1780s stays -- Done!

*flop* It feels like I've been working on these things forever! Looking at the calendar, it's actually been less than two weeks, from most of the fitting, to cutting out all the pieces, boning the interlining (machine), sewing the pieces together (machine), sewing the 56 eyelets by hand, making the binding, sewing that on by hand, and then sewed on the lining (a la koshka_the_cat 's method).

Writing all that out is to try and convince myself that eleven days is not that bad for making a pair of stays!


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Um, I think I have CADD. Correction: I know I have CADD. But I tell myself it's okay, because it's still 18thc, and will be worn this summer, and the fabric was just sitting in The Stash, and I'm still going to make the wonderfully obnoxious anglaise...yeah, yeah, okay. Justification, whatever.

I was out most of the day, and when I came home, got all trussed up in my stays and decided to make a muslin for the orange and blue anglaise. I didn't end up making a muslin for the orange and blue anglaise. Somehow I cut the back point too short, and the front was looking crappy...and somewhere in there I decided I wanted a more casual dress for the Bastille Day picnic anyway, so I made a muslin for a gaulle instead. This saffron-yellow silk shantung from a fabric.com sale last summer has been telling me it wants to be either a round gown or a gaulle, so I finally pulled it out today, and told it to shut up, I was going to make it into a c1790 gaulle.

Research for this pretty much consisted of looking at demode and Mode Historique's gaulles, and at screencaps from Marie Antoinette and the Duchess. Okay, and a few portraits. I just wanna wear a pretty dress! For some reason, I'm hand-sewing the thing...I think I like to annoy myself.

This may require a different hat than the Big Pink one that will be worn with the blue and orange dress. *ponders* Oh no, another hat, how will I ever survive? Hah. I might just be making this dress so I can add to my hat collection, actually.

So here's the pic of the bodice pieces cut out.


For some obscure reason I've never been able to figure out, I never kept a pattern from my block-print polonaise (what, did I think I'd only be making one 18thc dress? *snort* Yeah, okay), so I only had a pattern from the Evil Polonaise of last year, which is a two-piece back. I was okay with this until I realized all the gaulles I was seeing (which, to be fair, isn't all that many, but still) had the back cut in four pieces. Fine. *snip snip sew* Okay, four pieces!

This bodice was actually frighteningly easy to fit; I'm quite sure I'll sew it all together and discover I've done something completely moronic. Oh well. The silk is just lined in cotton muslin, because I'm a cheap bastard, and I've got a lot of cotton muslin. It's worked before, and I'm sure it'll work again!

The front lining pieces will be covered with the gathered front of the dress; those pieces will lace together to hold the back tight. Well, now I've got something to sew when I visit rose_bertin !