1830s Undies!

I finally finished my stays and corded petticoat! I used the Historical Sewing corded petticoat workbook and did the facing method. The cotton organza I ordered was 59" wide so I went with 1.5 panels. It came out a bit shorter than I wanted due to the cording (workbook doesn't say to allow for this), but I'm happy with it. I also followed the American Duchess video tutorial and went with 10/32" cording for the bottom four rows, then 5/32" cording for the rest. It took several days to do because it is tedious as hell! And one of the rare sewing things where my long nails are actually useful, to push the cording in place. I wasn't super careful keeping my facing aligned to the outer petticoat at the seams and it shifted a bit, but I can live with it. Underwear after all!

These first 8 rows took me 1.5 hours to sew ... and you definitely want to make sure to keep a full bobbin before starting a group!

I was waiting to try the stays on me until I was done with the petticoat. Petunia has so far been very reliable with fitting things but I always hold my breath when I'm putting something on. Excuse the derpy look on my face, and this chemise will likely not be the final one. I also realized I had caught my front drawstring in my binding stitching so had to unpick and fix that, so one boob is gathered less than the other. They need a good iron as well.

Shocking how much the petticoat stands out even before starching! They recommend you dip the whole thing in starch and let it dry to keep it nice and full, and hopefully that will even out the dipping you can see on the left front.

Then I did the bodice mock-up. I had Benjie remeasure my back width and I'm glad I did, because I think it came out perfect. The darts in the front aren't pinned up yet but there's plenty of room for them, and I'll fit those on my body. Usually TV patterns are short on me but this one will be good, I think. Now I just have to figure out that crossover bodice front I want to do ... but I have some thoughts on how to execute it.