janestarz | Photoblog: Maretak's corset

It feels like the end of an era, which it - kind of - is. Before Christmas I started on Maretak's corset, and I had promised myself to spend most of Christmas working on it. Sadly, I was far too busy with family visits to do so. I finished the busk and one boning channel.
I did manage to spend one or two hours a night on it, and finally, yesterday I finished hand-sewing the binding. The needle I used was far too small, it kept going into my finger in the back in stead of into the fabric at the front!

Original fabric, to the right. Gingko leaves in green and white, lined with gold. It's a quilting cotton I found on e-bay.
The left is the fabric for Vuurdoorn,

nathreee's dryad. One down, one to go!

The panels when they were cut out. If you look hard enough, you can see the pattern-matching.
The front modesty panel is not pattern-matched after all, because I mistook which side it would be attached on.

Front view. You can really see the pattern matching here!

Side view. More pattern-matching and lovely bias-binding.

The back view. I was wearing it for the first time, and it wasn't broken in. I kept the corset on for more than an hour, and at the end it 'settled' and felt like it could be laced a bit more.

Making it took well over 30 hours, I'm guessing, but I didn't keep track. I'm very happy with how it turned out and how well-paced the work was. By doing two hours a night I didn't get tired of the process at all!
The corset is very comfortable, and hardly has any wrinkles while I'm wearing it despite it only having 10 bones and the busk. I guess that's why you can't beat coutil!