I had identified two main sources for the problem with keeping the dress where it was supposed to be: the fabric’s tendency to relax, and lack of a support structure.

The first thing I did was add a stay-tape, something I first ran into in corsetry: inch-wide twill tape, in this case fitted snugly right under the bust.

(You might also notice the added boning here but I’ll get to that in a bit.)

This is proving to not be as straightforward as it sounds.  I measured around my underbust for reference, but then decided to tack the twill tape in to match the measurements of the dress – and discovered that the freshly-laundered dress has a significant amount of negative ease.  Meaning the dress measures fewer inches around than I do and when I tried to zip it up I had a sizable gap.  (The good news is that this proved that twill tape really doesn’t stretch.)

What complicated all this is that it’s really hard to measure and pin a strapless dress, because you’re also trying to hold it up.  Doubly hard because the stay-tape is on the inside, and putting the dress on inside out (with the tape over all the fabric) would throw off the measurement.  I’m blessed to have a willing-and-able helper (hi Mom), and we muddled and finagled our way through, but I’ve still got a bit of fine-tuning to do.

For the rest of the torso, I took another cue from corsets:

Lacing.  Yeah, it’s not strictly canon for the character, but no one’s looking at the back of the costume anyway, and one thing I’ve learned by now is that the canon snobs are actually a far outnumbered minority.  This way I can tighten the lacing over the course of the day as the fabric starts to relax.  I’ve worn the dress once so far after these alterations were made and being able to tighten things up really proved helpful.

And finally, the boning.

The prevailing opinion among those who make or wear corsets is that metal boning is the only way to go and plastic boning is an offense to good sewing.  This isn’t unfounded, especially with a garment as tight as a corset.  Plastic boning bends at sharp angles and digs in.  (It also doesn’t do that great of a job smoothing out the wearer’s lumps.)  But it’s more expensive and not as easy to find.  I have to order it online or drive 45-minutes out to Lacis, while I can find plastic boning at my local JoAnn’s.  And while spiral steel boning can be cut and tipped at home (using wire cutters and pliers), it’s hard on my hands.  Plastic boning can be cut with scizzors*.  Metal boning also makes sewing channels a necessity, while the kind of boning I used (Dritz Flexicurve) can be sewn through (I’ll get back to that).

My thinking when I decided on the plastic boning was that all it needed to do was hold the dress itself up, it wasn’t going to need to hold me in. And following the pattern, this is true—the only place the patterns calls for boning is in the split front of the bodice.  When I realized I would need to add boning down the length of the torso I did have the thought that I should maybe use some spiral steel instead, but I already had the Flexicurve and I was – AGAIN – sewing on a deadline.

This was perhaps, in some manner or form, something akin to a mistake.

Meaning, by the end of the day I was really starting to wish I’d used metal boning.  Even if it would have meant boning channels and more seams and time and expense.  Every time I leaned over wrong a little elbow of plastic would poke into my stomach.  To say nothing of the ends that were starting to poke me.  (I’d rounded the ends and covered them with ribbon, but clearly that wasn’t enough.)

Getting back to the channels:  by now I’ve made several garments with boning, including two corsets (metal boning), a couple dresses (plastic), and some bras (underwires are a kind of boning), and one thing I’ve learned is your boning is always trying to poke through.  It doesn’t matter what kind of boning you use, that rigid end is going to be rubbing against your fabric and unless you account for this it’s going to wear through.  Anyone who wears an underwire bra has experienced this with a bra that’s a little past its prime, and that’s with reinforced channels.

If your patterns tells you to make channels from the fashion fabric, don’t.  Especially when one side of that channel is a lightweight lining. Even if (like me) you don’t think the boning is going to be under much stress.  You will regret it as soon as that boning tip breaks through and starts digging into your skin.  And it won’t take long; I’ve worn this dress for two conventions and I’ve started to see one of the ends rubbing through.  And those bones aren’t under any strain!

The bottom line is, use bone casing.  Especially with lighter weight fashion fabrics. The only time I’ve gotten away with not using it is when I had two layers of corset coutil on both sides of the bone. (The bone in the single-layer channel eventually poked through—but I admit that corset gets a lot of use.)  Your garment and your skin will thank you.

The dress holding up for now, but I haven’t decided whether I’m going to fix the boning or not.  I really should, but that means more time and money.  We’ll see how I feel at the end of the next convention.

*But for heaven’s sake, don’t use your good sewing scissors.