Eyelets and Tapes

Last Thursday I continued work on the corset, but apparently forgot to make an entry in the blog. I went to the mall on Wednesday night as expected, but the only store with a sewing section decided to remove majority of the stock and replace it all with knitting yarn. Annoying. So I was not able to get any twill tape or eyelets. When I got home, however, I found an unopen package of eyelets in a drawer in my room (very unexpected). I therefore I had 16 eyelets, and needed 20. Oh well.

On Thursday, I cut the bones (out of the duct ties) down to size and numbered them all. I marked out all the holes for the eyelets and put in the 16 that I had - I will still need to press them in properly though, hopefully tonight. I also managed to put in two boning channels with the twill tape I had still available. The sewing is pretty spectacularly wonky... so, eep. Hopefully it will all improve as I continute to sew them. Or maybe I just need some more pins. Well, more pins will be used anyway.

On Saturday, I managed to make it over to Fabricland (first time since October, but feels like even longer) and picked up the eyelets and twill tape I need.

My school application is almost complete and I would like to send it out by Friday! It's all getting pretty exciting!

Button, Button, Buttonholes

Day three of work on the corset. Last night I felt at I was at a standstill. I had no idea where to go from the point I was at. I made facing pieces to use to insert the busk, but was very unsatisfied with my efforts.

Today, I revaluated everything I decided to use buttonholes to insert the busk. I'd never made a buttonhole by machine before, so I spent some time reading the manual, looking at online tutorials and practicing on some scrap fabric. I felt ready. I went to put in my corset piece and make the first buttonhole. It completely screwed up. No idea why. I went back to my practice and everything was fine. I was very pissed and confused. But why I tried again on the corset it worked fine. So... not sure what that little blip was all about, but it worked out apparently.

The busk is now completely in, and it looks quite nice (except for some scratches made by my machine on the silk, but I have some ideas for covering that up).

I kept my facing pieces for the back side, and I will probably work on preping in the lacing part later on tonight. I still do not have (or have not yet found) any eyelets... however, I may be able to get some from the mall later on tonight, and if I'm really lucky, maybe some twill tape as well. All I need is some twill tape and eyelets and I'm good to go. As for the question of steel vs. duct tie boning, I've decided the duct ties should be fine, because it is very stiff from the canvas, etc.

I'm feeling much better about all this! Yay!

Stocks are Running Low

Continued work on the corset today.

Recut all the pieces in the black silk fabric and pinned them to the canvas pieces. Then pinned and sewed all the pieces together. So far so good, it would seem.

I do have a busk for the corset which is the correct size, however, I my selection of boning is quite limited. I have six bones all of varying sizes (but mostly they're all too small anyway). The pattern calls for 18 bones - 9 on each half. So that's tricky. I have duct ties, but they're rather wide, perhaps too wide. I have some twill tape for boning channels, but probably not enough. I also have no grommets... or at least, I can't find them at present.

I very much hope I won't have to end this project prematurely.

Hiatus Over, Hopefully

The long sewing hiatus that set in following Halloween was completely out of my control. Honestly. Figuring I should spend a little extra time working on assignments for the last two months of my B.A., I reluctantly too a break from everything (and let my mother tidy up the sewing mess I'd made of the dining room).

But my B.A. is done now, and so too must this hiatus end!

To ease myself back into the sewing fun, I've decided to work on the 1870s corset I started sometime during the summer. I believe I started it during a costuming sleepover, but had little opportunity to work on it since with all the craziness of Sailors, Gowns and ... well, all that.

So, basically I had all the pieces sewn together of the middle, canvas layer. Anyway, I took all that apart to rethink my plan. I'm going to attach a black silk outer layer to the canvas pieces and then sew them back together as if they were a single layer. After that I will try to sew in some boning on the inside (possibly with ribbon or twill tape), add my busk and sew the inner layer out of a nice white cotton fabric I've been saving for something like this. And then bind it altogether with some more ribbon.

Wish me luck. I'll need it.