Sewing a bodice is not fast. THere’s a lot of steps. They’re all relatively simple steps, but it’s definitely a case of simple but not easy.
The boning in this corset has to be made from zip ties, cut to the appropriate length and then sewn into the pre-sewn tubes. Then the top of the tubes has to be sewn shut, and then the tubes have to be ‘narrowed’ with additional side-stitching to keep the boning from shifting while it’s being worn. The boning is supposed to be sanded and/or gritted in some way to remove sharp corners.
At this point, one half of the bodice is finished, the right half. I’ve delayed on the left half of the bodice, and my goal is to finish that today, and start putting in grommets.
Some very thin 1/4″ bias tape has to be sewn along the bottom edge of each of the two corset pieces before any of the boning is inserted; more bias tape has to be sewn in place along the top of the corset once all the boning has been inserted and put in place. Again, none of this is complicated, but it’s also not easy. It’s telling that Simplicity 8162 has only a page of directions on what to do and how to do it — not hard, but time-consuming.
As it so happens, I’m also preparing for two Toastmasters contests this week — as a senior official in them — so it’s not like I don’t have other stuff to work on …
