Every year I do an annual recap where I summarize the projects of the current year and discuss my hopes and dreams for the new year. In recent years, I posted this exclusively to Patreon, but this year I’m bringing it back to my blog because it’s come to my attention that my followers here and on Youtube think I’ve all but disappeared, when nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, despite my lack of Youtube videos, 2024 may go down as my most productive year (2016 and 2021 were close contenders).

January

January 2024 was when I finally started feeling better after a good two straight months and 5 rounds of daycare viruses moving through my entire family. My only goal at the beginning of the year was the same as 2012: “don’t let a day go to waste.” I don’t care what it is specifically, but do ONE small thing to move the needle.

January was spent learning a third CAD program (LibreCAD, after learning DraftSight in 2018 and AutoCAD in 2020). Incidentally, LibreCAD has become my favorite pattern drafting software, specifically because it’s so lightweight and some of its functions make it ridiculously easy to add seam allowances and to grade different sizes. With this, I got to work creating the first prototypes for a new silhouette: the Libby!

I also reworked the size charts for the hourglass overbust and the Gemini corsets, to make the size charts more true to size (more on this later), and as a fun aside, I learned book folding as a birthday gift to myself. I have half a dozen paperback drafts of Solaced (containing typos etc) that I can’t sell and I don’t want to destroy them, so this seemed like a good way to repurpose them. My first book folding project was more ambitious than many – I made a custom fold featuring the cursive font in my book title.

February

February was a lot of Research and Development on the Libby (we went through several rounds of samples and prototypes) and other projects, including my BIG Q1 project: The Corset Customizer! Before I could get started on actually building the layers for the customizer app, this month was spent just compiling a list of different apps, programs and software that focused on product customization / personalization.

I finally settled on one, and got to work learning how transparent digital layers needed to be cut and aligned to create a picture that resembled a corset – that’s when I realized I also needed to do research on the best photo manipulation programs, so I compared photoshop to photopea and Gimp, etc. I signed up for so many program trials this month. 😓 My head was spinning as I had to re-learn how to navigate every different program. Eventually I settled on the tools, created a mockup of the app, and sent it over to the TT execs to approve. They loved it!

Then one of their employees spent a week or so taking pictures of EVERY fabric they had in stock (over 100!) and editing them to perfect the lighting so it was as flat and regular as possible, because I had to digitally “cut” out each panel and make it look at least somewhat believable. While I was waiting for the photos to come in, I continued R&D on the Libby and some other side projects.

March

This month was a blur as I spent every waking hour on cutting out the layers for the customizers, one by one. I think 11 out of 13 total silhouettes were done. To learn how I did this, the backstory/inspiration, and all the minutia of what I had to take into consideration, you can read more details on Patreon.

This project took me well over 120 hours up to launch, and with their new colorways coming out most weeks, it probably takes me another 1 hour or so per week in updates. Thankfully I get royalties in Customizer sales (same way for the Gemini and Libra corsets), so my hard work will continue to pay off over time. The Customizer was finally launched in early April! I am not by any means a professional graphic artist, so I’m super proud of this collab.

There’s some stuff I would’ve done differently if I had to do it again – but considering at the time of launch, each silhouette had 1,003,520 different possible combinations (and it’s even more than that now), it’s pretty bloody incredible what we’ve accomplished. Just a few of the possible combinations are spliced below:

April

After the launch of the customizer, I was in major need of rest, and so what did I do? I went full steam ahead on the Libby project! I sourced testers, procured the different size samples, and got the final feedback on them so I could finalize and grade the digital patterns. There was one contingency about releasing new silhouettes: I would need to provide the factory with all of the final plastic templates. (This was different from several years ago where I’d just send them the digital files and they would cut out the templates for me).

So I reached out to pretty much every Laser Cutting service in the nearest 3 towns, and found that my project was either way too expensive (up to $2000) or too small of a project for them to accept (many of them only did industrial-scale jobs).

By mid-April it was looking like my best option was to buy the plastic sheets, print out the patterns on paper, and trace and cut the panels onto plastic by hand. Dreading the imminent repetitive strain injury to my wrists, I busied myself with other projects like field testing different types of corset boning and other hardware.

I also chose a few fun fabrics (including the rainbow satin which would launch that June and sell out completely in record time! It was so popular it was brought back for an encore). I came to the realization that taking a picture of different fabrics and uploading it to a private version of the Customizer, I could mock up different colorway designs and see if it works (either by itself with the print size/repeat size, or how it would complement insert panels of different colors). If you’d like to see me agonize over how the rainbow satin would be designed, I have a rainbow satin Patreon post with brainstorming and fun mockup pics.

In the midst of all this, I was also weaning my toddler from bfeeding, and going through some health stuff (more on that later), and seriously heading towards burnout. My husband’s cousin was getting married at the beginning of May so I took some time off, which was well-needed for my sanity and helped me come up with a brilliant idea regarding the Libby templates…

May

We took 5 days off for the wedding and while I was there I had an idea to invest in a cutting machine – even with an initial hefty price tag of $500 USD, it would still be 25% of what the laser cutters would charge me for ONE project, and I could continue using it for future projects.

When I got back, I graded the Libby from sizes 18 to 42″ and got to work researching cutting machines like Cricut VS Silhouette VS home laser cutters (turned out I didn’t have the space or the proper ventilation for laser).

Criteria included pressure (PSI), allowed materials and applications, margin of error (I wanted less than 1mm error because just 1mm off in each panel can mean the entire corset ends up close to half an inch too big or too small), ease of use / steepness of learning curve, reviews on software (like Design Space or Silhouette Studio), accepted digital file formats, customer support (warranty, customer service, forums/ community), and of course, price.

I ended up purchasing a refurbished Cricut Maker 3 – along with the accoutrements and plastic mats, it came up to $510 USD which was funded by my Patreon. And if you’d like my CliffsNotes on using the Cricut to cut corset templates, I have a post on my Patreon here. After a not-so-scary learning curve on operating the Cricut, I was off to the races… kind of. I also had to do a lot of tests on different thicknesses and types of plastic to find suitable templates that the factory would find easy to work with, wasn’t too thick or too thin, wouldn’t curl up in hot weather or degrade too fast with regular use, etc.

And THEN once I chose some suitable plastic sheets, I had to test a bunch of knives and cut settings and pressures on the Cricut to figure out which combination cut the sheets cleanly and efficiently.

By this point, after researching/trialing so many different customization apps, photo editing apps, cutting machines, template plastic sheets etc., I was thoroughly sick and tired of Trying New Things… oh wait, I was actually sick. I ended up in the emergency room with pneumonia, needing oxygen and nebula treatment.

I spent the last half of May on bedrest, but I also took home an award for stubbornness because I still somehow managed to finish cutting the Libby templates (I just laid on the floor and rested during those long cutting sessions), AND I used the same customizer app to bring back the Corset Doll Designer game from 2014!

June/July

I shipped off the Libby templates to the factory by the first week of June, and by this point I was feeling fairly confident about my LibreCAD and Cricut skills that I started on my next project: The Extended Sizes. I graded the Gemini corset down to 17, 15, and 14 inches.

I also graded the slim and hourglass options all the way up to 50″. It wasn’t only a case of taking the pre-existing patterns and grading them up, though. Some patterns were not previously digitized, so I had to reverse engineer the patterns from the existing corsets. Some patterns were also irregular and I had to clean them up, and I also adjusted the proportions and lengths for plus size wearers. This project I thought would only take 2 weeks but it ended up taking 8 weeks for the first round – and then there were some length inconsistencies that I had to correct and re-cut those.

Around this time I was also majorly slowing down as I started feeling seriously unwell and run down. I thought I was just burnt out or maybe pushing myself too far after that bout of pneumonia, and getting several bouts of stomach flu and other viruses from daycare, but over the months it would become clear that things were not okay.

Still, I pushed forward as every self-employed mother has to do. I took the summer to potty train my kiddo, I continued R&D and testing of different corset materials and hardware, I was still doing weekly updates on the Customizer and I started sourcing plus size testers to fit the Extended Size collection, as well as this lovely model in Thailand (Su Moh Moh Naing) who wears a size 16″ Gemini (her waist is naturally 17.5 inches) to see if she would fit any smaller sizes.

The Libby was finally released at the end of July, and despite its deceptively simple appearance, it’s one of my best and most favorite creations to date.

August/September

I took the first week of August off as another cousin of my husband was getting married. It was a beautiful destination wedding and I had a great time.

When I got home, in the second half of August we had a terrible accident that set us back around $30k (CAD). I probably should have been taking it easy, but since the Extended Size Project was running much longer than initially anticipated, I was antsy to start catching up on my other projects, the most urgent one being the Overbust Overhaul:

In the 4 years since the hourglass overbusts have been released, I’ve reworked the size charts and the Lucy Bots multiple times based on the feedback of customer returns. It was only when I was analyzing and grading this pattern for the plus sizes that I realized that something was amiss. I go into detail about The Mystery of the Hourglass Overbusts on my Patreon here. I even suggested Overbust Mockups / loan service (using ugly fabrics or repurposing damaged corset) so customers could test the fit before they buy an overbust, especially a special order that would be final sale. All my sleuthing finally paid off when in September the TT execs let me rework the pattern, as long as I did everything (right up to cutting the plastic templates, which I was happy to put my Cricut to work).

September was when my health issues started to come to a head and I was heading back to the doctor’s office every couple of weeks for extreme exhaustion, digestive issues, unexplained weight loss, and migraines. I hoped I didn’t catch anything at the destination wedding earlier on (I watch a lot of Chubby Emu on Youtube and naturally my mind jumped to parasites). They took my blood, ran some tests, told me I’m stressed and needed to take it easy, I’m overweight so weight loss isn’t the worst thing in the world (🙄).

It was a very intense ~45 hours of cutting/labeling/packaging the new hourglass overbust corsets, and I shipped them off in the beginning of October (they launched in early November).

October

With the hourglass overbusts out of the way, I turned my attention to the “Anti-waste initiative” collab (more on Patreon) in which we try to save damaged corsets from the landfill by replacing grommets, broken busks, etc. and selling them back. In the months that followed I repaired some 25 corsets (most of them only had a single loose grommet) and made between $60-80 per corset after rehoming.

This only works if you make a livable hourly wage on the repairs you do, and only if you’re able to reasonably sell the corset with a profit. (i.e. it’s not financially worth it to buy a damaged corset for $40, put 3 hours of work into it and sell it for $60, but if you get it for free and sell for $60, it’s a different story – or maybe you’re just doing it as a hobby and for The Greater Good to minimize waste, more power to you).

Truthfully I don’t remember a lot of October because it was a medley of corset repairs, a big uptick in emails, sales and exchanges/returns due to Halloween busy season, more exhaustion and unexplained weight loss, and at the worst of it I had 3 migraines in a single week (I am lucky that before this point, I only had one migraine every ~5 years so I knew this was a big deal), and subsequent frequent doctor’s appointments.

November/December

Things came to a head in November when they finally figured out what’s wrong with me (for those concerned, it has nothing to do with corsets – it’s genetic) and I was wheeled into surgery. Maybe someday I’ll make a dedicated post about it, but right now I want to keep my blog mostly focused on the work I do for the corset community and keep my personal health status out of it. I was ordered to rest for several weeks, and this time I took it seriously. There were a couple of times that my toddler wanted to be picked up and carried, and I quickly learned my lesson not to do that before I’m ready.

At the time that I’m writing this, I’m cleared to return to normal activity, and I’m eating (most of) the same foods as before. The unexplained weight loss and migraines have lessened, improving every day. I’m scheduled for follow-up tests in the new year, and I’m focused on slowing down and making my health a priority in 2025.

Whilst I was on bedrest through most of November and early December, I spent a lot of my time on the computer catching up on admin: I gave my website a facelift (some of you have noticed!), updating the theme for the first time since 2018 and clearing out the unnecessary plugins to make it faster. I updated my CV, and caught up on bookkeeping (riveting, I know). Unexpectedly, I was also asked to write a letter of recommendation for a fellow corsetiere and I was more than happy to do so!

I also participated in Black Friday so there were a lot of emails and sales to keep me busy too (thank you for supporting my small business! 💕💕) and we had a lot of family come to visit after the procedure to check up on me, drop off food, and help entertain my kiddo and give him the cuddles I wasn’t able to during my recuperation. So for the last two months, I can’t say for certain that I really “moved the needle” in my business each and every day, but I think I can give myself grace for that, considering “literally being cut open” was not on my bingo card for 2024. I also really came to realize how important family is to me.

All things considered, I had a really productive 2024 and I’m proud of the number of projects pumped out, from the Customizer and Paper Doll game, to the launch of the Libby and improved Overbust, and making serious headway in the Anti-Waste Initiative, Extended Size project, R&D on corset textiles and new hardware, and website improvements. All while traveling twice, having an accident, bulldozing my way through illness and having a traumatic health scare.

Looking forward to 2025

Next year I’m really putting my health first. I’m being vigilant, and have scheduled everything from dentist appointments to my first mammogram 😣.

My plan for 2025 is really to finish the projects I started this year:

• Extended Size collection: complete the testing/ photography and roll out the expanded size options (some are actually available NOW, they’re just manual order, not up in the shop yet – if you’re interested in purchasing a corset smaller than 16″ or bigger than 42″ email me!).
• Complete the Customizer collection – add three more customizers, the Libby and the Slim longline, and a new exciting option that should be out in January!
• Anti-Waste Initiative: finish repairing and ship back corsets, now that I’m cleared for normal activity
• Source wholesale suppliers for new corset hardware and incorporate its use with my manufacturer
• Celestial Bodies collection (the zodiac line of corsets) – introduce 1 new silhouette next year (stretch goal: 2 silhouettes!)
• Writing more blog posts: I’d like to write at least 4 posts next year (minimum one per quarter) just to show to website visitors that I’m still alive.
• More quizzes/games in the fun section, and more Paper Doll options

This is 12-14 goals, and I had to stop myself from adding more because I do want my health to be the top priority. These projects will be on top of my daily work re: customer service, Canadian import/ distribution, and any temp jobs/contract work that I occasionally take on for other corset businesses, so chipping away at one of these per month will keep me busy enough.

2024 was a heck of a ride, and I’m so grateful to still be here to share this with you. Wishing you all a warm, safe, predictable, boring/peaceful year ahead where everything goes to plan!

Signing off for 2024,
~ Lucy

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