Adding the Bones

After researching the best types of boning, I decided to use cable ties. Whale bone was obviously out, and I didn't want to have to order boning online and wait a long time. Joann's doesn't have much for a historical sewer.

Enter the Home Depot. I got one bag of 36 inch cable ties. It ended up being the perfect amount for my stays. I had exactly zero leftovers.

I cut the ties to the right size and then used sand paper to round the edges. It took quite a while and I got a few blisters, but I'm glad I used cable ties. They're very light but also hold their shape well when there's a bunch of them together. 

A just cut bone on the bottom and a smoothed bone on the top.

The stays with all the boning

Stay-ing Alive Sewing My First Pair of Stays

My first post! A little background about me; I am a high school Senior and I don't have very much sewing experience. Basically, don't do anything that I do because I am just guessing through this whole process.

So for my first pair of stays, I decided to use a pattern by J.P. Ryan (found here). I made a mockup at first, but it had no boning, eyelets, and the wrong seam allowances. I decided to go ahead and make the stays as is anyway. Was this a bad idea? Probably.

For the fabric, I decided to use a cream duck for the interfacing and red duck for the outside fabric. I debated with myself over having the red being the front or the cream. Cream would be easier to wear under things but the red was so pretty. I decided on using the red. I cut out all the pattern pieces and sewed them with the correct seam allowances this time.

This is the the two front pieces of the stays sewn together.

And then the seam in the back gets pressed open.

All the interfacing and front pieces sewn together.

At this point I was really proud of myself and thinking "omg these stays are so pretty!" Also, I hadn't taken me very long to sew and was easy. Past me was so naive. 

Now I had to sew the boning channels. I discovered I cannot sew in a straight line to save my life. Yay.

The first few boning channels (on the right) were actually pretty good. And then I somehow began sewing like a drunk person and had to unpick so many rows. Also, my sewing machine kept making balls of thread at the very beginning of the rows, which was very annoying.

One piece done! So many more to go... 

Sorry this picture is upside-down. I can't figure out how to rotate it on Blogger and I don't have Photoshop on the computer I am currently using. 

But yay the boning channels of doom are finished!

Next up: adding the actual boning!