Hide Glue Results!!!

At times I know what I'm talking about, but at other times I don't.  This was all sorts of I Have No Idea.  But I at least know what I am going to do now... or 2 good options.... or something like that.

And here are the winners!   The light-weight white with 1:1 as boning and 1:3 as an over-all wash, and the thick red in a 1:10 or so dilution:

Now to what that means:

To go back for a sec, these are the 3 fabrics that I tried in a way so that you can see the thickness.  Each  has 4 folds in it:

The bottom pink is a rather thick fabric like a light and extra bendable felt (kind of), the middle light green is kind of like what you'd expect from a rough cotton/linen blend, and the top white is a worn out duvet cover of thin cotton.

Here is the hide glue that I used.  It popped up near the top on Amazon and got good reviews:

Some notes on general usage of the hide glue:
-Sharp edges ow!
-This stuff really (really) needs to be stretched when the glue is applied.
-The 1:10 ratio (one part glue to 10 parts water) is the traditional ration used on painting canvases.
-It takes a long time to dry, but is only sticky for the first portion of that time.  After that it becomes like gelatin an is pliable and so forth.  Now I know I just said that it needs to be stretched, but it could conceivably be glue-coated, maybe an hour later cut around the edges to the desired shape, and then pinned down to some other surface to dry.  At that point there need not be any fear about it sticking to pins or weights or the surface on which it lays.  I also don't think it would leave any marks if, for example, it was lain over a screen.

The Results:

1:1
All three were fail.  Just like I saw on the Myth Busters episode on weather or not Jack and Rose could actually fit on that piece of wood in that movie I never saw and buoyancy ended up being much more important than size (they could both have survived - especially if there were one or two of those cork lifejackets strapped under the wood raft).  In this case, it was absorbency that was the unsuspecting magic key.  In the 1:1 ratio the glue is so thick that it just doesn't get absorbed into the fabric, so ends up like a shellac on the top.

The best one was the white one, but even that was positively shiny from the glue and not just stiff but hard:

1:3
We're just going to forget that the green fabric exists, ok?  It was always a fail and ended up being like a potato chip.

This was an interesting mix of results.  The white, thin one was meh, and the the red failed in the absorbency test as it was still shiny and too stiff.  But there was hope.

Remember that I did the tests with the 1:1 strips as boning?  Here's a reminder pic:

I figured that it was worth a try as it would be an easy enough trick to do and might be interesting.  I also figure that there are certain parts of the bodice that I'd want to have stiffer like the center front and wherever I'd put boning, really.

So, it was odd, but good.  The red 1:3 with was too thick all around.  The green 1:3 was like a warped potato chip, but the white, thin fabric 1:3 with boning..... WIN!   It's a thicker option, but the absorbency of the thin fabric really saved it.  Now I know it's curly from the drying process, but you've got to believe me that it's a good option.

Action shots:

Like I said, it's stiff, but I think it's what I want to use for inside my bodice.  The edges are ridiculous, so I'd stretch it out, draw the edges of what I want, and not fill in the glue to the edges to allow for some  comfort, but I was quite surprised by this.  It might also be even better with a 1:4 or 1:5 ratio, but this was really good.

1:10
This had some interesting results.  Green was a potato chip.  The ones with boning were too far apart of a mix to be anything short of ridiculous.  The others had possibilities, though.  The one for my purposes would be the red which was a nicely stiffened felt type fabric.  Not as stiff as what is in hats, but in comparison to just using felt to line a bodice this would give a bit more stiffening.  Well, here:

So it's got body but is pliable for sure.  I might use this to line my veste since I don't want or need it as stiff, but it's got hope.  Also a win, the fabric can be dipped into the glue, held up to drain off and... well that wouldn't work if it's stretched out on something.  Nevermind.

The other good option of the 1:10 was the thin white.  It's not what I want for this project, but it might be quite interesting for other options.  Like ruffs.  It ends up being like a heftily starched fabric.  

The zen temperature to soften this glue is 145*, so I wonder what it would be like if it's washed in luke warm water.  I suspect it would keep its shape quite well, actually.  I'll get back to you on all that, but this is not what I expected, and something to work with.  Oh, procedurally for making a glued ruff, I'm thinking that the process would need to be making the ruff, putting the tacking stitches in for the figure 8s, dipping in the watery glue and then after an hour when it's gummy putting in the foam rollers or whatever to help it maintain the shape while drying.  Well, and I think I'd rather use a 1:12 or greater strength.

Oh, and the stuff cleans up pretty readily due to the slow drying time.  So I used that pottery bowl, but it's all clean from having a decent amount of hot water run in it with a rough sponge.

So that's that.  You have my little mini experiment.  I feel rather emboldened, really, since I don't need to buy boning, canvas, buckram or any of the inner workings like that.  It's been fun.  And as a bonus, here is a picture I didn't know I'd taken:

I need to do the dishes.  I always need to do the dishes.  I do them every day yet still always need to do them.  Sigh...  back to reality.