You want to make the channels about 1/2″ longer than the boning, though, or it’ll wear through pretty quickly. I like the electrical tape suggestion. I used that plastic tool dip stuff on the tips of mine and they wore right through it– and then through my pretty top fabric. Oops! Note to self: if you’re going to use a pretty but non-denim front to the corset, put a front layer of denim (or coutil or what) in there and then cover that with the pretty (but weaker) stuff. Oh well, live and learn.

I found I had a helluva time sewing boning channels evenly, so what I ended up doing was buying some twill tape in a suitable colour for about 1/2″, maybe a little less, wider than the packing strapping. I think it was probably 1″ wide twill tape. The stuff is dirt cheap and tough as nails. I then pinned it in place, running the pins in line down the centre of the tape.

Then, with a zipper foot on my machine, I stitched along one edge of the tape. Following the edge of the tape with the edge of the zipper foot that the needle is on sets the stitching just a couple of millimetres in, which is just the right distance; and following the edge of the tape was much easier than sewing over a line for me.

Insert the boning, pin it in place (i.e. pins along the seam allowance part of the twill tape) , and VERY CAREFULLY run the edge of the zipper foot against the boning, under the tape, again with the side of the foot with the needle against the covered edge of the boning. I ended up turning the wheel by hand so as to not accidentally stick the needle into the boning. I wouldn’t recommend that if you’ve got bad wrists, but slow as it was, at least it was accurate and I got each channel sewn correctly the first go. Unpicking it over and over again because I could NOT sew a straight line was not only driving me mad, it was ruining my fabric. Really made me with I had a foot-treadle-powered Singer, though!! If I was doing it regularly I would have made a treadle table for it; the belt for the sewing machine from the motor is accessible on my unit at the side so it wouldn’t be too difficult to do.

Speaking of ruining my fabric, I ended up using the cheap-ass store-bought dress grommets, the little 1/4″ or so ones. They didn’t set worth a damn, and as you said, if you hammer on them too much they can actually neatly scissor out a perfect circle from your fabric; but I found that setting them just firmly enough to stay in place, and then whip-stitching all the way around each one with embroidery thread actually made them really solid. It’s tedious but a good task while watching TV.

I used very long cotton shoelaces for the one corset, and 1/4″ ribbon for the other (which slid smoothly enough through the covered grommets that I could do up the corset myself; the ribbon is easily strong enough to tug on as hard as needed). Both laces worked fine, even with the narrower grommet holes and the thread.

Twill tape SO saved my butt on those corsets! XD As I recall, on the first I just had one layer of jeans-weight denim (non-stretch, of course) with the channels made of twill tape on the inside; it worked beautifully.