...added the boning (I'm using German Plastic boning), tacked down the inner seams... 
...and assembled the lining. 
All that remains is to hand bind the eyelets raw edges (this is most time and labor intense part of 18th century stays for me).
I hand-bound the edges of the stays with a very soft goat leather. The wooden bones don't poke through the leather. Any future corsets that I make with wood will have leather binding! 
The inside of the stays are lined in a checked linen. Apparently plaid and stripes were the most commonly found linings in 18th century stays.
I picked up this handy little tool at the Williamsburg stays' workshop. It's a bodkin, and is used to help lace up your stays. Sure is a lot easier than using shoe lace plastic tips (and more period correct)
So here I am modeling the corset. Caly wanted to be in the picture too. You would not generally wear a petticoat underneath the corset like I am doing, but my shift is very sheer so it's for modesty's sake.
Here's the side shot. I have the perfect mid 18th century flat front. Without the flat front, you can't properly fit the 18th century gown which requires a rigid foundation.
Whoa...cleavage shot. What I'm really trying to show here is the nice triangular shape that my torso has taken by wearing the stays. Again, this is part of the 18th century aesthetic. 
Here you can see how the corset is laced up. Rather than using a modern lacing technique (where it looks like you're tying a shoe), this corset is spiral laced. The eyelets are off center, and the corset is laced from the bottom up. This pushes everything up as you lace the corset, which is the desired effect for the 18th century. I never realized how lacing can be so important to giving the corset the right shape: this same corset looks different if I start lacing from the top and doesn't look correct. Victorian corsets are laced and tied in the middle, so that the waist is nipped in.
On an unrelated note...I've been finding old childhood photos, and I found this picture (I'm on the far left, my sister is the next one over). In one of those "as-luck-would-have-it" moments, my sister and I got to be walk-on girls for the Opera Eugene Onegin. I was nine years old. The Opera was in Europe, and this was long enough ago that the visiting opera troupe was known as the Opera of Leningrad. Wow was their costume room fun!!
I loved having the little curls at the side of my head, and I thought my dress was so lady-like (my sister was very unhappy when they put her in a shorter gown and bloomers because if her age, but she was as cute as a button!). As we were leaving every night, the performers would come out in their enormous white ball gowns that seemed to stand out a mile, with lots of tulle and satin (if you've ever seen the movie version with Liv Tyler, this is toward the end where Onegin sees Tatiana at a ball and finds out she's married). I think these photos mark the beginning of my fascination with historical costumes.
My sister-in-law got a kitty print pillow.
Her Husband got a hockey themed pillow
Of course, it's the easiest. I dread all those tabs on the bottom of the corset.
There's the added benefit of having leather protecting you from any protruding reed bones as well. After my old corset, having a strong layer of leather in between me and the reed ends will be a welcome change.
So I have finished boning my 18th century Stays. The Silly Sisters came through for me, and recommended that I replace the flimsy ash reed that just wasn't working with oval reed. What a difference that made! I feel like they're really starting to look like the real thing.
Next up is binding the edges. I have 15 yards of fine white goat leather. I was apprehensive about binding the stays in leather since I had never worked with leather before, but I'm amazed at how easy the leather is to work with. I'm using a 'glover' needle, or a leather needle, which I'm sure helps. It is specially made to pierce the leather more easily. The problem I'm encountering is with my thread. My instructions recommend using silk thread, but the silk keeps raveling and bunching while I'm using it. Any ideas? Should I be waxing the silk before I start using it? I also have some more modern 'thread conditioner' I picked up at my local fabric store.
As you can see I haven't progressed very far yet - I've been distracted with Christmas projects and preparations (I know, I know, excuses, excused). Overall, I think it will look very nice though. I'm using a backstick on the exterior binding, and a slip stitch on the inside. Once all the edges are bound, the lining and straps will get sewn in.
Here you can see I finished the eyelets. I am doing period correct spiral lacing instead of the traditional criss-cross that I have done in the past. It apparently really affects the fit of the garment, so I decided to stick with the period correct method.
I did not hand sew all the channels on the corset (this would have been a year long project otherwise). A bit of work on the machine, but the pieces were all assembled with hand stitching.
Here's the corset fully assembled after I sewed in all the boning channels. I had Dave lace me into it for one final test fit, and to mark where a few of the tab slits should go. 
And here's what it looks like once all the excess fabric has been trimmed away. Not bad, eh? All it needs in bones inserted, leather binding, and then I will line it.
Here's what the inside looked like with all the excess seam allowance (this is in case you need to make adjustments to the fit..pretty smart method if you ask me).
And here's the inside with the seam allowances trimmed to their final width.
The Stays course was certainly a unique experience, which involved most of us standing around in only our near-transparent shifts for a good part of the day. I give Mark credit though - he was able to make jokes and put us all relatively at ease. We were each paired up with someone that had a similar body type, and we worked with our "Bosom Buddies," as Mark called them, for the rest of the day. We started by taking measurements in the 18th century method - using only a strip of paper and clipping little markings into the paper. No tape measures were used at all.
Next up was the most frustrating portion of the workshop for me. My partner and I chose a corset pattern that was recommended for our era and body types. We received about 10 minutes of oral instructions on how to size up an original 18th century stays pattern. Without any written instructions and no pattern drafting experience, this was a crash course in pattern drafting that had me going pink in the face with frustration. In the end with more than a little bit of help, all was well, though class ended a good hour and forty minutes later than it should have. I left the class on Saturday with pattern pieces chalked onto my corset fabric. Our homework was to baste the chalk outline of the pattern (and to secure all three layers of fabric together). I was a little surprised to learn that we were expected to hand sew (I had not gathered that from the class description). I went ahead and bought linen thread and beeswax to strengthen the thread, and got to work. The next day, we assembled the pattern pieces and wound up with the following product:
I know it doesn't look like much, but this is a PERFECTLY fitting corset, made especially for me. Mark actually sewed us all into our corset so we could be sure we had the right fit, and helped us make a few minor last minute tweaks. It's up to me now to chalk the final pattern, take apart the corset (it's only basted together), rebaste the chalk lines, hand sew the boning channels, insert the boning (I think I'll use ash reed), and bind the corset in white leather that I purchased this weekend. I think this is going to take a couple of months to complete, but I really want to take my time and get a perfect set of stays. If all turns out well, I may use some leftover silk taffeta to cover the corset and make it fancy.
Now, you can't expect a group of costumers to get together in Williamsburg without going out on the town in costume. We went to one of the Williamsburg taverns for dinner and had a great time. I know the photo above is dark, but I like the candle light effect.
Here we are in a bit more well-lit photo. The ladies on each end of the photo are members of my Tuesday Night Costumer's group.
BIG thanks to my husband for driving me down to Williamsburg. I know he enjoyed taking a tour of the local ale factory and playing WoW online in the hotel room, but I know it wasn't his preferred way to spend the weekend. Thanks Dave! Hope you're ready to go back up in November for the gown draping class. :)
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