Friday, February 28, 2014

Frankencorset - it lives!

After a bit of a hiatus, I am back to working on my transitional stays. I really shouldn't have taken the time off to work on the Duvet Anglaise, but I was feeling overwhelmed with all the Regency stuff I was working on, so I had to take a break. But! I am back at it, and I've made some good progress.

I started the day by adding the last of the boning that was needed. That was a chore in itself, since I'd made the boning channels a teensy bit too narrow for the steel, so it took a lot of wrestling to get it all in there. This also made the fabric a bit bunchy, which, unfortunately, I can't seem to be able to fix. I'm just going to have to put up with it, I suppose.

The rest of the day was spent putting the corset itself together. I decided to stick with 18thC construction techniques, so I started by whip stitching down the seam allowances.


I didn't do them all at once. I would do one panel, stitch it to the adjoining panel with as tiny a whip stitch as I could manage, and then tack down the other seam allowances. I was rather proud of my tiny whip stitch, though, and managed to get it to 22 stitches per inch!


It took me all day, but I managed to get the entire thing assembled.


You can see what I mean by the fabric being bunch. Thankfully, I'll have my bodice petticoat on over it, so it shouldn't make much difference, but I do wish it was smoother.

Anyway, the fit of the stays is just perfect, so now I need to make the bust cups, finish the edges, add the lining, and sew the eyelets. At this point, I don't think I'll have them finished in time for my Regency events in a couple of weeks, but I'm going to push on through and try to make it so.

Oh, and as you can see, I made myself a Regency chemise! It has flat felled seams and is entirely hand sewn, which took much longer than expected. Still, I'm quite proud of my little chemise. I made it using these instruction which were posted on the dress diaries LJ group by riennynn. They are really easy to follow and turn out a great little chemise. ^^ I'll have more pics of it down the road. And hooray! It's the first thing I've finished for the Five Foundations Challenge! :D

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