Stay(s) With Me (Historical Costuming Project) (Patreon)

Slowly but surely I am making progress on my 18th century outfit with my Historical Costuming sewing group! Having wrapped up my strap-on pockets, I now commenced on my very first set of stays.

Commonly confused for a corset, stays actually pre-date them and are their own distinct form of underwear. 

At this moment I haven't actually watched this video by Abby Cox yet (I was just googling for images of stays to share here and I'm on a time limit before my flight leaves) but judging by the title I feel reasonably confident the author knows what she's talking about and probably has a wealth of information to share with you all on this topic. U_U

My three-person sewing group of far more experienced historical costuming sewists hooked me up with this stays pattern and guided me through piecing it all together. 

My first lesson was learning how to print out a single large image across multiple sheets of paper at the correct size and then tape them all together so I could cut out the shapes. 

Since I've never been fitted for this kinda garment before, I cut out my pieces in a really rough canvas material so I'd be able to fuck around with it and not waste good material right off the bat.

One of my group members told me to label both my pattern and fabric pieces so I'd be able to keep track of them. I was like "Ok, cool." and I numbered them in the order they were laid out in front of me at that moment. Then when I was piecing it all together I asked a question about keeping track of which side goes next to which and that's when I found out that I was supposed to label my pieces in the order they go next to each other so it would be obvious which pieces get sewn to which. Haha cool. 

Despite my inability to put numbers and letters in proper order, I did wind up with THIS!

Turns out it fits pretty right, which means I'm good to pick up some nicer fabric to make the real version (which will also have shoulder straps)

Alright! And now I've gotta head out for a flight (well, actually, it's in a couple hours, but I'm still not ready so really I need to wrap this up so I can get my shit together so then I can head out for a flight.) because I am turning 40 on June 25th and this B-word is gunna be partying it up hard core (calmly and soberly and in bed by 9:30pm) with some dearly beloved friends who live far away.  

Next time I check in with you here, I'll be in my fourth decade. Wish me luck.