At Long Last: A Corset

Vintage Lace: Shattered

Soooooo, I lashed her to the dress form today for the first time, and the lace got caught in the cross-fire. Most of this lace has held up to gentle handling but this is in the back, and I must have wrestled too hard with her.  Now what??
I really, really love this lace.  (Except for the fragility.)  It must be just over 100 years old.

Cross Marking w/ Masking Tape

 I finally found a way to mark grommets that keeps them from going all wonky.  I was able to set 14 in about 1/2 hour today, start to finish.  The punch distressed the silk to some extent, which in turn, distressed me.  It's not too bad, just a noticeable pull in the fabric.  There must be a way to combat that.  Perhaps that's the role of the second grommet bone placement, which I didn't add to this corset.  Live and learn.  Also, note that I used a pressing rag for both marking and for fray checking to cover my work.  Never carry a Q-tip full of fray check across the work!

Just to remind self that on this particular Osborne Setter, the work goes in: Washer (concave-up), then, the work with grommets in it, face up.  One ends up working blind a bit, but going the other way smashes the grommet.  I hate having to test it 6x every time.  Wastes time and grommets.

Flossing I Dig

I made note of how it's supposed to be done.  It looks easy enough, but once the needle gets flying, it goes all over the place.  Best to count stitches.  When I count, I can tell which ones when I'm finished.
I love the flowers.  I had to leave the leaves off because there wasn't quite enough room.

Horribly Important

But I can't recall why.  I always snap pics during construction and think, "Oh, I'd like to remember that!" and then fail to notate why because I'm so busy sewing.

If I had to guess, I'd say I snapped this one to remind self to not cut the back this way again. I cut in two pieces instead of on the fold, and then had to remove stitches (the hot mess on the left side) to fix what that created.