18th Century stays - in progress.

I have started a new project - a set of half boned stays.  I was so engrossed in the sewing of them that I forgot to take photos until I had finished most of the boning. I used the 1780 pattern from 'Corsets and Crinolines' by Norah Waugh which is a bit of a headache to scale up as it's not on a grid on the page.  Once I had my paper pattern I cut out a calico toile just to check the fit. 

This is one half of the stays in my yummy pastel pink fabric.  I confess - its curtain fabric and the lining is a dusky pink chintz. Furnishing fabric shops are my new obsession.  I guess it's because the patterns and colours are better suited to historical fashion, plus they are nice and strong - ideal for stays. I am using cable ties for the bones - a fabulous tip I picked up from American Duchess.  Rather irritatingly, I bought a bunch of 36 thinking it would be plenty and I was 3 short....grrrrrrrr!!!

All the panels are sewn together.

The inside of the stays.  From here I need to find or make some delicious bias binding to finish all the edges and whack in some eyelets.

Finished project - neck choker.

As I was working on the Sirona gown I toyed with the idea of making a neck choker or decorative neck piece to go with it.  This is what that idea turned into............

Using some of the left-over pale gold satin I cut a strip 11" by 1" and used a soldering iron to set the edges in a decorative scalloped effect.  I also cut out three randomly shaped triangles of the fabric, plus another four in organza and finished the edges in the same way.

Then all I had to do was pinch, twist and arrange them in place on the neck band, hand stitch them in place and voila!  It was satisfyingly quick to put together aswell - about an hour.  I'd like to develop this idea further, maybe play around with the design a bit or even make it oversized and competely over the top!