30 Days of Corsets Day 9 and 10

The next two questions in the 30 days of Corsets are related to me so I'm putting them in one post.
Post a picture of your favorite corset that you own; and; Post a picture of your favorite corset of all time.

The two which are my favorites are both ones which I inadvertently damaged so that's why I'm putting them together here. My current favorite is in the photo above. I like the oriental dragon brocade. It's an overbust, longline corset with, of course, steel boning.  I washed this one too often at first so there are two spots on the side seams where the brocade started fraying. I did put Fray Stop on them and on all the seams so the damage isn't getting worse. However, it means this one's destined to remain underneath clothing from now on. I'm not big on dry cleaning when I can wash them myself.

What I learned from this is to wear a corset liner so the liner soaks up sweat and keeps the corset clean longer. You can wash the liner as much as you'd like. I've also discovered the liner helps make the inner waist tape more comfortable by alleviating the potential of it pinching the skin.

I don't buy expensive liners. Lucy's Corsetry taught me to buy Tshirts in a small size from the thrift store and cut them off. This makes a cotton tube which covers my lower torso area (under the bust). Cheap and easy.

Now my favorite corset of all time is not pictured. It's a black jacquard, long lined waist training corset. I wear it mainly at night these days. It isn't all that pretty and I've given it more wear than any of my others. The fabric is standing up to the washing and wearing. I have had to repair the top of the busk, where the stitching gave way but truly, it's amazing with as many hours as I wear this one, how it's lasted. 

My mistake with this one is that I didn't break it in correctly and was learning to lace when I first had it. I wasn't lacing it properly to where the open gap is pretty straight. I was tightening the bust and hips too much. I also didn't know to break a new corset in two hours at a time and went straight to all day with this one. The result is the boning is warped a little. It fits fine now and I can get it laced comfortably. However it isn't straight in the front any more but slanted slightly to the left. That's why I relegated this one to sleeping. It just looks funny. We did try to reseason the corset with a little success but the main damage was done so it'll never be 'right'.

I have another satin corset which warped in the same way so that's why with this next set of corsets I'm breaking in now, I'm taking care to do it correctly this time. Hopefully someone will learn from my mistakes. I'm just glad I learned this before I bought a truly expensive corset.