I thought for sure I’d be able to whip together the stays pieces on Friday night — I mean, what’s six seams? Nothing! Well, I now have 3 of the 6 seams done, and obviously this is going to take me another week. It’s HARD to sew through that many layers — pliers help, I have found — and to make sure you actually catch ALL of the layers, you have to stick the needle in, then check each side underneath to make sure you can see a bit of needle, before you can finish that stitch. Le sigh! I’ve basically killed my leather thimble, and my wrist is still tired…
Here’s a fuzzy shot of the outside and inside of one of the seams — thank goodness for welting, which will cover those ugly stitches!
I know it is a different time period than my own pair of bodies, but when I sewed the seams on mine together, I only used a very tiny whip stitch, as described on this site page
http://www.extremecostuming.com/articles/theelizabethanseam.html
It only catches a small amount of fabric, but the seam is strong, and in several wearings under pressure, has not given at all, nor has the fabric had problems. I used a strong linen thread, waxed.
I’d love to do a seam like that, Kimiko, but I have no idea how you could go through all the layers! I’ve got 2 layers of cotton/linen fustian, 1 layer heavy linen canvas, and the silk damask outer layer. The way that it’s sewn is with the seam folded over, and then right sides together — so I am sewing through the fold in between 8 layers — and to get the thread to go thru all the layers, I’m having to take a pretty deep stitch!