It's been such a busy summer so far for me! Living in the 1830s for 9 hours a day, with all the physical labor involved, is a pretty exhausting proposition. But I'm learning so much and I'm getting to put my pre-existing skills and knowledge to good use, too (and probably gaining a lot of cheese weight...ugh.)
But I have made some sewing progress! First and foremost, I needed to make a new pair of stays before the year started, because my red wool ones are trashed - I made them before I had a good grasp of, well, anything. So I've been working incrementally on making up a new pair that fits me better. I did a half-boned pair this time, since I really don't need the amount of support that full boned would give, considering the work that I do most often! It was a little scary, since full-boned means that all you have to do is follow the line of the last row of stitches that you did, as opposed to making non-parallel lines like I did here. But, in my opinion, my first try wasn't too bad. Nicole's tutorial on leather binding helped immensely.
The pattern, and really the whole piece except for the stitching and materials, was engineered by Abby. I'm so grateful! They fit me better than any commercial pattern could have. They get my waist to where I want it to be comfortably, but don't dig into my waist (25", baby!) and the lacing down the front allows me to adjust the bust thrust as needed. I did have to take it in a good deal to get the amount of constriction I like, but that was all ironed out during the fitting process. The back gap is pretty small and I'm concerned that it'll get smaller as the fabric stretches, and need to bring the chest points in a little further. I also need to put on straps and tack a piece on to the center to keep the bottom straight, but that'll be simple.
The fabric is beige wool stuff from B&T, lined in 2 layers of linen osnaberg, boned with zip ties and bound with Larkin & Smith's kid leather. Hand done, as usual, with cotton and linen thread. Laced up in this case with shitty rayon ribbon.
And the pictures are terrible because they're from my ancient phone. No room in the car for my big, clunky camera, apparently...
After spending a week or two indulging in the dulce far niente of binging Grey's Anatomy, I need to make a new shift or two. The situation (or shift-uation, hah!) is getting a little ridiculous.
