1895 Outfit: Sleeve Plumpers Are Completed

A cane sleeve plumper from the side.

In a recent post titled "Outfit: Sproing! A Bouncy, Bouffant Wire Sleeve Plumper", I tested out a wire sleeve plumper made of compound memory wire.

It worked well, and is fairly lightweight, but I want something as light as air as can be managed, so decided to try another material.

The Plumper Champion: Cane

I didn't have enough long zip ties in the stash to use them, and refuse to purchase more plastic, so I thought to dig into my cane stash. I have oodles from a decade ago, and it's still good and springy, if a bit more brittle than originally. Split cane can be feather-light. Why I didn't start with that, I don't know.
So, I found a sunny corner in the dining room, plunked down onto the floor, and made them up. Christopher, being ill that day, had "Miracle on Ice", an old hockey movie, on as his treat to make up for a very sore and unhappy stomach, and I wasn't keen on hearing endless referees' whistles and coaches yelling. We get enough of that at football games. Anyhow...

It took perhaps an hour and a half to put them together, most of the time being used to match the size of each ring to its prototype ring, which is a tiny bit fiddly. I used scraps of blue paper painter's tape to close the ends of each ring. I may, or may not wind scraps of ribbon and cotton tape over the paper tape to hide the paper. The cane rings were sewn to the connecting cotton tape in the same way as in the prototype.

Here are the final cane sleeve plumpers, completed.

A cane sleeve plumper from the front.

As with the prototype, they are to be tacked down on the inside of the shoulder seam to hold them in place.

Ha! Put together we have a sculpture. Nutmeg kitty isn't too interested.
She's too concerned with stretching her paws against a table leg.

So. That's done! Or is it? See Mrs. C.'s comment. I may be winding waxed thread over each ring's joins and then soaking the cane to refresh it and make it springy again. Thank you, Mrs. C.!