Today we covered flat lining, sewing the panels together, boning channels and embellishments. Since we did all this live I am going to be very brief in my descriptions.

The first thing I did was flat line all the duck canvas to the silk dupioni. To do this, I pinned the wrong side of the duck canvas to the wrong side of the dupioni on all edges. Then with a baste stitch I stitched around the entire piece. I did this on every panel.

Once all the duck canvas was attached to the dupioni I started sewing the panels together. For this I used a closer together stitch it was the 1.5 setting on my sewing machine. I stitched the panels together at 5/8th of an inch to insure I would have enough seam allowance to create the boning channels out of. To add the panels I started in the center and worked my way outward, so piece 1 then attached piece 2 followed by 3 etc.

After adding a panel I would press the seams open so they would lay flat. Once all the panels were added I pinned the seams open.

I once again changed my stitch length, this time to a 2.5 and then I stitched the seam down 3/8 of an inch away from the seam. This is now my boning channel.

Finally, the last thing we discussed was embellishments. It’s not required or even necessary to add embellishments but for me I was going with a themed corset so I am adding bumble bees to it and making a flower crown to go with it so I can have a fun little fashion look.

With embellishments there’s a few things to think about, first was not to sew anything through the boning channels or you wont be able to add the boning to the channel. This is an example or a poorly placed bee:

Applique that is very large that would have many points of contact with the corset could work over boning channels as long as they are not sewn in the space where the bones go. Alternatively glue is an option but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s also possible to tack it down by only catching the top layer of fabric when you sew it but that’s challenging and time consuming. Here’s a better placement for my bee since the bulk of the bee is in between the channels:

Finally try to keep any embellishments away from the busk, grommet and bias tape placement. Alternatively you could wait to place embellishments until the corset is fully finished but you will have thread hanging out on the inside.

That’s all for this week! Next week we will apply the boning, busk and lining.