E’s Prom Dress 5: Spiral Steel

June 10, 2012March 16, 2014 ~ Tia Dia ~ Leave a comment

As I said a couple of posts ago, I’m using spiral steel boning for this bodice. I’ve only used such boning once before, and was very pleasantly surprised at how it refuses to become permanently bent out of shape during wear like the plastic boning. But it is a tedious process to cut the steel and cap it.

This time it went swimmingly, however, thanks to a suggestion, I taped the ends of the steel with my DD1’s ballet toe tape prior to tipping the lengths. Does your mind ever wander far and wide as you work on a project? Mine wandered to the question of rust. Do steel bones rust? I don’t think I want to go down that street…..

E’s Prom Dress 4: Bodice Lining

June 9, 2012June 10, 2012 ~ Tia Dia ~ 4 Comments

Boning channels in the bodice lining. I used an Egyptian cotton shirting – feels lovely next to the skin – for the lining, and grosgrain ribbon for the channels. I’ll be using spiral steel boning for the bodice.

The interior of a bombshell bodice

September 14, 2011September 15, 2011 ~ Tia Dia ~ 3 Comments

I thought I’d post some pics of the interior of the bombshell dress. You can see the shaped cups and my muslin underlining above, and the lining (below). The boning channels are grosgrain ribbon. There are 13 bones in all, and I’m hoping it’s enough.The most challenging part of working with the steel bones was cutting and tipping them. The cutting wasn’t too bad – DH has a pair of tin snips that worked beautifully – and with a little practice I was able to angle the cut so the steel sprung apart cleanly.

But tipping (capping?) the bones was another story. If I clamped the tips tightly on the sides, the centres of the tips popped out and simply would not crimp down flat. I decided to just go with crimping the tips to the sides of the bones as well as possible, and hope that they won’t fall off inside the boning channels with wear.