Sewing September - Day 24

I was making great progress last night. I got the busk completely set and it looks fantastic. I stitched the boning channels in the back panels so I'd be ready for grommeting, but something happened.

I use Chacoliner to mark the stitching lines for the channels. I used my new red Chacoliner on the shell of the corset, and it didn't wipe off as easily as the yellow. I tried using a scrap of the same fabric to rub the red chalk off, but that didn't work. I took the panels into my kitchen and hit them with cold water and a little dish soap. I scrubbed the lines with my fingers and rinsed the panels, leaving them to dry in my dishrack.

When I dyed the coutil for the quickie corset, I rinsed that stuff until the water ran clear. I rinsed it and air dried it, then rinsed it again and again and again. You can't wash a corset because of the bones and grommets, but there were no bones and I bought the coutil that was already dyed black. Imagine my surprise when I found that the dye in the coutil ran all over the shell. This was just from the hand washing in cold water with soap. Not cool at all. I have to remake these back panels. (What the hell is the deal with having to make corset rear panels twice per corset this month?!)

Not cool, black coutil. Not cool at all.

I'm fortunate this happened when it did. I've made black coutil corsets that didn't stain while being worn, but those were from a different dye lot. She's not going swimming in this corset, but she is going to get sweaty. I can't have it dye her skin or ruin the shell. The lesson I've learned is that you must rinse coutil that has been dyed to dark colors before using it, even if you didn't dye it yourself. I'm going to rinse all of the coutil I bought until the water is clear. I'm going to rinse the inside coutil panels that have already been assembled. It's a bigger pain to pull out the busk and rinse that coutil, so I'm going to try interfacing the coutil on that panel, essentially creating a fusible condom to protect the shell from the coutil. The panel is so small I don't think it will be an issue.

Learning lessons quickly by sewing so intensively. :)