Progress Report

[atherleisure]

I've got all the boning channels sewn in my 1690's/1700's stays!



Not that you can see it in the picture - white on natural doesn't really show up very well. I machined all the boning channels because I may enjoy hand-sewing, but not enough to do about 200 boning channels that will be sandwiched between an outer fabric and a lining. Nope. Not at all. It took my spare time for most of three days to do it on the machine; I really didn't want to dedicate the next three months to it.

Now I've started boning, and I've got a question for those who have boned stays with reed before. If you break a reed while inserting it, and it breaks off right at the end of the channel, how do you get it back out? nuranar? koshka_the_cat? I got lots of information from nuranar's journal (particularly comments from the_aristocat), but I don't remember that being mentioned. I love the way they're looking, but I need to quit for the day; my thumb and forefinger have had enough abuse for one day! Another question is about doing the eyelets. When I put in eyelets, I generally seem to mangle the fabric about when pushing the awl through. Steel and plastic take it in stride, but I'm not sure the reed will. Does anyone have any tips?

In other news, my poor neglected pineapple is growing again, and I'm about half-finished with the leaves. I gave up waiting for knitting inspiration that would require new yarn and ordered more yarn for my 1912 vest. Supposedly, it will arrive this afternoon. On the flip side, the things that I came up with that I'd like to knit next can be made from leftovers from other projects so that's always a bonus. I also ordered some false hair to make a hairpiece with, but it was definitely not the strawberry blonde it claimed to be; dark auburn is more like it. It went back in the mail the same day it arrived.

The final bit of progress was finishing up a fichu that I cut out a few weeks ago. Now I get a break from rolled hems and whipped gathers for a bit. Somehow I seem to keep getting back to those. They may be slow, but they look so nice when they're done. I'll probably pick up the cap next week so it won't be that long a break from rolled hems and whipped gathers.

Comments

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

You mean the reed breaks off right where the stitching ends, so you can't get a grip on it with your fingertips? I wiggled it back out far enough that needle-nose pliers could grab it. I think one time I stabbed the reed through the fabric with a heavy corsage pin, and worked it back down that way. But rarely did mine break all the way off. I was expert at bending it, though. :p

I'm not following the issue with eyelets. Mangling the fabric is necessary when doing this many layers, but I don't see how it affects the boning material.

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

I'm just concerned about breaking the bones when I mangle the fabric to do the eyelets. Often I try to do eyelets before assembling or even boning the stays, but with an outer fabric that is applied to the outside of the stays, I don't see any way around putting the eyelets in after the boning. Is breakage not really a concern?

Thanks for the tips on getting a broken bone out. I've boned one back and one front and only broken one bone off, but I'm not anything like half-finished so who knows what it yet to happen. And there are a lot of short bones on the front and back but lots of long ones on the sides. I've bent several too.

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

I usually leave a channel for eyelets, and usually an extra-strong piece at the edge. But reed is actually pretty sturdy and flexible. My 3 mm reed can be sewn through. I didn't worry when a few eyelet stitches went through the reed beside the channel.

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the reassurance.