Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Preparing to make the dress foundation

You know I'm planning on adding a foundation/corselet to the dress I'm making, right? Well, in order to do that, I need boning. There are different kinds of boning: there's the plastic kind and there are several steel kinds. The plastic kind is pretty lightweight and doesn't offer much in the way of support.

I decided to go with a steel kind - specifically, I went with 1/4" spiral steel. It's very flexible but won't deform like plastic does. It looks like a coiled spring that has been flattened. It's quite cool. I ordered this stuff from a place in Stratford calling Farthingales - they have all kinds of products used in making corsets for costumes and whatnot. I ordered my stuff on Wednesday and it arrived Friday! I was very impressed.

I also bought heavy-duty hook and eye tape to be used as a closure for the foundation. Because the foundation has zero or slightly negative ease - it's supposed to fit the body like a glove or even tighter - it will be difficult to close and to make it stay closed. The heavy-duty hook and eye tape will make it easier to close the foundation (and keep it closed) and it won't add bulk under the zipper. If it turns out that there is bulk under the zipper, I can always offset the opening of it by about an inch.

I'm looking forward to trying out this foundation thingy. It's like the baby-sister version of a corset, and I like corsets. I'd love to be able to wear them, but store-bought ones are often too long for me. I've thought about making my own corset before; maybe if this foundation thingy works out, I'll give that a try.

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