How to use spiral wire boning

There has been much talk of and use of spiral wire boning in blogland of late, so I thought i'd write a little bit about it.

Spiral wire boning is used in corsets and in couture garments for strong boning support.  It is made of steel which has been formed into a continuous spring which has then been flattened.  Because spiral wire boning is a flattened spring, it is extremely flexible and can bend horizontally and vertically (backwards, forwards and sideways), making it perfect for boning over and around curves.

The curvy bone channel goes from side to side as well as up and over

In couture garments, it is used in conjunction with 2 layers of tulle or bobbinet which is a very fine and very strong netting material which when layered together, has no stretch but provides a fine, non bulky foundation for a gown.

a corset looks like a skeleton when held to the light

In corsetry, sprial wire boning is used in conjunction with coutil fabric and often in partnership with flat sprung steel bones which are not as flexible and therefore useful when a firmer, straighter support is required.  Both types of steel boning were invented during the Victorian age and used instead of whalebone because it was cheaper and easier.

Spiral wire boning comes in various different widths, from 4mm-15mm, and various different thicknesses making it possible to 'mix and match' your boning to achieve whichever level of support is required for any particular project.  For instance, you may only need a light 5mm wire to bone a net bodice, but you may need a more robust 7-10mm wire to bone a multi-layer corset for tightlacing.  With all boning, there is flexibility!

All types of boning, whether steel or plastic, comes either in pre-cut lengths or in continuous reels.  It is more economical and much more efficient to buy your steel in a roll and cut it yourself but many people are put off by the supposed requirement for 'brute force' with which to cut it. 

Do not fear!  

Spiral wire boning is easy peasy to cut and tip.  

Here is a tutorial to show you how.

To cut and tip spiral wire, you need a pair of wire cutters, and two pairs of pliers, one of which must have flat edges.

my flat pliers are out of shot!

To cut the boning, you need only snip either side of the wire.  When you have snipped the wire either side of the spring, it will come apart naturally.  

Trim any pokeyouty bits with your wire cutters and then apply a metal end cap and push it on so that it feels quite secure.

Now this is the fiddly part - using both pairs of pliers, you need to squish the end cap onto the wire simultaneously from either side and top and bottom.  Like this:

kindly modelled by Mr Marmalade

Now you have a tip which is compressed onto the end of your wire

BUT ... sometimes, if you make a mistake after inserting the bone into a channel and you need to pull the bone out, the cap can come off in the channel leaving you with a nasty conundrum.  To counter this, I use plumbers tape. It's cheap as chips and less messy than glue.  You just wrap a bit on the join between wire and cap, and this holds it all together perfectly and makes it all a bit smoother.  

Easy when you know how!

Friday Fun

Today I have been mostly making hair slides




I wrote a tutorial for you here:

Hair Slides - Upload a Document to Scribd

Belated Fathers Day (or other presents)

I made this small towel for Jimmy to give to Mr Mk for Father's day. It's for him to take to the gym. It’s so distinctive that it’s unlikely to get mixed up with anybody else’s towel, so hopefully he wont lose it. It’s a great way to use up spare strips of fabric and could be used equally as well to customise a bigger towel. I think, with the appropriate fabrics, it would make a lovely present for babies and children too.

I used an Egyptian cotton hand towel measuring 50cm x 90cm and added a trim to both ends. Both fabric trims are finished off with some co-ordinating piping.

For this project you will need:
1 towel (washed to limit shrinkage!)
Fabric which will fit the width of your towel at whichever depth you like (my top strip measures 50cm x 15cm finished size and the bottom strip is 50cm x 5cm finished.)

Ready made piping or piping cord with bias binding. Enough to make 2, 3 or 4 strips the width of your towel plus 2cm each.

1. Start by measuring the width of the towel you are customising, and then cut a peice of fabric the same width plus 2cm and the depth you would like plus 2cm. This will allow a 1cm seam allowance on all sides.

2. Press down to the inside, your 1cm seam allowance on all sides. This piece of fabric, should now measure the exact width of your towel and required finished depth.

3. Make your piping by flattening out your bias binding which should be 2cm longer than the finished length so that you have a centimetre each end to tuck in, ensuring a neat (and long lasting) finish. Lay your piping cord down the middle, and fold over the edges of the tape so that both raw edges meet, enclosing the piping cord.

Then sew together with a zipper foot, as close to the cord as possible.



There are 2 ways to do the following step:

5a. (without a top piping) Place your fabric strip right side down where you want your top seam to be, You will have ironed a crease to indicate the 1cm line, but I used a quilting bar to ensure my straight line.

5b. (with a top piping). Insert piping underneath the fabric strip remembering that the raw edge of the piping and the raw edge of the fabric should be together, and sew in place with the 1cm allowance.

6. Flip the fabric over and press in place ensuring that the seam you have just sewn is flat and that the fabric strip fits your towel exactly. Now insert your piping along the lower edge and pin in place ensuring that the ends are tucked in.

7. Sew a line of topstitch starting and finishing at the top right had corner, so that by the time you have finished, the entire panel is topstitched in place. Remember to make sure your piping is tucked in at the edges before you top stitch.



Et Voila!

A Handy Tip

Over the weekend I was taking a bag order from a friend - in quite a hurry as we were running late - and in trying to determine dimensions without a tape measure to hand, she placed her finger on the fabric and measured quite accurately, safe in the knowledge that the finger she was using was precisley 3 inches long. A trick she learned from the London School of Fashion where she did a 2 year part time pattern cutting course. So I thought I'd pass it on as even though my new skill is only 3 days old, it has already proved very handy indeed!

Scrub a Dubdub

Getting round to thinking about summer (which seems to have escaped us once again), and where we are going camping this year, I dug out this picture of me taken last year, making potions to sell for charity. The components were donated by a herbalist and we (for there were many of us) were making Salt Scrubs. For this you need sweet almond oil, good quality pure essential oil, herbs (preferably organic), very good quality, food grade, rock salt, as many jars as you can fill with those ingredients. As you can see, we used those spring clip preserving jars in small size, which cost less than £1. each. We made two types, Lavender and Fennel & Peppermint. Here's what you do ...

In a bowl, mix together salt, and herbs in the ratio of about 3:1 salt:herb. Put this salt/herb mixture into your jars about 3/4 full. Add 10-20 drops of essential oil. Now fill each jar to the top with almond oil and seal. Add a label (and a ribbon if you like). Use these to scrub yourself down before having a nice hot shower. Becareful of your plughole though, as some seeds might swell in the drain causing a blockage.

So quick it's Scary!

I'm doing two jobs at the moment - working notice for the old one, and also the new one in the cookshop, so I haven't much time for sewing which could turn into a problem because it's my neice's birthday on Sunday and so far, I have only managed to stitch one seam on her new dress - the shoulder seam which is all of 2 inches long ... I'm sure I'll get round to it, but in the meantime, also on my backlog list was this mousemat project promised to Mr MK a few weeks ago and inspired by a plain round mousemat which I picked up for 34p at Ikea - wish i'd got some more now! So here's what I did with it, it's as easy as 1,2,3 ...

Materials:

Plain mousemat with fabric topping (ie: not plastic or rubber)
Some Bondaweb (double sided interfacing)
Fabric of your choice
Tailors Chalk

1. Cut Bondaweb a little larger than your mousemat, and iron on to the top of the mousemat, using a cool iron. You might want to test a scrap peice of bondaweb on a scrap peice of fabric to see how low the iron can be to make the bonding melt. The overhang can be cut off later. Leave to one side to cool before peeling off the backing paper.

2. Meanwhile, cut your peice of fabric using the mousemat as a template, and tailors chalk. If the design needs to be centered, you will be able to adjust accordingly. Cut your fabric out - it doesn't matter if it's a little too big for your mousemat, but you don't want it to be too small!

3. Peel the paper off the bondaweb, place your fabric over the top making sure it's exactly where you want it to be, then iron on. Trim the edges with some sharp scisors when done, and hey presto! a funky personalised mousemat! I sprayed mine with silicone spray for glide factor, but I don't think this is essential.

Fat Quarter Friday - Toe Separators

The other week, when the sun was shining and it was quite warm I decided, upon getting my sandals out of winter storage, that my toe-nails were not fit for public consumption and needed a severe revamp. Rather than use kitchen towel or loo roll scrunched into a sausage to separate my toes when painting them, I thought it might be quite nice to make a fabric pair. So after some days of musing I came up with these which are much prettier than tissue and much more comfortable than the type you can buy which look a bit like neon foam knuckledusters. I also think that if you put them together with some other girly bits and bobs, they might make a jolly nice present, so I am going to be doing just that!

You can find an easy print PDF file for this tutorial here .

What you need for one pair (a fat quarter will do several pairs) is:

2 pieces of fabric 3 inches x 12 inches
2 pieces of fairly lofty wadding 2 inches x 10 inches
(use what you have - you are aiming for a softish "sausage" about 1cm in diameter)


Iron down a 1cm hem on each side of the strips - don't worry about the ends.

Place your wadding along the centre of the fabric strip, and bring each side together, folding the wadding in half, and pinning securely so that you end up with a softish sausage about 1cm wide.

Sew a seam to hold this sausage in place securely - i used my zipper foot for this. You want an evenly shaped sausage, but dont' worry if the edges aren't tidy.

Now you have a secure sausage, you can choose a nice ornamental satin stitch to finish with. You might want to mark the finished length of each sausage with pins before you sew the next bit. Mine are 11 inches.

The sausage isn't very thick or firm, so your machine foot will be able to rest on it while you sew your nice edging. I used a scalloped edge which I tapered off at a diagonal at each end of the sausage.

When your satin stitched edge is in place, you can cut off the surplus fabric and the toe separators are ready to use!

So to give yourself a good toe polish which will last a month, follow the steps below - trust me, I'm a beautician:


1. First of all, keep all toe nail beauty tools separate from your finger nail tools - particularly nail files. Otherwise you risk spreading fungal diseases.

2. Clean all old nail polish off the nail plate with nail polish remover.
3. Trim the nails by cutting with a nail trimmer (pictured), straight accross. Do not shape them.
4. File the toenails, straight across to remove any snags. You can round off sharp corners but leave them as straight as possible.
5. Push cuticles down gently with an orange stick (this is easier after a bath/foot soak)
6. Buff the nail plate very lightly and gently with a buffer - paying particular attention to the base of the nail plate - this will slough off all that annoying skin which sticks to the nail and give the polish a good key. This and step 8 is the secret to long lasting polish.
7. Now insert your toe separators as in the picture.
8. Go over the nail plate again with nail polish remover to remove surplus dust and grease - when the nail is ready it will squeak - like when you know your hair is clean.
9. Prime the nails with a base coat, follow with 2 coats of your colour, then a top coat. Let each coat dry before applying the next.
10. Put your feet up for at least 15 mins, then wear flip flops or bare feet for as long as possible afterwards in order to ensure a hard finish. I always do mine in the evening before relaxing and before bath and bed time.

Magic Bags and a Giveaway

Have you seen in the shops, those pads filled with assorted beneficial stuffings, such as wheat grains, or ground up cherry stones, which you put in the microwave or the freezer, and then when suitably hot or cold, you apply these pads to the part of your body which needs soothing or invigorating? They cost a fortune. I bought one a while ago only because it was on sale, but at half price it still cost £8.00!

I run a Suma food group - which means that a group of us order bulk amounts of wholefood at wholesale prices. On my last leaf through the catalogue, i noticed a 3kg bag of organic wheat grain, costing £2.85. Wheat is the filling in my very expensive, aforementioned hot pad from Culpepper, but it is not organic, and the covering is plain corduroy, not - as the price would suggest - fine linen or silk woven by scottish fairies, and breathed upon by lucky leprichauns with a lottery ticket for the pot at the end of the rainbow. So why the ridiculously high pricetag when you could make enough healing pads for your entire extended family with a few scraps of fabric and a 3kg bag of wheat grain - or rice for that matter! Here's how:

Determine the size of your pads, my square one is 6"x6" and the eye pad is 6" measuring accross the bottom. I cut patterns from paper which included a 1cm seam allowance.

The fabric is cashmere, left over from a cloak I made years ago, and Heather Baily Freshcut fabric scraps in pink for the hot pad, and green (like cucumbers) for the cold eye pad. I put each right sides together, sewed right round, leaving about a 2" gap for turning out and stuffing. If you leave a long tail of thread at one end, it will aid hand sewing the gap shut for a neat finish:

Trim the seams, clip the corners, and then when turned out, finger press carefully and you should have these:

You can then fill the bags with the wheat grain (or rice) and add other things, in this case, I have added dried lavender flowers with about 10 drops lavender oil, and mixed it altogether in a bowl.


I used a funnel to aid stuffing - otherwise it tends to go all over the place even if you are very careful!


When the bags are about 3/4 full, you can sew them shut either by hand, or by machine if you don't mind a top stitch effect on one side.


You could ofcourse, top stitch all the way round before stuffing, to make it even and give extra strength. You could also add embellisments before sewing or stuffing or add extra detail such as a seam or two down the middle.

I added a seam on this one which somehow gives more "weight" to each eye. The plastic case I made to go with it, so that you can store it in the fridge without it getting damp or spilled on. I since realised that a foodbag would do just as well.



This little set could be YOURS. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning it, is leave a comment on this post telling me what makes a good craft blog. I will use a random number picker (when I find one) to pick the winner 10 days from today, 28 March.

To use these bags hot (i would not recommend hot use for the eye pad), put in the microwave along with a glass of water, for 2 minutes on high. I find the lavender bags particularly good for those nasty times of the month when all you want is a hot water bottle, a comfy chair and a mug of cocoa.

My first tutorial

It's one of my many Sister-in-Law's birthdays tomorrow, and so I decided to make a gift for her. She is a clinical psychologist and probably uses lots of note books. So after trawling the web for most of yesterday evening, looking for inspriation, I came up with this which is my own version of a Moleskine book cover (yes, that spotty dotty again). It's just a simple one but I added a pen holder as you can never find a pen when you need one and it doesn't add much bulk to the whole thing. Now that 've done it, I quite fancy adding pockets and things, but that would make it bigger, and I think nice things come in small packages ... You can download a PDF of this tutorial here as it seems easier than posting the whole thing ...

If at First you don't Succeed

Did you know that worldwide, over 1 million plastic bags are consumed every minute? And that in the UK alone, over 10 million bags are consumed in a year. Most are not biodegradable and take years and years to degrade in landfill sites. Worst of all, marine and other wildlife can mistake the plastic bags for food, then suffocate. Just ONE recyclable (home made) shopper will save around 80 plastic bags being used. Imagine what you can do with 3 or 4!

So constantly striving to save the planet and reduce my waste, I salvaged the Rice Krispies box from the recycling, and re-visited my attempt to make it into something more useful. I found much to my releif, that yesterday I was possibly a little too ambitious - my ideas exceeding my capability (or technical aptitude!) and I therefore reverted back to a slow walk (instead of a fast sprint). I used a 750g packet and got 2 patterns from it as you can see from the pics, a large bag and a smaller one (well neither are really what you could call "large"). Straps can be made using the side gusset template - so cut on a fold for long straps or cut 2 for shorter straps. Or you could insert eyelets and cord for the straps ... or even ribbon ...

Anyway, once i'd decided just to make plain bags, with plain seams, no pockets or other fancy bits like flat felled seams, and with a few online conversations along the way, I came up with these three lovelies (snap, crackle and pop?), and a saving of 240 plastic bags in the bargain! ... They are plain and unlined, two of them have gussets, 2 have long straps. I say they are naturally beautiful despite their lack of bling. Suitable for small shopping trips or even wine bottles (they all hold 2 or 3 each), or as gift bags for your friends, I used less than half a metre of fabric between them, which makes them a very cheap date indeed. With more time spent on each - a pretty lining or perhaps a matching coin purse, they would look even more beautiful and a little more posh! ... I got the idea for the cereal box from Morsebags.com who give instructions and patterns on making shopping bags from recycled fabrics such as old curtains or duvet covers, and they will even print and send special labels for you to put on them!