Pirate Wedding - Corset/Bodice BINDING COMPLETE!

I'm so excited! I figured out how to bind the tabs of my corset. Cathy Hay's method wasn't working for me, and I'm wondering if it's because the tabs are just slits in the fabric of the corset--there is no space built in between them, in the pattern.

Previously, I had been attaching the binding by opening it up, sewing along the outermost fold using a backstitch (or something like that), and then folding it around to the inside and stitching it down. Like this:

But I figured out that the girl who made the prototype of this corset basically made a sandwich with the binding, using the binding as the bread and the corset as the meat of the sandwich.

I was able to finish binding my corset this weekend! I've attached the two halves together and I'm so excited. I'm almost done! I still need to do shoulder straps and a modesty panel and grommets. But the bulk of the work is done!

It looks absolutely horrible from the inside. Obviously I have issues with attaching the binding at start & finish, but I'll work that out on my next corset, which will be from a proper pattern. But who cares about the inside, because the outside looks pretty decent! The top edges don't match up perfectly, but I figure I can put a bow or some other kind of embellishment to hide it.

Pirate Wedding - Corset/Bodice BINDING

I started feeling bad about not following through on so many projects, so I decided to pick up my pirate costume again. I WILL finish Project 3!

I was looking at examples of tabbed corsets that other costume bloggers have done, and I saw a beautiful one that American Duchess made. There is a closeup of the binding and what do you know, you can see her stitches. And it doesn't detract from the beauty of the corset at all, in my opinion. Her work is so amazing.

Here is a picture showing the binding in detail. I wonder if the tabs separate out like that because of the binding, or if she has to shape the space between them.

So I went through my embroidery thread and found one that matches the color of the fabric & binding pretty closely. I actually went with 840 for the thread. I think it's Coats & Clark embroidery thread.

Look how it turned out. If I look closely I can see a few exposed threads, but they are all but invisible. I'm so happy! Now I just need to figure out binding between the tabs. I'll study Cathy Hay's instructions again tonight.

I should have been working on it last night, but it was such a lovely evening. I wanted to enjoy the warm weather and the beautiful sunset. I wish my camera could have captured the intense orange glow below the neon pink clouds.