Almost done...

This is the fully boned, turn-of-the-19th century transition stay I began several months ago. I've been working on it for a week now, hand-sewing at every opportunity. I think it has turned out fantastic! I am very impressed with the instructions provided by Saundra Altman (the woman who drafted the pattern based on a museum piece). This picture is a blurry representation of the inside of the corset, opened up flat. The bones are made of reed and come in a circle like a wreath and so need to be soaked and steamed after inserting them into each channel in order to flatten them. All I have left is to whip-stitch and put the binding on the top and bottom edges and sew in the breast-bone casings which will house to metal bands to prevent boob-smooshage. Heh. I'll update the pictures when I replace the batteries in my camera.

Threatened with the prospect of help from my mother-in-law, I'm pleased to report that I have actually begun to finish some of my latest (some, VERY late...) projects. I have switched bathrooms with Gavin, learned to use hot rollers in my formerly uncooperative lengths of hair, and launched fearlessly into my first hand-sewn project in earnest. I cut out the corset many months ago and have been making fearful glances at it ever since, until last week. I am so, so (sew--ha ha.. *buh-dum-dum*) glad that I did. It turns out that hand-sewing is EASY. Not only is it easy, it's EASIER than using a machine! AND you're not STUCK somewhere!

For those of you who know me, and I'm guessing you do if you're reading this blog, you're aware that I am the harrassed stay-at-home-on-the-go mom of a rapidly moving toddler, and toddlers don't care much for hanging out and watching mommy sew, or cook, compute, or anything else that disallows thier participation. But hand-sewing is different. It's small, it's uninteresting, and it's totally mobile.

More on this later, with pictures too!

So the room is re-arranged, the closet is mine, and there is blue prep paint covering about 3/4 of the window and door trim. Painting is still a ways off and I'm looking at a shirt I started making (two years ago...) and getting closer and closer to busting out the ole' sewing machine. I hand stitched a pair of pants for uly that are also unfinished, but almost done. That seems to be a major theme in my life. Almost there!