blood

[dragonlady7]

Last night I got really hammered and, instead of passing out early like Z did, I decided I was going to finish putting the cording into the pair of bodies I'm making.
I decided to experiment with using hemp cord as the supportive boning material in a pseudo-corset for Pennsic. It sounded like it would be comfortable. It has been described as being sports-bra-like. Sure, I thought, why not?
I was going to just build the support into the bodice of one of the dresses I'm making, but then I realized, if I do all of that work, and simply don't sew it to the dress, I can then wear it under several dresses. Ohhh. Brainwave.

So I got the sewing machine working, and went to town sewing lacing channels. I drafted a pattern by tracing an old Renn Faire corset that sort-of fits and adding on some bits here and there, and shortening that bit and lengthening this bit. Etcetera.

Once I was good and drunk, the work went much faster. To add amusement value, instead of winding white thread onto bobbins, I just went ahead and used whatever was on the dozen or so bobbins that I'd found in the sewing machine case. So the lacing channels are sewn in white from the top, and from the bottom, it's either white, teal green, bright pink, yellow, or scarlet. To add amusement, I flipped the fabric every time, so every other seam is sewn from below. Then I did the back all in scarlet on one side and white on the other.
I'm sewing it all down to an outer layer of twill-like-textured linen, but I'm going to leave the boning channels showing on the inside, because I don't need yet another layer in there. (I think I'll be wearing this over a shift anyway.)

I have the back finished, and the two front pieces pinned to the outer layer. I need straps, though, and to get off my ass and figure out whether the front closure absolutely must be straight or if I can curve it a little. I think it's nearly impossible to lace two curved surfaces together, but I don't know. My surface curves kind of a lot, if you know what I mean.

But I took a semi-break this afternoon, and went outside to sit in the hammock with my hair down to dry in the sun from this morning's shower (it had been up in a bun). I brought my things, and spent an hour and a half sitting in the afternoon's last sunbeams, hand-sewing the eyelets down one side of the back. (I've decided to make the thing lace closed in three places just in case the thing doesn't fit-- more places to adjust it = more adjustability, right? I moved the side laces toward the back, though, so they're not right down the sides.) And while I sewed the eyeles, Chita frolicked around underneath me and around me. She treats the back yard as though it were a room we'd set up for her. She doesn't try to go outside of it. And she was absurdly pleased that I was there to talk to her while she played. She kept coming over and head-bumping my butt through the hammock mesh.

I do have one bit of advice for anyone who's considering making a hemp-boned pair of bodies. Make it in a darker color. I have pricked the everloving hell out of my fingers, and the damn thing is unbleached-muslin-colored, which means that now it has visible bloodstains on it.
OW.

Comments

[greenworldgirl.livejournal.com]

I do believe this is why people used to be trained to sew with thimbles.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Oh, I neglected to mention that part-- I purchased a thimble just for this project, and searched high and low for it yesterday morning, when I had recovered, and could find it nowhere.
But I don't know that a thimble would save me-- it's just that the pins, through so many layers of fabric and cord and whatnot, tend to behave unpredictably, and I keep unexpectedly jabbing myself. Even with a thimble, which I'd most likely use in the intended fashion to push the needle through from the back, wouldn't protect me from the point of the needle unexpectedly emerging through a part of the front I hadn't expected. Sewing through one layer is hard enough, when you're inexperienced; sewing through up to four layers of muslin, two of twill-woven linen, and a chunk of hemp cording means you've got basically no idea where exactly the point of the needle is going to come out.
Not to mention that more than once I had to put the eye of the needle against some surface like the floor in order to bring enough force to bear to get it through the fabric.

I'd need ten thimbles, and then I wouldn't be able to hold the needle!

But I do wish I'd been able to find the one thimble I do own. It would undoubtedly have been of some help.
Looking at the thing in clear daylight again the bloodstains aren't too bad, just little dots here and there... and it's meant to be an undergarment anyway... but my fingers are plenty sore. (Doesn't help that I cut one of them in a minor kitchen accident on Wednesday, either.)

[greenworldgirl.livejournal.com]

Awww! Ouch! I hate sore fingers. My problem is I find thimbles hard to use somehow, they slow me down and I always figure this is because I didn't learn with them from the start. The other thing I've found out, is that if you do too much of anything that requires pushing the needle hard, you actually get needle callouses on your fingers. I think that's the other thing they might save you from. I don't know what to suggest for trying to push through so many layers.