Self Lacing Advice

For those times when there's nodody around to help you dress, follow this procedure:

Roll up each side of the unclipped corset to form two rods and then raise and lower each side relative to each other to spread the laces evenly to their fullest extent.
If you are wearing stockings, put these on before corsetting. This also applies to laced footwear, as you'll have a job getting down to your feet once fully laced.
Lay the fully-opened corset inside uppermost and bottom edge with suspenders on the edge of the bed. With your back to the bed, fasten the back suspenders to the back of the stockings. Another difficult task once fully laced in.

Grasping both sides of the corset at about the waist level, stand up, drawing the corset around you, and engage the second-from-bottom busk stud. Next engage the top stud and others following. The intermediate and bottom studs may have to be pressed in to engage.

Now you are ready to lace in. But before starting, ensure that any body liner is pulled down and unwrinkled. Reach behind and draw on the two lacing loops and pull out to about 12-18 inches and put the first tie of a knot in place. But do not tighten it. Loop both laces over an anchor point such as a door handle or something equally stable and strongly resistant and ease forward so that the laces start drawing through. Working from about the mid points top to waist and bottom to waist, alternatively draw out the crossover lace and feed through to the waist by keeping constant forward pressure on your anchor point. If the corset has been made to measure, the closure gap should be reasonably even and, to prevent chaffing of the spine, should not be closed to less than an inch. When you have achieved your desired closure, release the laces from the anchor, but still maintain tension and draw around the waist and fasten at the front. The original single tie that you put in will ensure that the waist eyelets are drawn together. (Tying off at the front strains both the garment and the laces (and produces a lump under outer clothing). Not recommended. But it certainly allows the wearer to self-lace effectively, so I guess there is a trade-off here.

Remember that with 'off the peg' corsetry the probable lack of even corset pressure on the body will work the laces through and the desired gap could well disappear, leaving you fully closed at top or bottom or both. This can be remedied by lacing in at more points, not just the waist, but is not a satisfactory solution for the solo lacer. This method was used on a sixties orthopaedic corset that had a double lacing line each side of the spine and the three lacing points were drawn using three side straps on each side of the corset. As will be appreciated, this produced quick lacing and adjustment for comfort but also provided the ability to fully close the corset, which gave total rigidity. For your interest, this corset had two massive spinal steels that had to be bent to shape, broad shoulder straps, and additional posture shoulder straps. It also came with eight one and a half inch suspenders, the back ones being doubled to attach 'V' shaped to the bottom edge of the corset.