Many years ago now, (like, early 2015) I made a Very Boring Corset. And then wore it To Death. It got altered at least twice (taking in the tummy then adding more shape to the hips via a gusset… possibly undoing the first alteration?
Grommets popped out at least twice; I patched and darned the holes and reinserted them. I gained about twenty-five pounds, and wore it with an unreasonably wide lacing gap in the back. It was the first corset that I ever really broke in, and frankly it’s still one of the comfiest I own. Though the part last summer where it got stained with bright blue splotches from a punctured ice pack moved it a few rungs down on my preferences list.
I re-altered my very altered pattern again last summer to make my Summer Corset, which fits about as well as a girl could ask for. But.
I’ve been wanting a simple underbust version—my other underbust corsets are all very fashion-y, not underwear-y, and I wanted a plain underwear-style corset I could wear with a regular bra, when I don’t want quite such a “historical” silhouette.
So, I took my new pattern, subtracted the bust part, and got sewing.
Mainly last Saturday.
By Saturday night, I was doing my first (no bones) try on. If I did it again I would maybe not cut down quite as low under the bust (raise it 1 cm?) but otherwise I’m super happy with the shape.
Once I got the boning in on Sunday, I was super desperate to get it bound. So I wound up trying to attach very narrow pre-made bias tape (I didn’t have wider in white and didn’t want to take time to make more), in a single pass. I like the low-profile edge it makes, and it might even have worked sewing it on in two passes (as I usually do) or hand basting first, but I was in a rush and with the narrowness of the binding there was no margin for error. So I had to unpick and redo several sections where I somehow didn’t even catch the corset at all, and there may be more to come that are hanging by a few threads.
So yeah. Take your time. Do it right.
I didn’t do a waist stay this time (yet, anyway). I wanted a slightly softer shape. Not sure I like it, but I can always add one later.
Not much else to say. I like it. The busk sits low enough it doesn’t push the underwires of my bra up into my chest, which my other underbust corsets do. I didn’t have to take this coutil version in in the way I did my summer mesh corset from the same pattern, so that was definitely caused by stretching, as I kind of thought.
It’s comfy, y’know, as corsets go, by which I mean it’s fine for standing, walking, and sitting upright, but definitely not what you want to wear bumming around on your couch. And with any luck it will be perfect for that “fantasy heroine” aesthetic I’m so fond of these days. I’m also excited to try it under some of my 1950s style dresses, but it’s a bit chilly for them right now, as winter has finally arrived.
Tanit-Isis Sews 