Well, That Was As Much Fun As...

...trying on bathing suits under fluorescent lights, or perhaps sticking a finger in my eye.  The graceful lines of this 1776 pair of stays are, shall we say, elongated and widened considerably.  I have nothing more to say here except I'm annoyed and had to go do something else for a while.

The bottom line: my waist is short (8") and I had to hook my lower center back length full around to the side over my ample hips in a really stupid sweeping arc, which I rather don't like very much at all.

Then, I had to get the bust to equal at least 22" inches (up from what a negative 0?) and then pull the front where the strap is supposed to attach up from where it was (sitting in the middle of my bust line - uh, no) to sitting up at least 4' - 5" higher at my shoulder and re-draw the armscye and hope for the best.

  Essentially, I had to grade this ancient pattern up from about a size 6 or 8 to a size 18 and now I'd really like a glass of champagne as I toss the whole mess from the balcony, but I won't because now I'm headed off to make the toile...
Post Script: Could she have trued that line a little better?  No, she couldn't as she's lost her drafting ruler and the Fiestaware didn't prove quite large enough.  :-(