Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Bustier III: Cups and Casings


My hook and eye tape finally arrived in the mail the other day.  I have enough for about three bustier tops, but I'll sock away the extra for a rainy day.

Things are going slow on the bustier front.  We've been busy and the weather has been so nice that Simon and I have spent a lot of time outside.  I have been making progress and here is what's been accomplished this week.


The seam allowances are too small to use as a casing for the boning I bought so I had to whip up some casing to sew into the bustier.  I made them about 1/2" wide, my boning is 1/4" and after I sew them in I'll lose a couple of 8ths of an inch.


All Pinned and ready for the machine.


Here's the right side of the bustier before I ironed it.  You can barely see the top stitching.


Here's the wrong side.  For having to improvise this part of the pattern I am really pleased with how it came out.


I was going to but in the bra cups next, but realized that the back band and the top half of the cups lined up after I had pinned one in.  I back peddled, pulled out a million pins and started over on the back band.


Now the bra cups were a pain in my side.  I've sewn curved seams before (the Steffi Jacket) but this was a whole new bag of suck.  The center seam on the bottom of the cup has to line up with the seam on the bodice part.  Then the seam that runs across the middle of the cup has to line up with the seam were the bodice and the back band are sewn together.  Oh, and don't forget that the center of the bodice meets yp with the top inside edge of the cup.


However after all of that I am quite pleased with how it all came out.  The best part is that all of my bits fit where the should.  


Next on the list of to dos:
-Straps
-inserting the boning
-attaching the lining
-attaching the hook and eye tape
-hemming or finishing the bottom, i'm thinking Bias tape, but we'll see.

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