Scarlet Divine’s Tightlacing Journal Part 4

I fell off the wagon this April. I could feel myself trailing off. I spent the entire month thinking “I can start up again tomorrow. It’s not too late.” The problem was/is I always seem to think about what I want to wear, what I wish I was wearing or what I want to accomplish that day while I’m already out the door and either at work or out with no way to run home and grab a corset. For example, I left my corsets at my parents’ place and between work and social commitments I ended up sleeping at the BF’s for the week .. which means that even when I wanted to and was thinking about it I couldn’t wear my corsets. Bad Scarlet!

April Tally:

5th – 10 hours
6th – 6 hours
7th – 40 mins

However, falling off the wagon doesn’t mean giving up. It means getting back on. This month I’m moving in with the BF and two room mates which means going home to just one place with all my stuff will lend itself wonderfully to having corsets on hand. There will be no excuse not to put them on in the morning.

April Stats:

-Longest time corset was worn: 10 hours
(Down two hours from March)
-# days in a row corset was worn: 3 days
(down three days from my current record of 6 in March and January)
-total time spent in corset: 16 hours and 40 mins
(March was 59 hours and 35 mins. Oh, the shame.)

My next big hurdle will be wearing my corset under my clothes. I currently own one sweater that doesn’t overheat me with my corset underneath and with summer coming I don’t always want to wear my corsets over my dresses … especially since I currently own two and matching my outfits to them seriously diminishes my wardrobe choices.

But it’s May! Which means my outfit conundrums will have to wait for the next Tight Lacing Report. In the meantime, I encourage everyone to read this article written by the Vancouver burlesque star and tightlacer Little Miss Risk. She makes an important distinction between tightlacing and waist training and I’ve found my own journey to happiness has also been helped by corsets.

Saucily yours,
Miss Scarlet

Scarlet Divine’s Tightlacing Journal Pt. 3

I realized when the end of February rolled around and I took stock of my corseting habits that I seem to start really strong in the beginning of the month, forget about wearing it midway through and then remember at the end of the month that this is a thing I’m supposed to be doing and try to get a few more days worth of wearing my corsets in. So this month I’m officially initiating a Mid-Month Check In. Which is really just a fancy smancy way of saying that on the 15th I’m going to tally up my hours so far so that I can re-motivate myself to wear my corset throughout the month, not just in the beginning and end.

This month I’m kicking ass when it comes to hours as well as firsts. I slept in my corset for the first time. It took me a couple hours to fall asleep and I kept waking up everytime I’d go to roll over and suddenly realize I was bound where my pajamas are usually quite loose. But I was very excited to have accomplished my first night.

I wore my corset to work for the first time! I’ve gotten a few quizzical looks – especially when I’m in the bathroom adjusting my laces, but so far no one has said anything. I’ve been wearing sweaters that belt in the front so the corset is partially covered or long sleeved t-like sweaters that cover my corsets completely. My work is kept fairly cold (I think they want us to generate our own heat by working faster) so the extra layers have felt really comfortable.

I also learned the hard way why people advise you not to drink pop or anything carbonated while wearing a corset. I hit an afternoon slump so I bought myself a coke but after drinking only half of it I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to relieve the pressure in my stomach by burping as quietly as I could. Talk about embarrassing. Having gone without pop for a full week now I find that the compression of the corset causes me to burp a lot more than usual anyways, even if I’m only drinking water.

Time for the tally! Hours this month:

March 4th – 6h 15 mins

March 5th – 10 hours

March 6th – 7 1/2 hours

March 7th – 1h 20 mins

March 8th – 12 hours

March 9th – 8 1/2 hours

March 11th – 2 hours

March 13th – 8 hours

March 23rd – 4 hours

My goal for April is to be more uniform/standard when it comes to hours wearing my corsets. For example, instead of wearing it 12 hours one day and 2 hours the next I’d like to try for a solid 8 hours every day. There’s still that ten day gap in the middle of the month where I fell off the corset bandwagon but checking in at the fifteenth did have me wearing my corset for longer duration into the month. I’m going to keep working to shorten any gaps there are, not only days worn but in space at the back.

March Stats:

-Longest time corset was worn: 12 hours

(up from 7 and a half hours in February)

-# days in a row corset was worn: 6

(up from 0 days in a row in February and the same as January)

-total time spent in corset: 59 hours and 35 mins

(Up from 16 hours and 20 mins in February!)

Stay Saucy,

Miss Scarlet

Scarlet Divine’s Tightlacing Journal Part 2

I shorted Tightlacing Progress Report to TPR #2 : How’s that for a snappy title?

I originally ordered two corsets about a year and a half ago from Timeless Trends. They’re a great boutique that sells off the rack corsets for really decent prices. I’d been wearing them as decoration on and off since then. Last September I put my mind to it and wore my corset every day for two weeks. I found that I forgot about it after half an hour but became hyper aware of it around hour two. At first a couple hours made my back ache a little bit – not enough to be concerned about but it was definitely a relief to get out of it and slouch. But at the end of week two I wore my corset for a whole eight hours on a Saturday! I was really surprised to realize that when I took it off it not only didn’t hurt at all but I could have worn it for a few hours more. The feeling was akin to taking my bra off at the end of the day – sometimes it’s a huge relief and sometimes the difference is negligible.

I’d like to mention that the reason I could wear these corsets as both decoration and for tightlacing is because they’re made with real steel boning, so they’re strong enough to resist the pressure put on them as the corset is tightened. The Bones of a Corset –> rods of steel placed around the corset so that your body molds to the corsets’ shape and not the other way around. I can hardly imagine they used to be made with whale bones! (Note from Ava Strange: Whale bone does not actually refer to the bones of a whale but to baleen, the substance in a whale’s mouth that filters their food.)

Now for the check-in.

1st – 2 hrs 20 mins

3rd – 2 hrs

5th – 4 hrs 15 mins

6th – 45 mins

8th – 7 hrs 30 mins!!

28th – 4 hrs 15 mins

Ohhhhh god … I slept in my corset for the first time this month. Feb. 8th, 11 pm to 6:30 am. I woke up with a killer stomach ache! I didn’t sleep very well … I kept waking up in the middle of the night and tossing and turning in between. However I did pull in 7 1/2 hours which is fab. I’m hoping this sleeping with it on thing gets easier quickly because it’s a lot more convenient than trying to hide my corset at work or squirming in the uncomfortable work chairs. It’s hard enough to sit right in those things in the first place.

February Stats:

-Longest time corset was worn: 7 1/2 hours

(up from 1 hour and 40 mins in January)

-# days in a row corset was worn: 0 – I was super sporadic this month

(down from 6 days in a row in January)

-total time spent in corset: 16 hours and 20 mins

(Up from 5 1/2 hours in January!)

One of the funniest parts of this journey has been the realization that I prefer to read and write about corsets and tightlacing while I’m wearing a corset. Maybe because I’m quite literally bound to it? This amuses me. Besides always looking for more engaging sites on the interwebs I’ve also been reading “Corsets: A Modern Guide”by Velda Lauder. It’s interesting but not very in depth and I’m curious as to where the author found some of her information from. The highlight is that there is a gorgeous picture every other page and they range from corset fetish models to burlesque performers, fashion catwalks, historical paintings and figures as well as famous corset wearing celebrities. These pictures are serving as fuel to up my corset wearing hours for March. 🙂

Stay Saucy,
Miss Scarlet

Check out more of Scarlet Divine’s adventures at http://missscarletpresents.blogspot.ca/