Trying things on...

...and finding out they don't fit.  AFTER you've finished them! 

Sigh.

Because my husband sounded less than thrilled to lace up my stays, I looked up online how to lace stays by yourself.  So I gave it a try last night.  It was surprisingly easy, and worked fine. 

But... it's too big.  I think maybe my dress form might be a little off in its measurements, because it fits much differently on me!  I'm supposed to have at least an inch of gap between the boning at the center back, and mine were overlapping!!  And they just weren't fitting right. 

I went to bed last night, trying to figure out how I can fix this without having to redo the whole dang thing.  I will need to take it in both in the back and at the shoulder.  Not cool, but necessary.  I just don't have the time to redo it.  Later, I'll make a new one... as I've been slowly losing weight, it will definitely be a necessity later.  :) 

On the one hand, I'm frustrated, but on the other... I'm kind of glad.  I guess I'm smaller than I thought I was, and I'm having a hard time feeling bad about that part!  Another positive:  this means the size of my dress pattern will be easier to fit (I was anticipating having to do many alterations).  But it also makes me question how accurate my dress form really is...  hmm...

Back to the sewing table!