My Corset Supply Order Arrived on Friday

 

I couldn't believe it.  My order arrived after only three days.  I was so exited to get to work on it, but I had a few other things to do first.  My Grandpa's 80th birthday party was on Saturday and I had to help with that, so I didn't get to work on my corset until Sunday. My auntie came over and sewed her muslin while I worked on mine.  First, I had to try it on again to mark the waist for the twill tape reinforcement:

I took this picture in the mirror.  You can see that without the bones the waist puckers, but it is already a pretty shape.  I think I am going to love it.

Sewing the twill tape on is one of the harder steps of this process.  You have to be careful to make it exactly the same on both sides of the corset.  It is also hard to sew the ends of the twill tape down close to the busk and back boning channels while making a strait seam.  This seam shows though because you are sewing it onto the coutil layer before you attach the lining.

Next I sewed the lining pieces together and to the coutil pieces.  You have to turn it right side out with the busk in place after ironing the whole think.  My aunt and I decided to look into getting a tailor's ham.  Ironing all those seams open on the hip and bust curves without putting in creases is challenging. The next step was to pick stitch all of the seams to keep them from moving around while I sewed the boning channels.

Here I am stitching though the seams of both layers along every seam line.  It took me over an hour.

 

Here I am sewing along the bottom edge of the corset. 

My aunt took this picture of me sewing the boning channels from bottom to top.

 

 Here I am using a seam ripper to pick the pick stitches at the seams back out after sewing the boning channels.

 

Here are the channels.

 

Here is the work station with all the supplies getting ready to start putting in the bones.

The straight steel bones went into the channels on both sides of the grommets in the back.

 

 

  My aunt helped me by measuring them and handing me the ones I needed.  I hit a major hiccup here.  I ended up two 11" bones short.  I was unable to finish the corset because of this.  To order just these two bones (sixty cents each) I will have to pay $8.95 for shipping.  It would make sense to order other things I will need for my next corset to make the shipping feel more reasonable, but I don't have the money to get all of that stuff right now. 

 

So here is where I am at, just waiting for two 11 inch bones.

It is looking very nice.

This is the lining side.  The tracing paper and tracing wheel I used to mark the boning channels worked pretty well.  There were three channels that were pretty hard to see, but I was able to make it work.

 

This is all the bones I have left over.  I am thinking about trying to cut two of these longer ones.

 

The corset supply company, corsetmaking.com, has changed the way they do the bone tips.  They dip them in a kind of epoxy resin instead of using the metal tips that you can see on the longer ones.  In theory it seems like a good idea, but the execution might be a bit lacking.  Some of them look like this:

 

The ends that look like this do not slide well into the boning channels and I really wonder how long it will take for them to wear through the coutil.  I tried not to use these ones.  I will be stabilizing the ends of the bones with embroidery to help prevent wear, but for the amount of work and money I have invested in this corset I want it to last a long time.  I have written an email to the company.  So far, I haven't heard back.

This is a picture of my calculations and measurements for the bones I needed to order.  Next time I will at least use real paper with lines instead of a scrap piece of tissue paper.

Here I was tallying the lengths I had from the silverado kit I ordered a long time ago, and figuring out what I needed to order to make the Dore.  I ordered the white straight bones for the straight channels, I ordered extra, just in case they worked in some of the other channels.  They are very inexpensive as long as you are already ordering something else, so you don't have to pay shipping.

 

When I get the bones I need, all I have to do is sew along the top edge and sew on the bindings.  I will also embroider the boning tips to add strength and durability.  I am going to do white on white, so it won't show very much, but it will add some texture. I will let you all know what I decide to do.  I am going to the hardware store to check on tool dip, that is what people suggest using to tip the spring steel bones.