Answer:
A device for finding furniture in the dark.
It has no top or bottom, but it can hold flesh, bones, and blood all at the same time.
Late afternoons I often bathe. I'll soak in water piping hot. My essence goes through. My see through clothes. Used up am I - I've gone to pot.
What hangs others yet can unintentionally hang itself?
My first is an insect; my second is a border; my whole puts the face in a tuneful disorder.
Dark, feathery, and popular in Baltimore and fantasy books.