Bodice frame

To hold its shape and stay up without the constant tugging common to poorly-tailored and insufficiently-structured strapless dresses, my gown would need a frame. I designed the bodice to feature a dozen strips of boning that met at a waistband which together served to support the whole dress from my hips. This layer was encased by the pleated outer fashion fabric layer and the lightweight lining that would feel more comfortable against my skin.

First I needed the basic shape for this layer. I made it using a lining pattern from another dress I had made before and liked. I used just the lining because it was the most basic shape, which was all I needed. I altered it to include a waistband using tailoring techniques and trial-and-error. Using Glinda, I tailored that basic shape to fit my form perfectly, then remade the pattern off of that so that I could recreate that tailored look as many times as needed. That pattern became the bodice structure and was later altered to help me make the lining for the bodice and the back sections of the outer layer, too.

Once I had the fabric parts for the structure pieced together, the next step was to add boning in quite a few places. Boning isn't cheap, but it's also not cost-prohibitive enough to stop me from putting a bunch of it in that bodice! I wanted that bodice to hold itself up and require no work on my part to keep it in order. I went for a dozen pieces; the most essential parts would have been the princess seams over the cups and at the side seams, but a few more really helped prevent sagging in the other areas.

Sewing on the boning was a simple task. I erred on the long side with measuring and cutting the pieces, then took out the plastic insides (laying them out in an organized way to avoid later mix-ups with lengths) to pin the fabric casing onto the fabric, making sure that it was snug. Just like in the instructions, I ran a line of straight stitching up each side of the casing, careful not to stitch into the area where the plastic goes. Then I closed the lower end of the casing with a seam along right where the bodice would later meet the skirt (a 5/8" seam allowance in from the bottom edge). Next, I made sure that the ends of the plastic strips were cut straight, and snipped the corners with scissors then rounded them off even further using a cheap nail file. This was all to help ensure that no boning would come poking out later on and jab me or snag my fabrics. I then stuck the boning pieces in and worked out exactly where the top edges would have to be cut in order to be long enough but not too long. Then I trimmed and rounded those edges like before, and encased them with another seam along the sweetheart neckline 5/8" from the edge where another seam would also come later in attaching the structure to the rest of the bodice pieces.

Later these boning pieces would bring a tricky element into putting the outer later, structure layer, and lining together. With the pieces all together it was bulky, and the boning made it even bulkier. The tricky part, though, was skimming the stitches as close to the boning as possible without breaking my needle or puncturing the plastic strips with it. Needless to say, I took that whole seam nice and slow, and I used the hand-wheel over the spots with the plastic strips to be safe.

On our wedding day, that bodice did exactly what I wanted: nothing. It held up like a suit of shiny fabric armor over my torso, and nothing was going to fall out anywhere.