#corset modification

Hi! I have a video showing how to take a front-busk corset and add laces instead, but not the other way around.

It IS possible to do, although it will result in your corset fitting ~2 inches smaller, and it will be a bit tricky to install the busk if the rest of the corset is closed. Here’s how I would do it:

Use a seam ripper to pick back the binding a few inches in the center front (both top and bottom). You don’t need to remove it completely.

Remove the bones in the front. If you don’t want the grommet holes to show in the front of your final piece, you’ll need to remove the grommets as well.

Use your seam ripper to remove the old boning channels in the center front.

Fold back the center front edge, hiding the grommet holes in the seam allowance of your new center front. Press well. This tutorial (where I hide the holes of the stud half of the busk in the new seam allowance) will give you an idea of how I did it. If you want your corset to be the same size in both halves, then you need to fold back both seam allowances equally.

I normally install the loop side of the busk first, and then I transfer markings to the other side and put the knob side in next. For the loop side, I’d probably start by baste-topstitching the center front seam completely closed (to make sure my top and bottom fabric layers lined up neatly), marking out the placement of my loops, using my seam ripper to take out only the sections of the topstitch that I need to stick the loops through, secure the busk in with the anchoring seam, and then go BACK to the center front and reinforce that basting topstitch with a tighter seam.

Line up your two sides of the corset and transfer over where the knob placement needs to be. I would probably use my awl and get the knobs in first, then sew that center front topstitch seam second, then the anchoring seam on the other side last.

Hello! I’ve gotten this request a couple of times, and I’m still overcoming procrastination to finally do it. :p It is definitely possible to take in a corset and make it smaller (Snowblack has a cool video on one she modified and added her own personal touch to it), but in my mind it takes a lot more effort to rip apart a corset and put it back together, than it is to just make a new corset from scratch.

Hello! It’s possible to remove a busk and make it a closed front, although you will probably end up with it being 0.5 - 1 inch smaller than it was originally, if you want to conceal the holes from the knob side of the busk within the seam allowance (and of course, take the same amount off the other side of the corset so it’s equal on both sides!)

This tutorial shows how to remove a damaged busk and make a front lacing corset. To make it closed front instead, you’ll want to sew the two sides together - reinforce it a whole lot (where there are seams, there is weakness) - and it’s probably a good idea to put a double-width external boning channel down the center front. It will straddle the center front seam which will make it stronger, and you can add two sturdy flat steel bones in the front to keep it flat. I like to put 4 bones in the center front of a closed front corset actually, but that’s a matter of preference.

But I've only just realised I probably won't be able to find matching peach bias binding. I can't think of what colour would go with peach! At the moment I'm leaning towards either plain white or pastel blue. Anyone have any other ideas?

Hi! Pain is never normal. You have a couple of options.

You can continue wearing your corset with a 2 inch gap in the back, as that’s perfectly acceptable. Some corsetieres recommend it; sometimes it’s drafted that way and sometimes it’s a matter of preference. Even if you wear the corset with a /\ shaped gap in the back to accommodate your hips, I won't stop you because your comfort > aesthetic line of the back of your corset.