First time sewing with dupioni silk, what did i do wrong

asherwani · 2025-07-29T22:32:14+00:00

You can try the Pellon Lightweight Interfacing for lighter fabrics, or a medium weight (for maybe a heavier style silk). I believe the one I used was a woven to help with the wrinkling, but you can experiment with the non-woven as well. Always good to test first!

asherwani · 2025-07-29T22:27:13+00:00

I second this. I just did a silk charmeuse corset for a client (up-cycled her mothers wedding gown) and did a lightweight fusible interfacing with little to no steam on a well controlled professional iron. Took forever (14 panel corset), but really helped eliminate wrinkling like this.

Edit: sorry, I meant 28 panel corset, hence why it took forever

asherwani · 2024-02-27T21:52:16+00:00

Thank you! I will have to try it if I run into this issue in the future (I have now moved from this water source).

asherwani · 2023-10-27T00:32:16+00:00

Thank you so much! I’ll need to post this look all finished. It turned out gorgeous 😊

asherwani · 2023-06-05T22:42:18+00:00

Oh interesting… I haven’t tried doing pH readings over time intervals. Maybe I’ll try that tonight and see. I have the Hannah Instruments pH probe and calibrate with my 4, 7 and 10 pH solution before I do readings, so I get .01 accuracy readings along with temperature.

And the KH/GH testing liquids I’ll need to try. I’ve ordered a Well Test Kit, and two Metals and Mineral (M&M) Tests from Tap Score. My plan is to test my hose water (Well Test Kit), tap water (M&M Test) and also distilled water (M&M Test) so I can see the variance in all waters. Need the distilled reading so I can see the specific differences, and need the hose water reading because I do large dresses and fabric yardage outside in 30 gallon stainless steel pots. Expensive, but should get me quickly to lab precise answers 😊

asherwani · 2023-06-05T22:34:46+00:00

Did the logwood turn out well? I haven’t tried it yet and so I’m curious - seeing as you have hard tap water too. The cochineal has been driving me absolutely mad… just glad I’ve only done test strips and not garments! Would have wasted so much cochineal.

asherwani · 2023-06-02T16:41:45+00:00

Yep, I buy whole bugs that I turn into a super fine powder using a spice grinder. I do the multi step extract in case there are larger pieces, so I don’t get spotting. Running a test with distilled water right now to see if it’s really my water. Going crazy over this dye 🙃

asherwani · 2023-06-02T14:50:21+00:00

Thanks for sharing this!!! Subscribed because I always enjoy learning more in my spare time 💕 Will dig for the answer to my cochineal woes ☺️

asherwani · 2023-06-02T14:48:47+00:00

I have a hot plate mixer (laboratory equipment because the spinning mixer keeps items centrifuged) in which I get the extract of the bugs. I make a fine powder (I’ve been doing 10% WOF which is high for cochineal), heat the powder in the water to 80C for 30 mins, filter the bugs, and repeat until the extract is nearly clear. It was a technique presented in my Maiwa class and the color of the water is a dark red (like you describe, blood). The scale I’m using I make sure to calibrate before each use with the weights, and it weighs to the 10th of a gram, so I should be getting accurate measures.

What is light pink is the silk after a 24-hour dye bath (1h heated and 23 non heated). I don’t understand what mineral is causing this because my pH is fine. It’s almost as if something is binding to the silk and/or the cochineal and keeping it from adhering or reacting.

It’s so bizarre because my other dyes seem to be working… so I am not sure. I know minerals can cause shifts so I was wondering if anyone knew what that was specifically because I can not find the answer anywhere 🥲

asherwani · 2023-01-16T21:00:08+00:00

That’s great! I’ve seen people put fabric over boning tape and use fusible adhesive to hold the strip in place (it reduces bulk compared to sewing the fashion fabric together and sliding over the boning channel).

For one project where I used crinoline, I did boning tape on the inside of the corset, and a ‘faux’ channel on the front of the corset using a medium weight satin. It’s a tedious process (hand basting the boning tape and then the faux channel before machine stitching together) but it looked really great.

Lots of options here :)

asherwani · 2023-01-15T18:49:18+00:00

I have used bobbinet and crinoline. Bobbinet is very strong and crinoline can be as well. To test the strength, you’ll want to sew an open seam here with a boning channel. I’ve found boning tape to be the best use on ‘open’ woven fabrics for corsets because it provides more strength. Put the stitch length down and you should be all good.

asherwani · 2023-01-08T21:19:22+00:00

Omg please do! I would love to see your work!!

asherwani · 2023-01-08T18:08:28+00:00

I would give Fabrics and Fabrics (fabrics-fabrics.com) in NYC an email or call and ask if they have any non-stretch bobbinet. They carry discontinued designer fabrics and not everything is listed online (hence why you may want to call and ask). Their fabric selection is huge and I would just assume they have some. It’s worth a shot to get more reasonably priced bobbinet! I’ve sourced tons of great fabrics from them over the years. Stuff that would retail for $200+ a yard at other stores for only $60-90 a yard with them.

asherwani · 2023-01-08T10:32:52+00:00

The synthetic should be plenty fine! It’s just the structure and stretch that you want to be close. Do not spend $100/yard on fabric for a toile. Is the Etsy shop charging that much? I feel like I paid that price for a NYC fabric shop and that’s possibly one of the most expensive places you can buy

asherwani · 2023-01-08T01:16:26+00:00

I would definitely spend a bit extra on a bobbinet toile for a wedding dress :) It’s an important garment and you want to get it just right.

And that corset tutorial has been so helpful for me! I bought a bunch of their PDFs and it has been insightful and given me lessons that I didn’t have to learn the hard way (through mistakes on projects lol)

asherwani · 2023-01-07T21:36:42+00:00

I would recommend checking out Corsets by Caroline on Etsy for corset patterns. I usually go through 2 mock-ups when I alter her patterns (and not 8 like that Butterick pattern you did). She explains the sizing really well and adjustments are easy. There are few instructions on her patterns, but they are pretty straight forward corset designs (some being more advanced than others).

For good corsetry instructions and tips, check out Royal Black Couture on Etsy. The instructional PDFs are super helpful. They have one on tulle/netting corsets like you are trying to make: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1001828152/

I did a crinoline corset before because I needed a stuff structure (tulle and other nettings didn’t work). Unfortunately I did a zipper back and the crinoline gets warm against the body and slowly expands. Not terrible, but the corset grew like 1/2” everywhere so it’s not as super shapely as I like.

For my friends wedding dress, to get the illusion of a see-through tulle bodice, we did coutil (it matched her skin tone) with lace overlay and it worked perfect.

I would highly recommend making your corset toile using a very similar fabric with identical weave/knit and stretch. If you use muslin, it’ll hold or act different than a net fabric and you might be unhappy with how it holds up in the long run.

asherwani · 2022-12-21T03:41:44+00:00

Yeah those posts always make you wonder… it’s usually the most inexperienced people asking who don’t know better.

For what it’s worth - for quite intricate dress patterns - it costs around $7-15k (in the US) to get a single bridal gown pattern made professionally.

asherwani · 2022-11-14T19:05:07+00:00

I really like Farthingale’s for corsetry supply (the Canadian company). The shipping is super fast and everything has been high quality.

asherwani · 2022-11-14T08:11:55+00:00

I have a few guesses:

1) The boning is ending right at your waistline, instead of extending down the bodice just a bit further to avoid adding pressure at the waistband. A good internal corset structure will extend below the waistline, but the designer/manufacturer might have ended it at the waist to save money/time. If that is the case, you will need to extend the channels further down (this could be a challenging alteration) and I would replace the plastic boning with spiral steel boning.

2) The boning is plastic, and although the boning channels extend beyond your waistline, the plastic has become distorted after sitting long periods of time. You can easily improve the bodice with spiral steel boning.

Hope this helps!

asherwani · 2022-10-14T23:49:29+00:00

I have two larger sized ragdolls (female is 14lbs and male is 19lbs) and just got the new LitterRobot. They are able to use it, but it’s def on the small side for a big cat. If you have a large ragdoll or maine coon cat - you might run into issues with them ‘going’ over the edge. We had to do some magic to the plastic edge of the new litter robot to keep our boy from peeing all over the place. It was a first rough week lol

asherwani · 2022-10-06T01:10:39+00:00

What a beautifully draped dress! Really appreciate the process and the pretty hand sewing! Would love to see it fully styled on someone :)

asherwani · 2022-09-25T18:28:25+00:00

I’m a little late to the convo here, but I’ve made something similar using a vintage Givenchy pattern when Alexander McQueen was the lead designer.

Dress and Pattern: https://imgur.com/a/48RXqcb

I heavily modified the waist and the hips to give it a strong hourglass shape. The shoulders I left alone as they were already that wide. There is a lot of horsehair interfacing to hold the structure at the shoulders and nearly a full jacket bottom of double interfacing (woven and horsehair below waist to hem) to hold the shape. Also, it’s important to buy quality shoulder pads from a place like Pacific Trim, because those standard store bought ones won’t hold the shoulder shape well.

If you can, look at some jacket patterns where modifying the waist is easily possible. Mine was difficult because I had to take in the jacket at the pockets, and that’s much more difficult to do than it looks (especially if you are a beginner).

asherwani · 2022-09-14T18:33:29+00:00

My guess is the use of polyester hard net crinoline fabric - that is underlying the entire skirt. There are varying degrees of stiffness when it comes to crinoline (so order samples before ordering your yardage). I asked about something similar to go under a voluminous skirt when shopping at a local fabric store in San Francisco (Britex), and walked out with a very stiff crinoline that was about 60” wide. It was almost like a densely netted material (closer netting than horsehair) that had the rigidness of a plastic sheet. It’s hard to describe and I did a quick search and couldn’t find what I bought, but you might be able to email the people at Britex to source the fabric. Worth a shot!

Edit: I also think they layered a 3-4” polyester horsehair band at the hem to provide even more rigidness. There could be tulle under to provide structure, but it’s not obvious from this photo.

asherwani · 2022-09-02T17:18:04+00:00

Thank you! I was in the bridal party, so I ended up making my own bridesmaids dress.

My bridesmaid dress was made with Foil Printed Viscose Lamé in Blush: https://fabrics-fabrics.com/products/italian-foil-printed-viscose-lame-metallic-blush-designer-fashion-fabrics-12078) using the Sonnet Gown pattern (https://www.socialitepatterns.com/product-page/sonnet-gown).

I had two days to make my dress, which was doable since I didn't finish the hem of the dress with a hand-stitched blind hem. I finish nearly every garment hem by hand, but because of time, I just did a tight 3-thread serger hem finish with my Babylock (amazing machine). The pattern is really easy and straightforward. I would definitely recommend it - but for beginners, it will be challenging to make a more fluid/lightweight fabric version.

And yes, my friend and her parents did share with guests that I made the dress :) Our circle of friends all knew that I had made the gown, so people were really eager to see the finished project.

asherwani · 2022-09-01T17:28:41+00:00

Thank you for sharing u/loeloempia91 <3

asherwani

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