The final product

Many of you will know that I have been sewing a corset on and off since R&H got married. (That is about 2 years ago - give or take a few days :) ) This is the fabric I used, although the colours are slightly off in the picture, it does show the pattern very nicely.

Finally, after a week of some frustrating experiences, I finished it yesterday.


The pattern called for normal, plastic boning, and being the geek I am, I had to protect the edges of each piece from poking through the layers of the corset, by sewing a protective piece of fabric either end,





trimming off the pieces of fabric and then inserting the boning into the sewn channels. I mixed the plastic boning, which I used for the shorter channels, with steel boning for the long channels - especially the side seam.





Then, I ran out of eyelets (grommets) Grrrrrr! The store that could put them in did not want to sell them to me to put in myself, but only if they were the ones putting them it. Double Grrrrr! So, on the back, you can see that the right side has different eyelets in the few holes at the top, because the supplier did not have other potions. Welcome to Africa!!

I also noticed that this particular pattern does not accommodate for the slight woven edges on the plastic boning when the channels are sewn, so the boning curls. Triple Grrrrr!



The view from the front is still my favourite, because it makes me look good :) Yes, it is me wearing the corset.










What I would do differently:
1. Get a longer busk. (The one in the kit I got two years ago was a standard size, but because i had added 4cm to the length, the busk was even shorter)
2. Make sure I have enough eyelets (!)
3. Iron in the seam allowance on the channels less than is called for in the pattern, so that the boning does not curl
4. Use a different fabric for the lining, since I think it shrank when I ironed in the course of sewing, probably accounting for the narrowness of the channels as well.
5. Perhaps (just perhaps) leave a bigger gap at the back to lace tighter, but I'm not so sure about that one, since I like being able to breathe ;)

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