Now I REALLY know why stay~makers were mostly men.....

Uggg. My hands are so tired. I stitched 10 channels on Marguarite's pair of bodies today, and the 3 layers are just so thick....terrifically hard to needle thru and still get the tiny stitches I want. I wear a leather on my middle finger to push my needle(broke two today), but what are really sore, are my right thumb and forefinger, from having to grab the needle so tightly to pull it thru the layers. It actually feels quite good to pound the heck out of these keys. I first stitched the center busk pocket. I am using a masking tape of mark my place, instead of using a pen, or chalk. too messy. I stitched thru all layers, burying my knots in between the inner cotton and fustian lining.

You can see my stitches are not at all even as they should be, but I am managing to keep them small enough, and I actually like them uneven a little, it adds much character when looking at them up close, you can easily tell they are made by hand!

Next I drew out my line with a temporary pen....well, it is actually a water solulable quilt marking pen, thats really dry, and around 5+ years old...so you can barely see the lines it makes, and they don't last long! he

I stitched this top line that defines the bust and the front area of the boning next. These two sets of stitching, are my baselines that everything else will flow off of. When stitching channels for any corset or stays or bodies....in any era, always start in the middle and work outwards. You will avoid any wrinkles in doing so, and all will be nice and even and flat. One could be tempted to stitch the diagonal line going up the sides at this point too, but DONT!! This line of stitching will be last, and the most difficult, as it is stitched after the boning is fed into the channels. So for now, I'm going to relax and not stitch any more this evening....I think Ill go oogle over that staircase some more...I see the V&A has chairs right in front of the display, I am sure I'm not the only one who could sit and stare and daydream about them all day. Don't know what I'm talking about??? Well scroll down and follow the link in my last post!!