Today we will add the bone casings. Sewing separate bone casings is not difficult at all, and once you know how to do it you can add extra casings to any corset with no problem. Place the pattern piece on the corresponding panel of the corset and mark the center of the casing at the top and bottom edges.
Pin the casing in place at the top of the corset.
Then pull the corset so it lies flat and continue pinning the casing in place from the top down. The casing will always be in straight line once the fabric is pulled taut even if it curves on the pattern. My casings are still strips of bias coutil, I just covered them with colored bias tape so they would be fancy.
On casings that hold two bones sew right down the center from top to bottom. Then sew 1/16 from each edge. If you make it a generous 1/16 inch that's OK. Use a longer stitch length than was used to sew the body of the corset. It makes it much easier to sew.
On the casing that holds the single 1/2 wide bone sew 1/8 inch from each edge.
The stitches will show from the front so take your time and sew steadily. Here is one of my finished casings so you can compare it to the one on the post Edwardian corset I showed you yesterday.
If you are new to corset making sew the back channels first and the front ones last. That way your neatest casing will be at the front of the corset and any wobbly lines will be more hidden.
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I love following your work. But I'd like to ask you to allow full viewing through RSS. Your photos newer show up in my reader.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bummer :)
Seconded!
DeleteI'll figure out exactly what that means and how to do it then!
DeleteIn Blogger, go to Settings->Site Feed->Allow Blog Feeds and click to "Full". That will publish the full post on RSS feeds. Or, at least, it should ;)
DeleteThank you! I made the change. You should be able to get everything now.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteSeeing that you have assembled your corset, and seeing the lovely print from the inside is quite a tease. I can't wait to see the outside!
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm caught up! I put my boning casings in last night. But I used the pre-made 1/4" casings, which I just sewed down the sides of each (no going down the center like in your example), and I found that I got lazier as I got to the end, so my first lines were prettier than my last ones. :( I'm just backwards!
ReplyDeleteNow I'm going to be behind again as I do a major cleaning of my house so I can find my missing stays, or I'll have to tear one or two of my (now too large) corsets apart...which will be just as much work I think.
where the corset boning to be set for the edwardin?
ReplyDeleteIt is indicated on the pattern. There is a 1/4 inch bone on the side of the first, second, and fourth seams. A 1/2 inch bone next to the third seam, and two 1/5 inch bones next to each other in the center of the third panel.
DeleteI've been wondering... is there any reason why the bones which follow the seam lines couldn't be inserted into the flatfelled seam allowances? Assuming the flat-fell was made wide enough to accommodate them.
ReplyDeleteFor a corset I do not intend to wear much, it seems to me this would save time and work. It may not have been a 'period' technique, because original corsets were expected to be worn every day, but is there any significant structural or comfort reason why I shouldn't do this on a "once-in-a-while" corset?
In theory this could work on one or two of the seams, but the others are quite curved and the flat bones would twist to make the curve, which would hurt. Spiral boning could be used to solve that problem, but the biggest reason is that for the fabric to be evenly supported around the corset the boning should run vertically at more or less consistent intervals. With the diagonal seams and complicated gores used at the turn-of-the-century boning could not always travel through the allowances, and even if it did that meant some areas might not have boning to maintain the fabric's shape, so separate casings had to be used. When you have a pattern with only three seams,like the one you are using, a single bone in each seam probably won't give the support desired so separate casings will have to be added anyway. But you can always try and if you find you need more boning you can add it later.
DeleteThanks! That makes sense.
ReplyDeleteMy pattern pieces are fairly "barrel-shaped" after all, so there are no curved seams which are dramatically curved, just gentle curves.
Even if it spares my making just some of the bone-casings, that's that much less bias to cut and press, etc...
But OTOH I wonder if the loss of the extra rows of stitching would make much difference? The stitching itself does add some stiffness.