DD: Bodys' wear and tear
Jun. 18th, 2009 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzWelcome back to the dress diaries. Previous posts in this dress diary:
The prelude;
Part I;
Part II;
Part III;
Part IV;
I don't often see what happens to corsets after they've been worn. The internet, including Livejournal and all its corsetry-based communities, only shows corsets from photoshoots, corsets when being constructed, corsets that are redrafted. The majority of images focus on how pretty a corset can be.
Today I will show you how my bodys (i.e. Mock-up #3, the red linen number from the Third Part of this dress diary) survived a weekend of wear. There's some things I need to change for the final bodys, because I don't want to make a new pair of bodys for each weekend I'll play Marianne. As it is, I can wear the linen bodys again, but they won't hold up for long. They certainly won't survive another roleplay weekend.
I wore the bodys over my Italian chemise for the entire weekend. It was covered by the blue and pink linen dress. I wore it on Friday night from 5 pm until 2 am, Saturday from 10 am until 3 am (yes, you read that right) and Sunday from 10 am until 2 pm. That's as much as thirty hours of wear!
I used a lovely pink cord to tie my bodys with. I'd used it in the photoshoot before and when I wore my bodys to show them off to Steelweaver. I wore the bodys maybe five times before the weekend. When I put on the bodys on Saturday morning, I noticed that one of my laces was fraying so badly it would surely break very soon! I tied it into a knot, taking the stress off the bad part. This would make sure I could only lace looser for five centimeters, but this was enough (and I did, right before dinner).
I had a hard enough time with dinner. The bodys did allow for ample freedom of movement, but when I was having dinner, there was just so much dinner my stomach and lungs were fighting over the space. I don't know if I was eating too quickly, but there was one point during the main course where I had to focus to slow my breathing down, or I'd be in trouble. After taking it slow for a few breaths everything was fine again and I could finish dinner. I later heard that many people had trouble emptying their plates, so perhaps I ate too much! I think the main reason of my discomfort was the haste combined with the confinedness of the bodys. Taking my time is really quite important!
I am so glad I didn't drop anything in my cleavage!!!
The laces 'rubbed off' on the linen at the front. I don't mind this at all, it just shows that it's used. This happened where the lace went over the edge of the bone (there's a bone on either side of the eyelets).
I'm not so happy with how the eyelets held up to the lacing. On one of the eyelets, the RVS ring is showing on one side, so I am guessing the thread just completely rubbed off there. In the above picture you can clearly see that there are a number of loose threads, all very short, fraying on the inside. I tied all ends off, so this indicates that my eyelets are being demolished by use. I haven't figured out yet how to fix or prevent this. I could use silk thread next time, in the hopes that this is stronger?
Now comes the scary shit. The corset worked really well, but apparantly my method for tipping bones is somewhat flawed. The bones are working their way out of the bone channels at several points.
At the front bottom edge.
(OK, remember I said I wasn't happy on how the binding turned out? Here's why. Now please just focus on the bones and forget about the binding. I'll do it by hand on the final product. Really. Scout's honour. Oh, and I swear the bone channel's stitching looks better on the outside!)
Top of side-front, right side.
And left side. This side is worst.
You can see from the above two pictures that the corset edge is also quite wrinkled. It actually goes somewhat under my arm, especially when you're working in it. The bone was really too long and it was poking very painfully into my armpit. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed! I might adapt the curve somewhat but I'll really take an inch or two out of the bone, and floss it into place if I have to!
Thanks to the bone channels wearing out, I could remove the bone, while wearing the corset (very lady-like in the middle of the tavern, I might add), on Saturday night. Haven't had any problems since and the corset still worked fine after removing these bones. Still more bones equals plus good, so I'll just shorten it.
As to why the bones are escaping from their channels? Well, here's why.
Look carefully at the bones in their channels. See that little bulge? That ain't too pretty.
I tip my bones using epoxy resin, a kind of plastic. NoKey mixes it, and dips my bones and we let them dry. Only because otherwise we'd have to mix the resin twice we dip both ends at once, leaving the bone to dry lying down with both ends suspended over a newspaper. The resin isn't solid by then, so a kind of drop will form.
This drop is not at the outer edge of the bone, though all rough edges are covered. The problem I'm figuring out here is that it should be at the bottom of the bone, encasing the sharp steel edge completely inside that bubble. We should devise a way to hang the bones, bottom-down, dipping only one edge per bone. This way the surplus resin will dry over the sharpest bit of the bone and will make sure that there are no more sharp edges. There will still be a bit of a bubble, but it will be in the right place. If it really is too much resin, it will drop off or we can use sometiming to wipe it off carefully before it dries.
I felt the tips of the bones that were poking out, and there were sharp edges! No wonder they're coming out of the casings. At first I thought the bone casing was to blame, but now I know I need to change my way of tipping bones.
So there you have it. A very comfortable pair of bodys (although sitting down for long periods of time is a bit difficult), that I can wear for 30 hours in one weekend.
Next up: working with silk dupioni for the first time.
The prelude;
Part I;
Part II;
Part III;
Part IV;
I don't often see what happens to corsets after they've been worn. The internet, including Livejournal and all its corsetry-based communities, only shows corsets from photoshoots, corsets when being constructed, corsets that are redrafted. The majority of images focus on how pretty a corset can be.
Today I will show you how my bodys (i.e. Mock-up #3, the red linen number from the Third Part of this dress diary) survived a weekend of wear. There's some things I need to change for the final bodys, because I don't want to make a new pair of bodys for each weekend I'll play Marianne. As it is, I can wear the linen bodys again, but they won't hold up for long. They certainly won't survive another roleplay weekend.
I wore the bodys over my Italian chemise for the entire weekend. It was covered by the blue and pink linen dress. I wore it on Friday night from 5 pm until 2 am, Saturday from 10 am until 3 am (yes, you read that right) and Sunday from 10 am until 2 pm. That's as much as thirty hours of wear!
I used a lovely pink cord to tie my bodys with. I'd used it in the photoshoot before and when I wore my bodys to show them off to Steelweaver. I wore the bodys maybe five times before the weekend. When I put on the bodys on Saturday morning, I noticed that one of my laces was fraying so badly it would surely break very soon! I tied it into a knot, taking the stress off the bad part. This would make sure I could only lace looser for five centimeters, but this was enough (and I did, right before dinner).
I had a hard enough time with dinner. The bodys did allow for ample freedom of movement, but when I was having dinner, there was just so much dinner my stomach and lungs were fighting over the space. I don't know if I was eating too quickly, but there was one point during the main course where I had to focus to slow my breathing down, or I'd be in trouble. After taking it slow for a few breaths everything was fine again and I could finish dinner. I later heard that many people had trouble emptying their plates, so perhaps I ate too much! I think the main reason of my discomfort was the haste combined with the confinedness of the bodys. Taking my time is really quite important!
I am so glad I didn't drop anything in my cleavage!!!
The laces 'rubbed off' on the linen at the front. I don't mind this at all, it just shows that it's used. This happened where the lace went over the edge of the bone (there's a bone on either side of the eyelets).
I'm not so happy with how the eyelets held up to the lacing. On one of the eyelets, the RVS ring is showing on one side, so I am guessing the thread just completely rubbed off there. In the above picture you can clearly see that there are a number of loose threads, all very short, fraying on the inside. I tied all ends off, so this indicates that my eyelets are being demolished by use. I haven't figured out yet how to fix or prevent this. I could use silk thread next time, in the hopes that this is stronger?
Now comes the scary shit. The corset worked really well, but apparantly my method for tipping bones is somewhat flawed. The bones are working their way out of the bone channels at several points.
At the front bottom edge.
(OK, remember I said I wasn't happy on how the binding turned out? Here's why. Now please just focus on the bones and forget about the binding. I'll do it by hand on the final product. Really. Scout's honour. Oh, and I swear the bone channel's stitching looks better on the outside!)
Top of side-front, right side.
And left side. This side is worst.
You can see from the above two pictures that the corset edge is also quite wrinkled. It actually goes somewhat under my arm, especially when you're working in it. The bone was really too long and it was poking very painfully into my armpit. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed! I might adapt the curve somewhat but I'll really take an inch or two out of the bone, and floss it into place if I have to!
Thanks to the bone channels wearing out, I could remove the bone, while wearing the corset (very lady-like in the middle of the tavern, I might add), on Saturday night. Haven't had any problems since and the corset still worked fine after removing these bones. Still more bones equals plus good, so I'll just shorten it.
As to why the bones are escaping from their channels? Well, here's why.
Look carefully at the bones in their channels. See that little bulge? That ain't too pretty.
I tip my bones using epoxy resin, a kind of plastic. NoKey mixes it, and dips my bones and we let them dry. Only because otherwise we'd have to mix the resin twice we dip both ends at once, leaving the bone to dry lying down with both ends suspended over a newspaper. The resin isn't solid by then, so a kind of drop will form.
This drop is not at the outer edge of the bone, though all rough edges are covered. The problem I'm figuring out here is that it should be at the bottom of the bone, encasing the sharp steel edge completely inside that bubble. We should devise a way to hang the bones, bottom-down, dipping only one edge per bone. This way the surplus resin will dry over the sharpest bit of the bone and will make sure that there are no more sharp edges. There will still be a bit of a bubble, but it will be in the right place. If it really is too much resin, it will drop off or we can use sometiming to wipe it off carefully before it dries.
I felt the tips of the bones that were poking out, and there were sharp edges! No wonder they're coming out of the casings. At first I thought the bone casing was to blame, but now I know I need to change my way of tipping bones.
So there you have it. A very comfortable pair of bodys (although sitting down for long periods of time is a bit difficult), that I can wear for 30 hours in one weekend.
Next up: working with silk dupioni for the first time.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 10:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 10:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 10:15 am (UTC)I was lazy and used steel caps. :P
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 10:28 am (UTC)I'd love to see the instructions. If you don't have anywhere to store them online you can always mail them to janestarz [ad] yahoo [do] com
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 10:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 12:44 pm (UTC)My scanner's broken, so here are some (huge and crappy) photos of the instructions:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/Gersemi/Klamottenkiste/DSC_0002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/Gersemi/Klamottenkiste/DSC_0003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/Gersemi/Klamottenkiste/DSC_0004.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/Gersemi/Klamottenkiste/DSC_0006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v610/Gersemi/Klamottenkiste/DSC_0008.jpg
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:02 pm (UTC)And LOL @ Klamottenkiste ;-)
For what it's worth....
Date: 2009-06-18 12:10 pm (UTC)http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000210.php
A number of costumers use this stuff on corset bones' ends. The image at that link shows a red product, but it can be found in yellow and, I believe, in white, as well as black.
Costume supply houses also sell "bone dip," and if I'm not mistaken, that *is* white.
You also might want to consider using a metal file to soften the pointy-bits, before dipping, so the entire end is more rounded.
Other costumers and corset makers prefer *tipping fluid,* which is a water-based lacquer available from a number of corset-making supply houses. The advantage to this that comes to my mind is, you don't have to mix it as you do an expoxy, and you should be able, after cutting and filing the bone ends, to dip, hang and let dry; then dip the other end of each bone, and hang and let dry. (Google "tipping fluid.")
I'm firmly convinced of what Steelweaver suspects: that rings or washers, although contributing a bit of additional strength to the eyelets or lacing holes, do contribute to wear. We've found that a couple of layers of hair canvas or other interfacing between the lining and the outer fabric of the corset (assuming you have used just the two) and using an awl to push the threads aside to make the hole, as opposed to cutting them, will give you a very sturdy eyelet.
After that, flat lacing materials, such as the athletic shoe lace someone suggested, or a narrow silk ribbon (silk's tensile strength is very high; it doesn't resist abrasion so well, though, even though it's smooth although smooth silk ribbon passing over smooth silk thread-worked eyelets should help) seem to have longer useful lives in corsets or stays, than the braided round one I think I see in your photo of the lace.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 07:38 am (UTC)(catalogus -> baleinen -> baleindopjes)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 09:10 am (UTC)Ik denk dat we toch eens gaan proberen op een andere manier te dopen! ;-)