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Well I set out to put in the grommets last night, but it was kind of late and by the time I had attached the back facings, I realized that I was too tired to figure out how to use the grommet setter, measure and set 30 grommets without screwing up at least one of them. Which I do not want to do. So I made bone casings instead.

Bone casings, as you might guess, are the tubes of fabric that you put the boning in. Corsetry supply companies sell bone casing by the yard. A normal person would buy a few yards of bone casing, cut it to the needed lengths, and be done with it. But that would be way too easy for me. Oh no, I had to make my own bone casing out of the same silk I'm using for the outside of the corset. Of course, this silk isn't strong enough to withstand the pressure of tightlacing without the ends of the boning ripping through. So first I interfaced it with iron-on interfacing. Then cut it into 1" strips, each about a foot long.

Next the sides had to be folded under to make a 1/2" tube. The boning is 1/4" wide, so you'd think a half inch tube would be too wide. Aha, but you have to sew it down on both sides, and that takes a bit of width off. With a seam on either edge, it's a pretty snug fit as I recall.

Of course the bone casings all have to be exactly the same width. They're going to be on the outside and in a different color, so any variation in width will look really sloppy. The best way I've seen to do this is to set a pin into the ironing board with a gap of just the right width under the pin. Fold the strip of fabric, pull it under the pin and iron it as it comes out the other side, et voila! Neat little tubes of fabric, all the same size. The end you push through first ends up a touch too narrow, but I cut the strips a bit long so I can just discard the narrow ends. I did 15 bone casings last night, before I got so bored I couldn't stand it anymore. Unfortunately, I need 22. I don't think I can take bone casing again tonight, and it's early yet, so I'm going to work on those pesky grommets.