Regency Stays - Eyelets

We had lovely spring weather today, it was almost warm. I didn’t feel very well, so I had stayed behind from church, and for a little while I sat in the sun just inside the open balcony door, with a shawl over my shoulders, and a blanket over my knees, looking through “Nineteenth century fashion in detail”, which I borrowed on the library the other day. The sun made my head ache, but part from that it was lovely.

This week I have had a lot of school to do, and I’ve had a headache for four days. Still, I’ve managed to get some knitting and sewing done. I have sewn slanting boning channels on the back panels of my regency stays (the stays I’m mostly inspired by had them), and made the 32 eyelets. They are not the prettiest eyelets I’ve ever made, but they’ll do. The stays will be spiral laced, as that was most common. As you see, the eyelets are set far from the top, since I intend to cut it lower than it is now.

I hope I’ll get started on the bust gussets next week, but we’ll see. I start working tomorrow, on a paediatric ward. I’m really looking forward to it, but I’m a bit nervous as well. The ironic thing is that I’ve been a patient at that same ward almost 24 years ago, as my family lived in this town for a year or so back then. Some of my new colleagues (from what I’ve heard) may well have worked there at the time.

Even though I appreciate the opportunity to be working with what I’ve studied for, I can’t help feeling a slight regret that I won’t be a “housewife” anymore. This past month has been very precious to me. My irregular work hours mean that some days (like tomorrow) Tobias and I will hardly meet at all, and that feels very, very sad. I look forward to the time (somewhere in the unknown future) when I can be a stay-at-home Mum. But, since I also have the last course on my specialist nurse education to finish, and I’ll be doing that parallel with working, I’ll only work three days a week for a couple of months. I’ll hopefully be able to be at home some of the rest of the days of the week. And that possibility feels good :)