03/02/2026
Design With Me! 👩🏾🎨🎨
Corset Design Journal Entry no. 2
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🪸 Theme: A beautiful, under the sea mess.
🎶 Background music: Shiny (song from Moana) IYKYK
🧜🏽♀️ The Final Look: A Mesmerizing MerSister that you simply cannot take your eyes off of!
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The “A Beautiful Mess” aka “Shinaaay” theme is all about ridiculously gaudy objects scattered everywhere, yet uniform in design. My idea is for the final result to look like the treasures on the bottom of the ocean vomitted on her corset in the most beautiful way…after all we’re “Under The Sea!”
I started by finding large ocean elements to cover huge chunks of the surface area. I accomplished this by using rhinestone brooches and sea shells.
Some of the sea shells are trimmed in gold. The others I painted pink and purple to match her corset colors. I had to use several coats of paint to eliminate the blotchiness.
While I waited for the paint to dry, I pinned the brooches in random (yet strategic) locations on the front of the corset. Remember, there’s a story we’re telling with the costume. 😉
Once the paint dried, I hot glued the sea shells to the corset in random locations. I originally attempted to use my E6000, but it wasn’t giving me the “quick stick” that I wanted. So hot glue to the rescue!
Now is where the fun started to happen…
…creating the initial foundation of “a beautiful mess!”
I worked first on the upper left corner to test my theme. I used gemstones, rhinestones, pearls, and other iridescent elements. There was no rhyme or reason as to placement — just wherever it fit and I let the Spirit flow!
If you look closely, you can start to see the bust area naturally building out.
I’ll be honest, initially, I was a bit nervous about how it would look, but the test section confirmed my idea and I could now see how the theme would come together perfectly! 😍
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