My first attempt at a victorian corset. I am so proud of the way it came out. Wasn't nearly as difficult as I was anticipating. This shot is of me wearing it, but I have submitted other views including the inside to demonstrate the casings, and of the back to demonstrate the laces, so check out my gallery if you're interested in seeing the details

Pattern: Butterick #B4254.
Time taken: approximately 17 hours, give or take.
Fabric: Dark purple cotton twill for the outside, heavy canvas for interfacing, and cotton muslin as lining.
Trim: Black velvet ribbon accenting the seams, black synthetic lace over cotton bias tape for the edges, black cotton cord for lacing.
Hardware: 24 spring steel bones of varying lengths, steel 5 stud busk and 32 nickel plated #00 size grommets.

First of all, I altered the pattern somewhat, mostly for size (made it quite a bit smaller). I also chose to make my bones invisible from the outside, by making my casings between the interfacing and lining layers, then sewing those to my outer layer, rather than sewing all the layers together and creating casings on the inside using ribbon as the pattern suggested. Before doing this I added the black ribbon trim to my visible seams, and added the lace to cover my terrible bias tape efforts. I did a significant amount of research in preparation for this project, and I would love to hear your feedback. As I mentioned, this is merely the first of what I hope will be many more, so any constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated.