Midnight Blue with Cream Lace corset - finished

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So, having worked on the partial overlay for the lace, my client and I then decided to take the design of this corset a little bit further with delicate appliques made from carefully cut pieces of the lace. The result? A very special little underbust corset that I hope she’ll love.



Now, the midnight blue dupioni silk is very dark. It’s actually quite difficult to photograph accurately, which is why I have draped the mannequin in this diaphanous silk for the photographs, but it is very lovely indeed. Coupled with the cream lace there is something rather clean and classic about it. This corset was ordered as a standard 22” high-hipped underbust corset (closing at 20” if appropriate) and is loose lined with soft cotton sateen for a polished and neat look.





























































As my client said to me, we got a lot of “mileage” out of this lace!


























































Above left is the lace before I began cutting. It was an antique piece that my client found in a thrift store, I believe, and is very dainty and delicate. We used that lovely scalloped edge to create the curves over the hips, and cut the central line of motifs out in order to overlay the main portion for extra detail. Above right shows another piece of lace that my client sent through and very kindly gifted to me. So now I get to daydream about how to use it!





































At first glance it seemed as though the top edge of the lace would be useless, but with some careful cutting and by turning the motif back and forth we created a lovely and organic section of swirls to decorate the upper centre-back of the corset. The profile of the motifs was rather similar on either side, so whilst it did have a right and wrong side this was only noticeable if you looked very closely so I had quite a bit of freedom when using this lace.





























































This was all rather time-consuming of course, but hand-stitching is truly enjoyable when you’re working on something like this and it was well worth the effort!



Cream satin lacing will finish this corset off perfectly (it is being sent through with both standard black corsetry lacing and cream satin ribbon so that the client may go between them). 44 individually cut narrow steels (a combination of spiral and flat) give a very smooth and comfortable cinch.





































I’m very pleased with this little corset and am very keen to do more work with lace as a result. One overbust sample I’m working on right now features metallic lace in a similar placement over the hips, and is great fun! I really want to purchase some very special swanky lace, but that’s an expense that I can’t really justify right now. One day…

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