Update: I’m so sorry! I finished my paniers on Wednesday, wrote the final posts on how to make them, scheduled all the posts, and headed off for a much-need relaxing long weekend with friends. And then stupid WordPress didn’t publish my posts! So, to those of you who were counting on the end of the tutorial, I apologise! And to those of you who were just deprived of your daily entertainment, well, I apologise too!  On the bright side, now I have pretty pictures and a fun trip to tell you about on Wed! ~~~~~~~~~~~ Right, back to the Panier-Along! Let’s get these done! Yay! Final steps!  Today we’ll be pleating the top of your panier bags, and sewing them to the channels that your waist ties will go through.  First, hem the short edges of both of your 3″ x 7″ waist pieces.  I’ve done mine by hand, but machine is fine too.  When you are done it will measure about 6-6.5″ long Now you’ll be pleating the top of your panier-bags so that …

Hoorah! We’re to that point – the point where you get to put your boning in your paniers, and they really starts to looks like a real garment. When we finished the last step your panier bag was fully assembled, and looked like this: Now we put the  hoops in. First, from the inside, measure along each hoop channel, and make a note of how long it is.   They should be 24″ long, but it still pays to check.  Mine all came out at 24 1/4″, so that is how long I cut each of my pieces of boning/hooping: You can use all sorts of things as hooping (I covered them in my materials list), but the most common, easiest to work with and most period accurate are cane and wire hooping. I’m using cane hooping, which is the most period accurate, and is quite easy to get (available at a lot of craft stores, and online), and very affordable (mine cost lest than NZ$8).  The one drawback to cane is that it needs …

On Monday I showed you how to sew the bottom of your paniers to the side piece, and how to sew the panier inside piece to the bottom.  Now we need to attach the panier inside piece to the panier side piece, so that you have your full assembled bag. Before we can do this though, we need to do a quick check of how your fabric will pleat into your waistband.  I’m making my panier out of midweight linen, so it pleats together without being too bulky.  If you are making your paniers out of a thicker fabric it may be too bulky when you pleat the panier outside piece (the one with the hoop channels) and your panier inside piece together at the waistband. To check if this is going to be a problem, quickly pleat the top of your panier outside piece, and your panier inside piece together until they measure 7″ across (or 3.5″ on each side of the panier pocket slit). It will look like this on the outside, with …