Laminette: What is it for and how to sew it?

There are sewing terms you see in garment assembly instructions, tutorials... without really knowing what they are? Today, I suggest you discover minette, aminette... no, of course, we are going to talk about laminette!

Together, we will discover what laminette is, its uses, and how to sew it. Let's go!

What is laminette?

Laminette is a thin ribbon of transparent or white/black rubber, from 0.5 cm to about 1 cm wide depending on the use. This little ribbon is used in the making of knitwear, lingerie, and swimwear. This small strip helps maintain the fabric's elasticity while reinforcing it to prevent deformation caused by time and garment use. It prevents the fabric from stretching out or puckering. It is therefore used in the making of garments like t-shirts, sweatshirts, or knit dresses but also and especially in the making of underwear and swimsuits.

The different types of laminette

There are two types of laminette.
The best known and most used is the transparent laminette. It is thin and very flexible. It is the one we use for knit fabrics and for lingerie.

The other type of laminette is a bit thicker and less stretchy. It is mostly found in white or black. It is designed to resist sea salt, chlorine, and sun, unlike the transparent one. This type of laminette, as you might have guessed, is intended for swimwear.

For which garments do we use laminette and where do we place it?

As you saw above, this little transparent rubber ribbon, white/black, is used for stretch fabrics. It is essential in some cases and optional in others. Let's take a closer look!

For a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, a cardigan or a knit dress we put it in the shoulder seams and we can add some in the back neckline.

These are the sensitive points of this type of garment. All the weight of the fabric is held by these seams so to prevent your t-shirt from stretching out, seams breaking, we will use it in these seams which will be reinforced.
Be careful, for a knit dress, the use of laminette is essential because there is much more fabric weight than on a t-shirt.

For lingerie: Laminette will be useful in the neckline of a wireless bra, a bralette, on the thigh seams... Refer to the notes of the pattern you selected for your lingerie. Note that laminette supports but in no way replaces elastics!

For swimwear : If you want your swimsuit to hold, so that your chest doesn’t escape from your neckline... use laminette! Indeed, if there is one garment where laminette is indispensable, it is the swimsuit! Indeed, a swimsuit soaks up water, the fabric becomes heavy, it is subjected to tension... the fabric tends to stretch at that moment... That’s when laminette will support the seams and the shape of the swimsuit. So choose swimsuit patterns that offer laminette placement or else... don’t go in the water at the risk of losing your swimsuit!

How to sew laminette?

For my part, I sew the laminette directly with the overlocker at the same time as my seams (since we are indeed working with stretch fabrics).

There are two ways to properly apply it:

in one step: baste the seams with basting thread so that it does not move during the overlock
in two steps: stitch it with a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine on one of the shoulders and then sew the two shoulders together.