Bothersome Boning...

I ended up doing some handstitching anyway. The boning channels are now done using running stitches. I might yield and use the machine for sewing all the pieces together, but first I have to deal with the problem of not having any actual boning yet. I have some left-overs of 10mm and 12mm wide hoop steel boning (and I've ordered 4 meters of each width from eBay) but I see now that it's not going to be enough, so I might have to call in a favor from the "in-laws". There's a terrific shop in Liverpool (amongst other places) called Abakhan which sells exactly the boning I need, but they do not, as of yet, ship outside the UK, so I won't get what I need untill I go over at the end of February. I guess I'll just have to use some plastic boning as a temporary solution and then swap them with more suitable boning when it's available. I've also ordered a big bundle of reed, but it's not likely to turn up in time (and it's 1/4", so it would be too slim anyway), so I'll probably save that for later projects.

Anyway, this is how the pieces look for now, boned with a mix of plastic and hoop steel boning: