New day, even more topstitching. All the boning channel tapes are attached and properly sewn on two sides, and some of them are also sewn in the middle, thus creating two channels for the tiny little narrow synthetic whalebone.
Next: Unpicking all the bits I had to redo because it's kind of hard to tidily sew through so many layers of coutil and the thick tape, and also the basting threads.
Sini Tuulia
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •An ode to petersham binding instead of bias binding! Not only can you get petersham in almost any fibre you like, it's also much thinner and quite malleable, so you can stretch and squish it together like bias binding without all the bulk. This viscose one I'm using is also very pretty and you don't need to pin it to sew it on, at all. Just keep one edge on a line of stay-stitching or drawn line a distance from the raw edge, flip, stitch again, done!
#Sewing
Sini Tuulia
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •In any case, the top binding of the corset is in place, and I just need to finish a couple of the thread ends while I further procrastinate on preparing and putting in any of the boning. Not today!
#Sewing #TheTweeEmmaCorset
Leaping Woman
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Leaping Woman • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •But yeah! Measured shorter than the finished channel, slipped into the boning tape, jiggled into place. Done.
Sini Tuulia
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Adriano
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Adriano • • •Adriano
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Lauma Pret 🕸️
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Lauma Pret 🕸️
in reply to Lauma Pret 🕸️ • • •I mean, she is a pro + she works in a big sewing supply shop, why not?
Well... those cutters didn't not work! She went to sharpen them and the person sharpening them explained that no, it is not gonna work ever. Because random craft store cutters are softer than stainless steel corset bones. I'm not sure how she did it, but I'm planning to take leftover boning and visit a shop where construction tools are sold to buy myself a proper steel cutters.
Honesty found it delightful.
Sini Tuulia
in reply to Lauma Pret 🕸️ • • •@laumapret I've used spiral steel before and do put in like two flats per every "whalebone" corset, they're just visually thicker (I think the narrowest is 7mm and usually they're wider than that, you can get the whalebone in 3mm and 5mm and wider) and feel a bit different. The spiral steel is much grippier than the whalebone so it's harder on the hands if your boning channels are a bit snug? I've also done the big roll of steels, and while the cutting is possible with some decent hardware aisle cutters it's not so nice on the hands, and what I really struggled with was putting on the end caps nicely. There's a specific pliers for that you sometimes see sold, but that's even more tools. 😄
I wouldn't want to do it with a Karvinen in the space though, that's a lot of tiny metal bits for him to consume.
Sini Tuulia
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Sini Tuulia • •Sini Tuulia likes this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Lauma Pret 🕸️ • •@Lauma Pret 🕸️ @Sini Tuulia I've bought some cheap cutters from the hardware store designed to cut steel wire, and they make a big difference in how easy dealing with spiral steel boning is, even if they are very much not top of the line tools or anything.
for flat steels I still tend to use a dremel-like power tool (or ideally, get somebody else to use a dremel for me :D ) to cut and sand down the edges, but that's helped by the fact that we do have such a tool at home for various other reasons
I'm still using the two regular pliers and lots of cursing (the latter is an integral part of the procedure, right?) for the end caps, because being multicraftual (in a multicraftual household) means that we have lots of multipurpose tools, but I don't do enough corsets to justify yet another single purpose one.
like this
Sini Tuulia e Lauma Pret 🕸️ like this.
Sini Tuulia
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla'' • • •Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Lauma Pret 🕸️
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •As I do not own any Karvinens, I was thinking that generic steel wire cuters might find some use in this household. Maybe my SO also needs to cut some wires or smth... but dremel seems a bit excessive. Then again, there are several HEMA people in my DnD guild, I think they had at least one dremel between all of them for swords. Next time I might ask them...
Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
Elena ``of Valhalla''
in reply to Lauma Pret 🕸️ • •@Lauma Pret 🕸️ @Sini Tuulia not a real dremel, a dremel-like tool (bought for 25 € :) ), which arount here gets used mostly to cut various things for creative or repair purposes (PCBs, tubes and strips of plastic and metal, etc.)
but if you can get access to a shared real dremel that's even better!
Sini Tuulia likes this.
c.reider :queer_cat_nonbinary:
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to c.reider :queer_cat_nonbinary: • • •Elena ``of Valhalla'' likes this.
c.reider :queer_cat_nonbinary:
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •do you know we cannot easily find petersham in USA? i don’t even think we have any manufacturers of it.
unfortunately, it is “translated” as grosgrain but USA polyester grosgrain isn’t knitted. it’s plastic fiber molded to look like petersham.
bought two rolls following instructions for a UK-produced pattern, without knowing anything about the original (English is my 2nd & sewing in the Caribbean is different).
USA sewing culture has been ruined by petroleum products.
@sinituulia
Sini Tuulia
in reply to your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 • • •@blogdiva Oh heck, what 😓 Grosgrain is not the same! It's good for some things, sure, but not the same things!
I have cotton, nylon, polyester, rayon AND viscose available in one of my local online shops, have also seen silk petersham here and there. Everything is in Finnish, of course, but grosgrain and petersham have different names from each other even here.
your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 • • •@blogdiva I think ours probably comes from Germany, Eastern Europe (Türkiye has a lot of manufacturing I think), Japan or China so it's not like it gets made here either... But there's reasonably much choice for such a small country! There's still some textile manufacturing in Finland as well, but only a couple of places making trim.
I figure petersham isn't the only thing that's going to be much harder to get in the US as the situation is...
Rayon isn't terrible to work with and looks quite nice though it won't withstand as much as cotton, so it's not the worst. And that's like, falling apart in 15 years of washing versus 50, so might not be an issue anyway. 😆
Kinene⭐🐻
in reply to your auntifa liza 🇵🇷 🦛 🦦 • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Kinene⭐🐻 • • •@c_merriweather @blogdiva Bias tape is fine if you don't mind not being able to wash it first - I'm very sensitive to finishing chemicals on products meant to have a long shelf life, if you make your own from a fabric you've washed you're not dealing with that anyway - and you're not working with something that is already very thick from many layers. But petersham is much nicer!
A herringbone tape may do the same job, but they tend to be much stiffer. Still good for binding seams etc. if they're not very curved. 🤔
Tirrimas :us_distress: 🚫👑
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Asta
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Asta • • •Asta
in reply to Sini Tuulia • • •Sini Tuulia
in reply to Asta • • •