After doing some research, I came across the blog of another historical costumer who complained of the same thing I complained about with the 1861 corset...
I thought I was being so clever... I wanted to do a fancier corset, and this time I wanted to line it to make it reversible. I picked out two beautiful asian brocades, one black, one lavender, and started cutting. I basically made two separate corsets, boned one, and was going to put them together when I realized that I would absolutely not be able to use a busk if it was going to be reversible. Crap. The busk isn't necessary, per se, but it does make putting the corset on a million times easier, since you prelace, and use the busk opening to put the garment on.
