Staying Put – Olympe’s Test Stays, and Moving

More work on the test garment that will help me fit Olympe’s stays.  I’ve installed all the boning as well as the grommets (to be covered in threads in the future).  I’ve discovered that the stays will need to be bound for trying on, as bits of boning stick out from the tabs, and I don’t want anything falling out.  This goes fairly quickly with certain Jane Austen movies playing in the background :-).

I ran into a little problem: the length of the back is longer than the length of the 1/4″ zipties I am using.  I’ve come up with three solutions:

• Use “monster” zipties, those incredibly long 1/2″ wide giants you find in the hardware store.  This is a good solution because it provides the most support and stiffness, particular useful on edges where lacings cross.
• Use thick hemp cord.  Provides moderate shaping, is flexible and comfortable.
• Double up the 1/4″ zipties, threading one in from the top and one in from the bottom.  This is still in “testing” as I do not want them to migrate to the middle.  The stiffness seems good, but they need to stay extended from top to bottom.

So far so good with these test stays, but I am anticipating a couple things:

• The tabs on the side and back will probably be fine, but the front cut for the front tabs is too high.  They should start at or just barely below the waist, so this will need some adjustment.
• The stays may be a little short-waisted overall, but this is an easy fix.
• Underarms might need to be trimmed down a bit for comfort.
• I’m thinking of shrinking the little tabs that stick up on the front of the stays, and extending the removable straps down to meet them, so that when the stays are worn without straps, the little tabs won’t be as sticky-uppy.
• I will have a better idea of the exact sizing when Olympe tries these stays on.  The gap in front or in back (or both) may need to be widened or shrunk.

Lacing the back, using zig-zag lacings and nice wide ribbon.