Second Corset Attempt

So my hot pink twill mockup was never destined to be a completed corset. I realised after much altering and fussing around with it a few pertinent things...

1. I had no lacing gap in the back. And creating one would necessitate me doing a lot of boring and tedious things. Even more boring and tedious than simply making a whole new corset. 
2. Now that I had altered it to fit my body, I no longer had any seam allowance in some sections leading me to believe that someday the threads would pull on the seams and the whole thing would fall off me at an inopportune moment. 
3. A rear lacing corset takes an age to get on and off by yourself and the chances of dislocating a shoulder while doing so where high. 

So I decided to just make a whole new one. And why not buy some really pretty fabric while I was at it? Off I went and spent almost $100 on fabric which would later prove to be a gross waste of money. 

My second attempt at the 18th century corset...

Note the very pretty 18th century style cotton fabric print. The print that wasted 6hrs of my life in pattern matching. Oh well, another thing I had never done before and a new feather in my seamstress cap. 

The shift was something I made up inbetween mockups on the fly (it's made from raime out of my scrap box). I followed some hazy internet instructions on how to make an elizabethan shift and rounded out the neckline to suit my style. It worked marvelously well. So well in fact I have been unable to make another one as nice as it. I even went to town and handstitched all the seam allowances flat on the inside. What was I thinking? 

Cable ties, the costumers best friend. You can see them poking over the top of the corset. 

I had handsewn all the eyelets on this one. By the 56th eyelet I finally figured out how to make the holes big enough to pass a regular shoelace through. 

As much as I love the fit on this one it also wasn't destined to become a completed item owing once again to the lack of lacing gap. Although it looks like I've got one inch in these photos by the third try on I had none at all the corset was starting to feel a bit loose. Cry....I couldn't just take it in at the seams without unpicking all those bone casings and if there is one thing I hate more than sewing bone casings it's unpicking them. So this one hit the bin too.