The Stays are Finished!

It took me a very long time, but I am happy to announce that I have finally finished my 1780's stays!
Ignore the fact that this is a bad mirror selfie and that I'm wearing a modern tank top underneath…they are done and I am happy :D
I'll have to do a more extensive photo shoot once I finish the chemise I plan to wear underneath.

My only quandary now is the question of how to store these stays. Because of the horizontal bones at the bust, I can't roll these up like I would for all my other boned undergarments. I suppose I'll think of something.

The straps tie to the body with twill tape, the same I'm using to lace the stays.

Outside view. The outer layer is a nice brownish-red linen. The two stabilizing layers are of a stiff oatmeal colored linen. Everything is hand sewn with natural colored linen thread and silk buttonhole twist for the eyelets.

I had originally tried to bind the tabs with self fabric, like I did for the top, but that didn't work. Then I remembered that I had a nice piece of chamois leather in my stash. So I cut 1 inch strips, which turned out perfectly. The lining is a less coarse oatmeal colored linen. I will admit that the lining is the only machine sewn bit. It's also the ugliest, as it turned out too big, since the outer pieces shrunk up a bit when the boning was inserted. But nobody's going to see it!