If this brocade wasn't so pretty

I'd BURN it!!!  I've been fighting the brocade for a couple hours already today, and figured it was time for a lunch break.  I finished sewing together the other half of the outer layer, then cut the straps, sewed them ... and forgot to sew them to only the outer layer on one side.

The wonderful blockfusing idea I had really adds bulk to the entire garment.  Technically I am sewing 8 layers - 4 fabric, 4 interfacing - through the nonseam areas.  I seriously thought about pulling out "Timex", my cheap 14 stitch Brother LX-3125 mechanical ... but Timex doesn't have an adjustable needle position.  So far, the daily driver, my most expensive sewing machine at $160 plus tax and a Brother CS-770, is handling all but the hemp cord just fine.

Being this far off the instructions, I am flying blind on construction order.  I did some thinking, and my last two working brain cells say to do the zipper before binding the bottom or the top middle.

Binding ... I am determined to use up this brocade, and figured maybe it would behave to make bias binding strips.  That, plus I couldn't think of a way to bind in black without the straps looking funky.  Well, the brocade is fighting me even on the idea of turning it into bias binding!  Before I started, I Googled up tutorials on making my own bias binding since I haven't done it before, and used the top two results - one with a diagram and one with pictures.  The brocade was giving me enough fits, that I didn't sew it into a tube for the continuous idea.

I've come to accept the idea that this bustier corset won't be my best example of construction technique ... but it will be functional, I hope.  Here's where I am so far as I prepare to raid the refrigerator:

Sorry about the focus, but this busy shiny brocade is giving my camera's autofocus absolute fits.