Halfway There

I've been steadily working away on my new set of stays. I worked each panel by hand, boned them, and then whipstitched the seam allowances down on the inside. I then whipstitched the pieces together. The result is a very sturdy seam.

Here is the backstage view. These stays are boned with reed from Wm. Booth, Draper. The linen is also from the same merchant. There are three layers, two of the sturdy, stiff oatmeal colored linen and the outer layer of a lighter weight linen. The thread is off white linen. 

My hand stitching is neither impeccably neat nor impossibly tiny. But it does what it's supposed to do, and that's all I need.

The eyelets have just been whipstitched around with linen thread to hold them open at the size I want them to be. I will go back and stitch each eyelet with silk buttonhole twist thread. 

There is one spring steel bone at the center back for extra strength. I may also add a couple spring steel bones at the front depending on how I feel about the reed holding up.