1790's Stays Finished

My new stays are finished. I used a pattern from Corsets and Crinolines that's dated to the late 1790's. They're mostly hand-sewn, but I'll admit to doing the boning channels and seaming the lining panels to each other by machine. I've made 100% hand-sewn stays and can say that all that back-stitching for the channels just isn't my thing when the lock-stitch pretty much looks the same from the right side. Unless I don't have a machine available, then I don't care.

They're two layers of cotton twill boned with a combination of duct ties and flat steel and lined with muslin.







The silhouette definitely is 18th century, just shorter - as though I were wearing stays originally intended for someone three and a half feet tall.

Sorry they're kind of hard to see with all the white stays on white shift.