Your eyelet pack will
come with a set of hole cutting tools and a set of eyelet setting tools which
you’ll need a hammer to ‘activate’ 🙂 Mark where you want your eyelets,
starting at the waistline which is marked on the pattern. Place the first two
an equal distance from the waist and continue marking the others above and
below. Make sure you don’t get too close to the corset edges as you’ll need to
get your bias binding on later. I’ve spaced mine just over an inch apart and they’re
a little bit close to the edges for my liking.

Next we sew all the
pieces together.

Sew each seam together
and press the seam allowance open, then toward the back before giving it a trim
and clip to release tension. Take your bone casing and sew it over the seam
allowance as shown above so the stitching next to the seam is about 1/8 of an
inch from the seam stitching. Stretch and smooth out your fabric under the bone
casing as you go to minimise wrinkles.

Now we just have the
binding to go. First you need to trim the seam allowance from the bottom edge
of your corset.

Add the bias binding as
shown above; unfold and place the raw edge against the bottom edge of your
corset on the outside and sew just inside the crease. Then fold the ends in,
the binding over to the inside and secure with pins. Make sure to pull it down further
on the inside than the outside so that you can then sew through it from the
right side of the corset as shown above. Once you’re finished it should look
something like this –

Finally, push all your
bones into their casings and add the top edge of binding in the same way. Be careful
to push your bones all the way to the bottom of the casing so you don’t
accidentally sew through them.

And you’re
all done!

Here is my finished
corset belt with the emerald ice cream right in the middle. Probably the most
eye-hurtingly colourful corset I’ve ever made but perfect for a 50s diner or
ice cream parlour.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the
tutorial and that it has demystified corsetry a little for you 🙂