Corset Commission 1 and other sewing

As previously mentioned, I'm making a corset for a male friend of mine, Bob, for a drag show. I'm excited and nervous to be entrusted with this, as its a charity show and of course my first time sewing female clothing for a male. It will also be my first time using cable ties as boning, something I've been wanting to try.

We picked out a Butterick pattern 3906 -- its a nice underbust corset and came in plus sizes which was a bonus for grading the pattern up to fit him. The only major change to the pattern was taking off the straps so it was more of a waist cincher.

Last night, I cut the pattern out of muslin. I added one inch to each side of each pattern piece and lengthened them about an inch as well. Then the pieces were pinned together.

Today, I stitched together all pieces with a machine basting stitch and also basted in the zipper. The finished corset with lace up the back, but as I told Bob, I can't reuse eyelets so those are going to be saved for the final corset. After I put the zipper in, I realized how HUGE it ended up, so I went through and took an inch out of each seam. On one panel, I took a little out of the middle of the panel, thinking it might work better fit wise if I increase the number of panels. We'll see what he thinks at his fitting.

Now all that's left of this step is to have said fitting and see what changes need made before I tackle the pleather.

Other things I did last night / today -

I measured how much lace Miss Dashwood needs to purchase so I can trim out her black bustle. I was hoping I had some in my stash, but alas, I don't have nearly enough.

I hemmed my City Bluescape skirt. Then put in the casing and the elastic so that's DONE.

I started sewing the cotton underlining to the fabric for the Joker trousers - tabs and waistband are underlined.

I cut out the pants for my Imperial Officer uniform. I think we're going to try to get me approved before an event that's coming up.

And now I'm off to see my beau!

A bientot!

Miss Leah J Wilde