I've set myself a few small lingerie making projects and thought I would ask if anyone had any good craft shop websites.
I'm looking for some nice cheap faux leather.
Both plastic and steel boning.
100% white silk, for painting on.
And Underwire, though I have a lot of industrial wire and wonder if this would work if heated and bent.
I haven't completely decided on my lingerie prodject ideads yet, but once I can find the following it'll help me decide what I can and can't easily make due to resources. Did do a quick search but really I have no idea which online craft shops are realible, most of my local craft and fabric shops have closed down as well, which doesn't help.
Also has anyone else experienced making there own lingerie? I think a few members make accessories?
I have a lot of books and know people who did courses years ago, but I can't seem to find any courses like this now. Anyway I'm probably going to start small and work my way up.
Oh and any other must have items, could you please let me know. Thanks
Stuid question but have you tried ebay? Can normally get just about anything off there, though they have set a rule up saying you can not sell people now but lucky pennies, half pack of fags and anything else is ok!
As for courses no idea, im sure there would be somethng on the net iff you googled lingerie making course/instructions/making
Hi there a friend of mine makes her own lingerie.... and found for the wire ect she got it chaeap from the garden centre. She found that the wire bend just perfect.
Love what your doing and trhe products your making... very interested to see this sometime
Thanks SL for the sites, and a cross stitch site is still helpful :). The type of course I was hoping to do would be smaller and shorter than a uni one. Most of the people I know who did courses in this area, did them about 10-15years ago. I've been given one of their old prodject books to look through. Basically it use to be avaible through evening classes and gave you a similar thing to an Alevel, I'm doubting that course will still be able but similar would be nice. Something which would cover lingerie history as well as patterns.
Ebays a little tricky for specialist items. I've made bears before and found it hard to actually get alot of the bits and pieces to actually make a traditional moving minture bear and had to source through small shops. There's a few things on there, such as steel boning, but this is from the USA and postage is high.
CheekySparky wrote:
Hi there a friend of mine makes her own lingerie.... and found for the wire ect she got it chaeap from the garden centre. She found that the wire bend just perfect.
Love what your doing and trhe products your making... very interested to see this sometime
hugs
Mac :) x
Hey, as your friend has used garden wire before I'm sure I'll be able to use some of the industrial wire I have.
Well only going to start off small, I have some old clothes that are no good so will use them as trail fabric for some of the ideas. If they would I will reuse the patterns on nicer fabrics.
I'd be wary of using "normal" wire as an underwire. If you do, just make sure that you seal off the end somehow so it's not sharp and doesn't end up piercing the fabric.
You can get bra underwires on eBay if you browse the crafts section, but as you said, it's from the US so postage is high. Might be worth checking any local fabric/haberdashery shops you have near you.
Any component of pre-made lingerie can be purchased to make your own. Stop by a department store that still has a sewing section if you can to see what they have - and what they're called. Knowing what name to use is half the battle in sourcing sewing supplies. %-)
A couple of useful pieces of kit for doing things like sleeves or bra cups are 1) a curved ruler (sometimes called a tailor's curve) to help you draw a smooth curve on your fabric and 2) either a tailor's ham or a sleeveboard.
A tailor's ham is a sort of rounded stuffed thing that's used for shaping, pinning into or as a base for ironing curved seams flat. A sleeve board is a miniature ironing board, also useful for getting awkward seams ironed flat. You can make your own tailor's ham too.
That kind of attention can make the finished product look much more professionally done. I don't have UK sources unfortunately, but can offer advice on things like taking patterns from existing garments. Good luck with your projects.
Found this for you. Don't know anything about the store or pricing, but it has things you might not think of like premade casing tape for underwires so worth a look at the least.
I've bought all of these things on eBay in the past :) For underwires I prefer to take them from an old bra in my size, then I know they'll fit :)
I'm not sure if I have any bras that are worn enough to be removing the wire from. Think there's only two really and one I don't want to take apart as it's my dita von teese purple bra and even though it's a little worn I have the waspie, thong, and knicker... it's probably my only complete set of lingerie.
Rosehip I think I have a tailors ham in my sewing box so will have a search, it needs sorting really before I can start any projects. I don't have a curved ruler so that's on the list.
As for normal wire I'm going to see how easy it is to work with and if it's not comfortable I'll just purchase actual underwire.... I have about 300ms of wire all different gauges so it doesn't matter if it doesn't work. After looking at some of the underwire I think I can get everything needed to seal off the sharp ends from hardwear stores.
Lovehoney - Hella Rouge wrote:
I also used to sell busks and boning from damaged corsets I'd loved and lost on ebay - best use for them :D
Hella if you are ever putting up a listing with old boning and bucks let me know :) I've only had one corset break on me so far and that was due to the postal service bending it badly, nothing was useable :/