How To Place To The Body & Sew

In this modern world we have the luxury of being able to buy polyester boning, it’s easy to sew into your garment if you follow the guidelines below.

Boning is specially created to give shape and support to corsets and other strapless garments that need help with support. This product is ideal for evening wear, theatrical costumes and even swim wear, and so many other craft uses.

This type of boning is extremely light weight and it’s possible to sew it into position straight onto the garment or the lining. I try and send all corset customers this guide so I thought I would pop the information on my blog.

Here is my guide to boning!

This boning is designed to be sewn to either the fabric seam allowance or the lining seam allowance; I generally prefer to sew to the lining. Of course you can also insert it into a channel if you want to.

It is important that you attach the boning so that the curve of the boning is going away from the body, a little confusing I know but hopefully the pictures below will help!

 Firstly The Wrong Way

When the boning is sewn to the corset you do not want it to form a bubble away from the body as shown here. Therefore position it so that the curve of the ridgeline forms a C shape when placed to the body, as shown below, this will allow the boning to mould to the body.

 The correct way!

Cut the boning so that it will finish approx. 6 mm away from the upper and lower seams to prevent an unsightly bulge. So If you have a 1 cm seam allowance the boning will end 6 mm below that.

When sewing the boning to the seam allowance, place equally each side of the flat seam allowance (you should have already pressed this open and flat) stitch on the very edge of the boning going all the way through the lining and the seam allowance. Place cotton or wadded end caps at each end of the boning to prevent it from fraying the garment.

My corset boning packs come with small plastic end caps which are idea, if you don’t have these then use small fabric pieces to cover the ends, it’s also advisable to curve the ends of the boning pieces with your scissors as they can be quite sharp and pointy and can then poke through your garment in time.

I love making corsets and they are not as difficult as you imagine, so why not give it a try! This product goes perfectly with my corset pattern block pack, also available in my Etsy shop as a PDF or a printed pattern sheet.

Happy sewing

Nicola x