
transfer onto the fashion fabric. The upper plate of my press is quite smooth
though, so it wouldn‘t emboss any structure into the fashion fabric.

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Now it‘s time to close the lid and bond the layers.

Putting the corset panels into the press Fusing in progress

After the full 20 seconds I carefully remove the panels and put them on a
flat surface to cool off and set.

Bonded fabric layers after the fusing process Close-up: Fused layers

Now the corset panels can be treated as one layer and you can move on as-
sembling the pieces with your preferred technique.

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4) Roll-pinning Fabrics
Roll-pinning is the traditional tech-
nique of combining two layers of
fabric, so they can be treated as one
layer afterwards.

I would recommend this technique

for any fabric that can‘t be ironed
very well, like brocades, quilted fa-
brics, wool with a certain amount of
volume, most leathers and synthetic
leathers, silk velvet, etc..

In general this technique works for

Roll-pinning two layers of fabric
almost any fashion fabric.

If you want to stick to traditional

methods in your projects, or you
don‘t have access to fusible web and
a press, you can also roll-pin satin,
cotton, lightweight synthetics, etc..

I personally find it more difficult to

roll-pin thin and lightweight mate-
rials though, as they tend to wrin-
kle a lot and it is hard to achieve a
smooth corset surface with this kind
of materials.
Corset made from quilted fabric with the roll-pinning method

With patience and practice you can however achieve just as smooth and
wrinkle-free results as with fusing.

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Roll-Pinning either can be done by pinning the layers together or by handba-
sting them with a running stitch.
For corsetmaking I would definitely recommend the latter, as it is quite in-
convenient to handle panels with a lot of pins in it.

In the picture below you can see a technical drawing of two roll-pinned cor-
set panels, to illustrate the principle.

Cross section view of roll-pinned corset layers

As you can see the outer layer needs more width compared to the inner la-
yer, so it lies flat and smooth once the seamallowances are turned.
If both layers are assembled lying flat on the table, the outer layer would be
too small on the finished corset, causing wrinkles in the strength layer.

That means the right amount of ease has to be worked into the outer layer,
to make the corset lie smooth against the body in the end.

That ease in the fashion fabric is especially important for the curved parts of
a corset (bust and hips).
Round shapes increase the difference between the two layers, so these areas
need slightly more width in the outer layer than for example the waist.

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As with many techniques there are different ways to roll-pin fabrics.
I learnt my own method during my training as traditional tailor and have ad-
apted it for corsetmaking over the years with good results.

Because of that background I like

to work with a tailor‘s ham for roll-
pinning, to work the desired shape
into the panels.

If you don‘t have a tailor‘s ham, you

can alternatively use a solid cushion
or another solid round shape.

The better the curves of the ham or

object match the curves of your fi-
nished corset, the better it will work
for roll-pinning.
Big torso-shaped tailor‘s ham

I begin the roll-pinning process in the same way as explained for the fusing
technique, by placing both layers on top of each other and removing any
threads, lint and wrinkles.

Then I start with hand basting the

center front and center back line in
the first and the last panel.

I also find it helpful to mark and

secure the waistline with running
stitch on all panels.

That helps to keep the grain straight

and to prevent the layers from shif-
ting during the next steps.
Basting center front, center back and waistline

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 Then I place both layers on the
tailor‘s ham in a way that the curves
match the curves of the body.

That means the hip area should sit

on a very round part, whereas the
waist area should sit over a curved
inwards part of the tailor‘s ham.

With a cushion you can only do the

convex areas, but it‘s still better
than basting it flat on the table.

Placing both layers on a tailor‘s ham

Once both layers lie smoothly on top of each other, I start basting them to-
gether with a row of pad stitching across the panel. That way you can secure
the layers and work the shape and necessary ease into the layers.

Pad stitching through both layers in vertical rows The shape and extra ease is worked into the layers.

Afterwards I carefully remove both pieces from the tailor‘s ham and put
them on the table, with the fashion fabric facing downwards.

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Here it is important NOT to smooth out the layers, as they already contain
some extra width from the curves of the tailor‘s ham.

The next step is working additional

width for each seam into the fashion
fabric. This is done by folding the
seamallowance over, while basting
the layers together.

Holding the seamallowance in a

folded position while basting makes
the outer layer wider than the in-
ner strength layer and adds just the
necessary amount of ease to your
fashion fabric.

Folding the seamallowance over during basting

This procedure of “rolling” the seamallowance over during basting is also

the origin of the term “roll-pinning”.

Another tip is to baste slightly out-

side of the seamline.

That way the thread doesn‘t get

caught in the seam and won‘t be
visible from the outside later.

On the top and bottom edge of the

corset however I do baste directly
on the line to mark the edge of the
finished corset on the outside.

This comes in quite useful when

Basting slightly outside of the seamline at the vertical seams,
trimming the edges of the corset
but basting exactly on the seamline at the top and bottom.
later during construction.

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 Now you can work around each pa-
nel, always folding over the seamal-
lowance at the vertical seamlines,
until all pieces are done.

On the table any of these pieces

should be curved instead of lying
flat on the surface, due to the extra
width added by the rollpinning.

Now you can treat the layers as one

piece and go on with the construc-
tion of your corset as usual.
Inside and outside view: Roll-pinned panels

I would stitch the panels together, remove the basted line, trim back the
seamallowance, press it open and topstitch at both sides of the seam.

Closed seamline between two panels Outside view: Finished, pressed and topstitched seam

If the layers are not perfectly smooth after stitching the panels together, you
can remove small wrinkles by gently pressing and steaming (if your fabric
can tolerates steam) the curves over your tailor‘s ham.

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The pad stitching threads can also be removed afterwards, as the layers are
locked in position by the machine seams.

Finetuning the curves with the iron over the tailor‘s ham Smoothly steampressed corset layers on the dressform

What I‘d like to show you as well at this point is the option of creating bo-
ning channels that aren‘t visible on the outside of the corset.

Roll-pinning gives you the option of

sewing boning channels only to the
strength layer of the corset instead
of stitching through all layers.

Later these seams in the middle

of panels will be covered with the
fashion fabric and therefore won‘t be
visible any longer.

For this method you have to sew in-

ternal boning channels onto the pa-
nels before roll-pinning the fashion
Invisible internal boning channels in the middle of some of
fabric to the strength layer.
the corset panels

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I use either very densly woven twill tape or readymade bone casing tape to
create such channels in the desired positions.

Marking the position of additional channels on the inside Channel stitched to the strength layer

After these channels are sewn to

the strength layer, you can add the
fashion layer on top and go on with
roll-pinning the panel as described
above.

From the outside the boning chan-

nels in the center of the panel won‘t
be visible at all.

The boning channel in the middle of the panel is invisible.

The boning channels in the seamallowances will be created later, once all
pieces are roll-pinned and sewn together with your usual preferred construc-
tion methods.

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If you prefer a structured look with visible seams anyways, just construct
your corset with the roll-pinned pieces as you normally would and then
stitch through all layers to create boning channels wherever you need them.

The roll-pinning technique also works for designs where you want to create a
semi-transparent overlay of lace, mesh, very light fabrics or draperies.

I often use roll-pinning for bridal or

evening gowns for example.

For such designs I would choose

densly woven twill instead of cou-
til as strength layer, to make the
garment less stiff and easier to wear.

For the fashion layer I find medium

weight satin or duchess very ap-
pealing, as it shimmers beautifully
through lace or mesh.

Venice lace, medium weight satin and densly woven twill

Roll-pinning three layers of fabric
at once requires a bit more patience
and practice, as there is more fabric
that could shift.

Careful pad stitching in multiple

rows throughout the panels helps to
keep the layers in position though.

I also used the technique with invi-

sible boning channels in the middle
of some panels in the blue corset
gown you can see on the left.

All layers were carefully roll-pinned, before sewing the seams.

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 Whilst the technique with the
tailor‘s ham works pretty well for
most fabrics, you might have to go a
slightly different route with leather,
synthetic leather or pvc materials.

With such materials pad stitching

through the panel would leave visi-
ble stitchmarks.

I have however found an easy worka-

round to resolve this issue:

PVC corset, constructed with the rollpinning method

Instead of pad stitching the two
layers together on the tailor‘s ham,
I use basting spray or spray glue to
keep the layers from shifting while
roll-pinning.

I have discovered 3M photomount

as a product that works well for this
purpose, if applied to the back of
the fashion fabric in a thin layer.

Some basting sprays or other brands

of spray glue might also work.

3M photomount spray glue

As always I would recommend to test the glue on a small sample, to make

sure it doesn‘t show through on the outside or even ruin the leather / pvc.

The product should keep the layers in place without leaving any marks or
sifting through the fashion fabric or strength layer.

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To assemble both materials I only place the strength layer piece on the
tailor‘s ham this time.

Then I spray the backside of the fashion layer and place it onto the coutil on
the ham, where I gently press the layers together and smooth it out.

Strength layer, placed onto the tailor‘s ham Covering the backside of the fashion layer with spray glue

Placing the fashion fabric on top of the strength layer Pressing both layers together over the tailor‘s ham

Now you can baste around each seamline as already described.

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Roll-pinning the layers slightly outside the seamline Finished panels, with the shape worked into the layers

In my experience pvc and plastic materials are less forgiving than leather
or fabrics, so it might be necessary to adjust the roll-pinning on some se-
amlines once the first panels are sewn together.

Heavier materials need even more ease in the fashion layer, which some-
times even careful roll-pinning might not provide.

For that reason I begin the corset

construction by stitching two and
two panels together, so every second
seam is still open and adjustable.

If the panels lie smoothly after stit-

ching one side, I just continue with
the remaining seams.

If the outer layer pulls on the coutil,

I unpick and roll-pin the second side
of each panel again, to work some
more ease into the materials.
Close-Up: Seam between two panels of a pvc corset

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Hidden internal boning channels can be added to leather, synthetic leather
and pvc corsets in the same way as already explained above, without chan-
ging the technique.

Before ending the chapter about roll-pinning I quickly wanted to mention

the use of fusible interfacing on your fashion layer.

As mentioned on p. 5 I like to reinforce very thin and slippery or loosely wo-

ven fabrics with fusible interfacing, to make them less slippery / fragile.

The process for this is exactly the same as described for fusing layers:
Firstly I would prepress the interfacing onto the fashion fabric with the iron
and then properly bond it with the fusing press (or iron).

Very thin silk satin, backed with fusible stretch interfacing Roll-pinning the interfaced layers as already explained

After the layers have cooled off and set, you can start the roll-pinning pro-
cess the same way as described on p. 20 ff.

I hope this guide has given you an overview of fusing versus roll-pinning and
you also got some useful tips and tricks for working with different materials.

Happy sewing and thanks for reading!

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