Nothing is without flaw...

Now on to the things I don’t like about this corset. As I said, this was one of my very early sewing projects. I didn’t know much about fabrics and I don’t think I had ever seen a good quality corset in person, let alone examined one closely. There are a few things that I don't like about it: The lining fabric, the construction method, the bias binding, the grommets, and the cut.

Fabric-This corset is two layers of ugly beige cotton duck, and one layer of upholstery fabric. This thing is practically bullet proof, and much heavier than it needed to be. The duck has probably stretched, but since I never bothered to take measurements of it, I am not really sure.

Construction- The upholstery brocade is fused to a layer of cotton duck, and the second layer of duck is the lining. The lining and outer layer were constructed separately, and then sewn together. Since I was new to sewing I didn’t realize how important accuracy was, so when I went to sewing the two layers together, none of the seam lines matched. This is *very* noticeable when you look at the lining because the stitch lines that created my boning channels do not in any way line up with the seam lines. Plus, I was apparently randomly changing thread colors on the lining. Thankfully, the shell doesn't have the thread color issues. So, between the ugly beige and the even uglier seam lines, this isn’t a corset I generally show off the interior of.

The Bias Binding- Ok, so I know I said before that I was proud of myself for haing taken the time to make the satin bias tape, and that is really true. However, my skill i applying said tape was...well, there was no real skill involved. First of all, top stitching on satin binding is not a look I generally like. Top stitching can look great on cotton, or if you want to use a contrast color, but if you can't manage to sew even a moderately straight line... You get the drift. It is a bit hard to see below, but the piece of boning on the edge goes all the way to the top of the binding, so I couldn't stitch through it, and didn't think to try to fake it with hand sewing.

I'm still stuck on the bias binding. Look at those lumps!

I was really trying to get this to look good here. That is why I am stretching the the binding with my fingers. Sadly, the only thing that makes this look good is very dim lighting.

The grommets- I think I mentioned above that I had never looked closely at a corset before making this one. I certain had never looked closely at a grommet, so I had no idea that the setter I had was setting them badly. Instead of making the neck bit curl back over itself, creating a lovely roll to hold the washer in place, this setter was just mashing the neck down onto the washer. It has held up over the years, but it just doesn't look at good as the ones I have that were properly set.

The Cut- This corset is too high cut for me, so it crushes rather than presents my assets. It should be cut at least an inch lower. Since the corset is now a bit big for me, I couldn't get a photo that showed this, but hopefully you will take my word for it.

Despite all of these flaws, I have gotten lots and lots of compliments on this corset. I have even been asked on multiple occasions if it was made by a local and famous corset company!