Having basted the seams of the outer shell and interlining together, I started looking at the hardware: busks, boning, and lacing. I immediately noticed a problem: the bones I had gotten from Corset Making Supplies were 1/4″. The twill tape was 3/4″. This is… a large gap. I raided my supplies of trim and found a navy grosgrain ribbon that was 3/8″ instead, thinking that would work…no.
In theory, possibly, it would have. But I would have to be absolutely certain to sew exactly evenly at the very edge of the ribbon. I determined (rightly, as it turned out) that I wasn’t going to be able to meet that standard. I decided to try the twill tape. I was a little concerned that it would roll inside the corset if I stitched to far way from the edge, or that the bones would move and rub against the fabric if I sewed out to the edges, but other than finding somewhere stocking 1/2″ twill tape or ribbon, I couldn’t see anything else to do.
I basted the twill tape on (ugh, more basting) and tried to insert the boning into the casing…crooked. I compared the basted trim to the outer shell’s seam, flipping back and forth between them. Then I ripped out the basting before even taking a picture. Then I tried just pin basting and sewing from the right side, using the seam line of the outer shell as a guide. I knew I had some wiggle-room in that too-big tape, so I thought maybe I could pull that off.
Reader, I promptly sewed two of the most crooked lines I’ve ever sewn.
It didn’t look much better on the front, but the fabric is black and I figured maybe it was good enough. I slid the boning through and discovered that at least I’d managed to make the channel wide enough. Which is where the next issue came in: I’d somehow managed to measure the length of boning I needed for these two channels off by at least half an inch. Even subtracting the space for the binding, these were noticeably and egregiously too short. The casing stitches were just unsightly – bones that were too short were completely unworkable.
When I went back to Corset Making Supplies to buy the two bones I needed, I decided to get 4 so I could double bone these two seams. I could theoretically double-bone two 1/4″ bones into the 3/4″ twill tape, provided I could remember how to actually, uh, sew straight.
Except 4 15″ bones are still only $4.80, and the website won’t let me place an order under $10. In theory, Shoryl doesn’t need much support, particularly in the front channels where the boning is too short. I am tempted to fall back on plastic boning, but I’m currently stuck while I try to figure out exactly what I want to do now (and unpicking the stitching on the boning channel).
A Twist of Metaphor 