Waist Cincher: Part Deux

Ever since I made my first waist cincher, I have been wanting to make another one. I have been looking at corsets and getting color ideas. I even went so far as to buy two small 8" busks so I could modify Butterick B6643. Mainly because the 'waist cincher wiggle' is not a fun dance and I was tired of doing it every single day. For those unfamiliar with this particular dance, its where your shape wear is made to slip on with no closure, either over the head or up over the hips. In the case of Butterick B6643, it laces up in the back with no front closure. You have to slip it over your head and adjust the strings, which end up being super long because the strings have to have enough slack to fit over your shoulders or hips. They ain't fitting over my hips, so I get to wiggle it down over my shoulders as the cats claw at the strings. Fun times were had.

After a 3 months of this, I decided to make Cincher #2. I had once tried to make this oversized blouse and it went badly. But the fabric I had used was silky and pretty but it is very lightweight, so I'm sure its not silk. Anyways, I still had some of it leftover and there was just enough to make another one. I also still have the blouse itself, and I was thinking about making an overbust corset with that fabric. I have Butterick B5662 and I really want to make it, but I will need to order another busk, but more like 12 or 13 inches since its an actual corset.



I really think view A is bitchin and I really want to make that soon but with a busk in the front instead of laces.

So for cincher #2 I wanted to go a little bit longer in the front to help with the lower belly squish. Naturally when you wear a corset or waist trainer, you squish yourself. Well, that squish has to go somewhere, so the common problem areas for extra squish are lower belly and upper back. I don't have much of the upper back issue because I have a pretty wide banded bra that I made, so the cincher sits right over the edge of the bra, eliminating the upper back squish. But for the front I added an inch and a half to the length.

I also had to make a few adjustments to the pattern to make room for the busk in the front. The front piece on the original pattern is one piece, so I cut it in two pieces instead of cutting one piece on the fold. Then I added my really thick fusible interfacing layer and also a plain white cotton layer for the inside lining. Since the busk hook side comes out through little spaces without doing any cutting to the fabric, it was put together as normal. I basted the interfacing to the pretty outer fabric and then eventually basted the lining on. For the normal pattern you sew the lining to one side of the front and sandwhich it on, covering the seams. But for any seams that were left uncovered, I made some white bias binding and sewed it over the seams which also doubled as the casings for the spiral steel boning. Win win!


Left is the bias binding and right is the self made casing/lining.

Speaking of the busk, there were a couple of very handy videos that I found for inserting both sides of the busk. For the loop side, you trace all the spaces around the loops themselves and then you sew everywhere you marked (the green lines). Then you turn it right side out and slip the loops through the spots you didn't sew. It blew my mind! I thought you had to make cuts in the fabric for each loop and I could only picture a nightmare of unraveling threads.


Magical...

For the knob side, you do make holes in the fabric, but with an awl, so the threads separate from each other but they don't break, more or less. Also mind blowing to me. I used my weeder from Cricut because it was the only thing I had that had such a sharp point on it. And I cannot tell you how many holes I made, just to watch them heal themselves. It was so cool!!



Also for the stay piece, I changed it up a bit, too. Instead of sewing 1/4" from the edges and turning the edges under and all that, I actually made a piece in the fashion fabric and also the lining and sewed them right sides together. Then I turned them right side out and sewed them on. I thought this might give that area more strength because after 3 months of wearing it almost every day it started to come apart a little...


or a lot... yikes... I made this poor thing WORK. haha


ahh... much more stable.

Otherwise she went together pretty much the same. I took apart my original cincher and used the same bones for this one because I'm cheap. Plus if I am going to be making an actual corset, I am trying to save up the spiral steel boning that I have and that way I only have to buy a couple more yards and I should have enough. And this cincher is not any smaller because I thought if I went down another size, the rib and hip area wouldn't be the same. With my original one, the hip and rib areas fit perfectly and I finally got it closed all the way in the back. I am now at 27" in the waist. I really wanted to make a smaller one to go down just a little more, but that would have changed the hip and rib area unless I did some magic and I was already making adjustments. Bleh. So for now I will have to be happy with a 27.

Anyways, here she is!


Purdy. I guess I should have gotten a slightly taller busk so it would reach almost to the ends, but for my first busk-sperience, I'm not unhappy.


I love the lacing in the back! I added more grommets, giving this one 14 on each side instead of 9 like on the old one. And I know its not 100% right, but this ribbon was so pretty and only $.50 at the thrift store, so I bought it especially for this. It does not disappoint. It is sheer on one half of it and both halves are separated by a really super thin rainbow-y line. Its hard to describe and even harder to photograph well...



So needless to say I am pretty stoked with this one and I reeeeeaaaly want to make a whole overbust corset now. Maybe soon... (insert hopeful music)