1840's stays update

Hello! I've been working and working on my stays these past few days. Here are some pictures!

First of all, Ive decided to put two gustes on each side, which is more period accurate. This change called for a seond mock-up, it's the one in the picture above. 

these are three of the four layers (actually the first and second layers are pinned together). I chose to use cotton for the outer layers and linen for the inner ones. 

Design for the cording and embroidery on the front piece.

In this picture you can see i've finished the cording and embroidery on the left side, and barely started the right. I used some cotton knitting/crochet yarn for the cording. 

close-up on the embroidered fowers. 

Apart from the gussets on he linen layers which were sewn by machine, everything is hand stitched, as it would have been at the time.  The corset is also entirely upcycled, for the cotton comes from a duvet cover and the linen from a vintage tablecloth.