Sewing help needed - bones in a dress?

[CLHCO]

We purchased a pattern for a ball gown my daughter will construct for her 4-H project and for a civil war dance offered in the fall. Most of it looks similar to things I've done before in the past except for bones. I've never constructed anything that used bones.

The pattern calls for 8 1/4" bones but the only thing our local store sells are rolls of boning, generally already encased. Can I assume this will work if I simply measure the seams we'll need it on?

Also, the instructions seem to imply one knows how to put the bones into the seams and/or darts. Does anyone know of a book or web site that explains this or is it something that can be explained in writing?

The dress has the fabric, lining and interlining. Should I sew them into the lining or the main fabric? The instructions seem to imply it should be on the dress material directly but wouldn't that make them show more to be over the interlining instead of under it?

Thanks!

[Kelli in TN]

There should be a casing or tunnel of some sort between the lining and the outerfabric. This is where your boning would go in. Since you are purchasing boning by the roll, you just cut off what you need. One word of warning, the boning has a definate direction to it, it will arch one way or the other. Make sure you insert it so that the natural bend to it matches your daughter's torso.

And good luck.

I made one garment with boning, and yes, it was gorgeous on my daughter, but the whole time I was constructing it I was saying "never again, never again". That boning had a mind of its own!

And yet, now I have a daughter who is a volunteer historical interpretor and I just know that someday she will want to stop borrowing dresses from the museum and she will want her own outfit and it will involve a corset and that involves boning.:( But I hope not.