Boning (the historical costuming kind)
It is slow, but I do continue to make incremental progress on my 18th century stays project! And by "slow", I mean that it has taken me about two years to get to this point in production. My new milestone is adding the boning to my garment!
Much like the corsets that would follow in the next century, the interior of stays are lined with stiff-but-pliable rods that shape the material and the wearer. Originally people used whale bones for this task, hence: "boning". Fortunately, we live in the future where I can leave the whales alone and just use this durable plastic strip material instead!
After sanding down the ends of my boning strips so they wouldn't punch through my fabric, I inserted them into these channels that I'd sewn into each piece of my stays. The channels varied in length, so each boning had to be cut to size.
Once all the boning was in place, I could finally add trim around the top of my stays! In my last post I was in the process of hand sewing down the trimming along the bottom edge, but I couldn't get started on the topside because... that would have closed off my entryway for inserting boning. I don't know, does that make sense? Let me know if I need to explain this better.
See those little clips holding my trimming in place? I've seen them for sale new at sewing stores for, like, $15. Guess how much I got mine for? $1. Dude, if you're crafty and you live within driving distance to Portland, please do yourself a favor and visit Scrap. They collect and resell just, like, all kinds of project-making stuff. Sewing stuff, art stuff, jewellery stuff, weird objects stuff, containers stuffs... And for so cheap. So cheap! Pennies on the dollar! Those quilters clips were brand new and I got them for a buck!
So, yeah. I hand sewed the trimming down because it'd be faster than a machine, since the edges are all swooping organic-type shapes and not straight lines (or very gently curving lines).
Here's what I've got so far! Next up: LACING. Here's what it should look like when it's all laced up and wearable:
Wish me luck!
Comments (11)
Gosh this is gonna look *so* awesome! And ooh you lucky duck, Scrap sounds awesome.
Oh man, I remember there being a trend in corsets in the New York Goth scene back in the late 90's. My GF was all about it but boy was it a drag taking her out on a date in that thing! Hopefully you'll design yours loose enough to enable you to BREATHE. Yeah, there was a reason why women were always fainting in the Victorian Era!
😂
So soon you'll be an expert in two types of boning hehe
lol
Oh this is so beautiful, it is so thrilling watching your progress and actually being able to get a good idea of what you're doing and working on due to your descriptions and photos!! Good luck on the remaining steps!!!! So close!!
There's a similar used crafting bits place in Concord, NH, great idea for a shop!
" that would have closed off my entryway for inserting boning." Perfectly understandable, like crossing your legs. Sorry, couldn't help it.
Its been really fun following you on this journey! Also, you being bold and mending your own stuff is always exactly the inspiration I need to go and do the mending waiting for me (that I don't want to do lol)
Erika's really, really good at this "recording the events" stuff, I usually just dive in and start then regret not taking photos when I'm finished.
I looove reading about this process!