Stylin' in my Corset

(This may be TMI for some of my guy readers. It is, however, informative.)

When most people hear the word corset, they think of feminine bondage and uncomfortable dressing. After I had my ninth baby, my abdomen was loose and t seemed as if my insides were pouring themselves out of my body, over my pelvic bone. It wasn't that I was in bad shape; the muscles were like a deflated balloon and just tired!

I surfed the internet and not knowing what to buy, I found Ann at Romantasy to be the best and most informative seller. When I told her what I needed to do, she suggested a few custom designs. Being very budget conscious, I chose a basic model in black cotton duck. Romantic? Yes, it is actually! Even in duck, but my husband says it's the woman in the duck, not the duck on the woman! It was an investment of several hundred dollars and I wondered about my sanity in buying the contraption while I waited several months for it to be made.

I have been doing yoga for years, but my muscles were just flabby. Shortly before my corset was done, I bought one off of Ebay for $60 that they said was worth $300. I felt stupid for having ordered the custom one, but the Ebay one was worn out in five wearings. When the custom one arrived, it was stiff, and I don't know if I'd have appreciated it or even worn it had I not bought my inferior one first.

I lied about my actual measurements because I wasn't able to admit how flabby my waist was and I was glad that I didn't live in California to have it measured. I don't advocate lying, especially because you are taking the several hundred dollars you are investing into your own hands, but my 32" waist was able to be compacted into the 28" corset. Since it was spring, I walked as much as I could, and I only wore the thing a few times a week for an hour or two. (Lacing it is another story-- I am glad that I do yoga!) I am now down to a laced down 25" waist. My body is slimming down quickly with it and it seems like the corset has reminded my body what it is supposed to feel like and where things are supposed to be. I took off my corset yesterday and my husband came home and ran his hand over my waist and was surprised that I didn't have it on. My "tummy pooch" is now almost eliminated, and my waist on the sides is now an hourglass. It's been less than 4 months that I've been wearing it and I still don't wear it more than a few times a week due to the heat. I am VERY lucky that my body has done as I thought it would with slimming down as fast as it did. I'm at 28" now sans the corset and I am very, very close to closing it. I'd like to get a 20" waist. My organs are in great shape and what people don't realize is that if these things harmed people, the corset makers wouldn't stay in business!

One of the unexpected bonuses of this is that I had needed surgery to correct a sagging bladder but don't now. This comes fromthe corset only allowing me to stoop, just as I was taught in finishing school, as opposed to simply bending over. Over the years I quit stooping and got sloppy and started bending because it was just easier on my legs. Because I stoop many times a day picking up children, toys and putting things away while I tightlace, it's tightened those muscles up. Forget the 200 kegals the OB/Gyn tells you to do-- they are pointless when you are not strengthening other muscles that support them.

For wearing and holding up nice stockings, I advocate getting at least four garters on each side of the corset. The garter belts with only two belts on each side are no good as they don't hold seamed stockings in the right places.

My husband works with diseases and he hates the thing. He does not find it romantic in any way, shape or form, which is really a drag but since he also doesn't object, I won't complain. He is one of those awesome guys who'd really still genuinely love me if I didn't stay slender.

I do not advocate dieting when you tightlace. I used to model and I had an agent who said you don't diet, you develop habits. You don't start developing habits, once you feel "fat" you cut back on the extras. Have a piece of chocolate every day if you think you need it, but limit how much you have. If you know you are going to a birthday party that night or planning to have a few drinks, don't eat the chocolate. It's about balance. You need to get your heart rate up a few times per week, too. I think the best advice that she gave me was when I told her that I would start "tomorrow," she said that "good habits start today, this very moment." She also told me to never discuss dieting socially which I did at the age of 18, because the purpose of a good party is to indulge a bit, "to eat, drink and be merry." The advice has never failed me.

Waist Training-- I'm Down to 25" and Up to 4 Hours Per Day!

I have started waist training. When I was in high school, I had an amazing figure of 36-20-38. The hips were a little large, but they were womanly. Now having conceived 12 and birthed 9 children (I lost three to thankfully early miscarriages and an ectopic) my waist has been around 28 inches. I wanted to make it smaller and when looking for a corset last year, went to Fredrick's of Hollywood. they had one that looked nice but said it wsn't for waist training. I wondered what waist training was and discovered Romantasy. Initially scoffing at the price but writing to tell the owner how pretty the work was, I was sending her a down payment within a couple of months!

My corset arrived a few months ago. Before it arrived, I bought a less costly one off E-Bay. I'd been warned about buying them off E-Bay because they allegedly just fell apart after a month or less of wearing, and mine did fall apart after two weeks. I was glad that I'd bought it. When the Romantasy corset came, it was stiff-- painfully so, but instead of whining and just casting the $350 model aside, I tried it on a few times and kept at it, wearing it at first for a few hours on the weekends, until now, donning it every day and wearing it for two hours at a time and now in it for four hours. I like what it does to my silhouette and the looks that I get when I wear it under my clothes and simply belt a dress and my already nice waist is pronounced. Modern corsets do not dangerously squish organs-- they are set up to push them upwards instead of mashing them under the corset.

When I am not wearing my corset I do a lot of excercises to get my waist down. It's happening however gradually and I would like to see 20" again.

Custom Corset

I got my first custom corset today from Romantasy. I own a few that I have purchased built for anyone, but I have to say that this is truly a work of art. I ordered a utilitarian corset made with black duck one side and green denim on the other. It is stunning. I have never seen any piece of clothing that looks so perfect and feels so strong. In my more conservative dress, I am still corseting underneath. I love how they feel on me-- they support the back and are like a constant hug. These are not bad for women like they used to be in the old days and of course being married to a man of science, he worried at first with my other ones but saw how they are not meant to constrict me. My first is an underbust Bella-- the next one that I will have made next year will be an underbust Edwardian or perhaps this one.

I cannot get over how much I like wearing these. It's not sexual or a fetish-- they offer back support! And they pull in my body. I got my waist down to 27" from 30"-- I wore it around the house and went shopping, then came home. After wearing it for three hours, I can tell you that I was ready to take it off. This is how you start out, you wear it for several hours then remove it. You do it again the next day and after three days you increase it to four hours and work up. My goal is a 23" waist. It's pretty possible. When I was 25 and doing a lot of jazz dancing, I had a 22" waist. This gives me a wasp waist even though it's not officially a corset that does that.

Oh-- the picture is from Romantasy and she said I could borrow it. It's from Sharon McCoy of Altered Thyme and she made the one that I have!

Tight Lacing

I am about to start corseting. This isn't a fetish for me-- I have a 28" waist and it is just too much. I decided to start corseting when I was looking for a $50 one (not knowing what they will cost-- haha) and a pretty, cheap confection at Fredericks of Hollywood had in it's description, "Not for tight lacing." Hmmm. I decided to look "tight lacing" up. Getting through the stories that are hopefully fiction-- eek-- I found a legitimate site called Romantasy. Ann, the lady who runs it, got into it because as I recall her telling me, she needed a medical corset and they were not very pretty and she went from there and has been in business for 18 years as of 3 January. (Happy Birthday, Ann! May God grant you many more years of success!)

As fate would have it, the corset that I am having her make me is white duck on one side and black duck on the other-- probably not unlike her first ones! It's a Bella made by Sharon of Altered Thyme. I will be getting it very soon.

Fortunately for me, Ann knows more than I do and has guided me from going over-the-top, " I want a mini skirt in denim!" to helping me realize that wanting to jump head first into this could ruin my chances of success with it. The Bella goes under my bust to right above my pelvic bone, shaping my abdomen or "tummy." I'll start out a few hours a day and work up. I won't wear it to school because I will be dancing and won't have time to remove it. It's expensive and I also don't want to lose it. This is how you get started! These are some of Ann's off the peg corsets. Very tempting for up the road!

My husband is cool about me waist training. The first thing he asked when I told him of it was, "What are your limits?" We looked at some women who have done this who are almost into self mutilation about it. I want to have a noticeable and slender waist, but I don't want to be freaky. 22", if I get back to that, is the limit. I am at 28" right now-- the result of 81+ months of pregnancies, 12 conceptions and nine births. (Three miscarriages.) I read of some women who tell their husbands when they lace them up in the morning that they won't unlace until their husbands unlace them at night. My husband said, "If I lace you up, how easily can you undo it if you can't breathe?" He remembers too well my pregnancies where I wasn't getting enough oxygen and doesn't find that romantic at all and he wants me to have air. Air!