Eamon and Ziva and I went over to Seattle for the day to run a bunch of errands around SoDo - I needed to go to a pottery supply store, plus we stopped in at the Tango Zulu in Pioneer Square (that's the store I used to work at in Port Gamble) and we've both been wanting to go to Uwajimaya for a really long time. It was a successful trip on all counts - Uwajimaya even had calamansi juice, this Filipino citrus drink that we stumbled upon last fall in an Asian market near our apartment in Groton, CT. We became addicted to the stuff and were really excited to find it. Yay!!
The only downside was that we didn't get home until almost 8:30, so I didn't get much time to sew. My trick of putting the heavy books on the stays mockup actually worked, so they were finally mostly flat and I was able to hold up the boned half to myself and get a sense for how well they will fit, and it looked just right. Because I don't have a lot of time for this project, I decided not to bone the other half and just run with it since the measurements match mine, and instead of just having lacing in the back, I'm altering it slightly to lace in front too, which is very forgiving. So, tonight I cut out all of the pieces in coutil, and I'm hoping that tomorrow night I will be able to cut out the brocade and start stitching the boning channels. Ideally, I'd love to have all of that done by Tuesday so that when the cable ties arrive all I have to do is trim them and insert them. I do need to get a bunch of matching thread and something to use for binding*. In the period, it looks like the most common material for binding was actually a long thin strip of leather or suede. I might have to go with regular binding tape just because it will be easiest to find. I will also need ribbon or cord for tying down the straps and lacing the corset. The straps are stitched to the back of the stays and come up and over, and there is an eyelet** at the end of the strap and at the top point of the front of the stays where you attach the strap with a ribbon or cord.
Definitions
* Binding - bias-cut fabric, sometimes folded or double-folded, used to cover raw cut edges of fabric. Sometimes raw edges are hidden by placing the fabric right sides together, stitching almost all the way around, turning and then closing the opening by hand (this is called "bagging"). But for these stays, I'll just be stitching the two fabrics together only at the center back and center front and then adding binding around the entire top raw edge and bottom raw edge.
** Eyelets - nowadays they are usually made with metal grommets that get stamped into the fabric. But in the period, they were worked by hand. You punch a hole in the fabric with an awl, which just kind of moves the fibers aside rather than tearing them, and then stitch around the hole to ensure that it doesn't fray. Stays were not laced extremely tightly in this period - that didn't come until the Victorian era - but eyelets still need to be strong enough so that the stays can form the desired shape. I do hope to make my eyelets by hand for these stays, but that's a lot of time I'm not sure I have! Maybe that will be the sort of thing I'll do in between work and Ziva's swim classes, when I'm just sitting in the car with her while she naps :-/
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