Remember how I told you about the process of developing an underbust corset, and how I went through a lot of prototypes to get my formula just perfect?  That means that I made A LOT of underbust corsets.  I’ve given some away, torn some apart and recycled the pieces, but still have quite a few to show you.

I really love this one, but I’m still tempted to call it the ‘Not Another Underbust Corset’, because I’m afraid that is really how I felt making it.

It’s made of vintage post WWII synthetic brocade, which was called ‘Kyoto silk’ at the time to make it sound a bit fancier.  The fabric was a gift from my honorary aunt Artie.  The piece was just big enough to make the corset.

It’s lined in a fabulous printed houndstooth craft cotton in aqua and black.  I love the contrast of the bold lining and the delicate pastel outer.

The houndstooth lining was a fairly recent purchased, picked up at a 50% off sale at Arthur Toyes.

Like all my later, more successful, underbust prototypes, this one is boned on either side of each seam.  Not only is that a much easier way to do boning, it creates a much more balanced aesthetic, and gives better fitting.  Wins all around!

I’ve used a silver busk and silver grommets for this corset.  While you can get gold coloured busks, they are much more expensive than the silver coloured ones, so I rarely use them (especially not on prototypes).  Luckily there was no aesthetic compromising with the busk and grommets in this corset – the pale blues really called for silver.

Grommets, on the other hand, come in a number of colours – silver, black, brass/gold, and white, but I have found in teaching corsetmaking that 50% of students pick silver coloured grommets, 20% pick black, and 15% pick brass/gold or white.

While I’m very happy with the construction of this corset in most ways, there are a few little things about it that bug me.  First, I’m not convinced the bright aqua cotton binding is the right colour.  I was in a hurry to finish this, wanted to finish it exactly as I would have the students finish it, wanted the binding to be obvious so it would be easy to see and study, and wanted to use fabrics that I had in my stash.  Hence the binding.

It fills all the practical requirement perfectly, and it looks fantastic with the houndstooth.  From the front though?  I don’t love it.  I think it would have looked better with a self-fabric binding, or in a much softer blue with a bit of a sheen to it.  Maybe if I find reason to keep the corset in my stash I’ll re-bind it one day.

I also don’t love the black ties.  I liked white even less, and black went with the lining beautifully.  What would really be fantastic is a dull silver.

Still, it’s a pretty corset, it makes a great demonstration corset, and it was done.  And I’m too self critical!  (says she, self critically!)