professional bad example

i just learned - and am greatly interested by - the fact that apparently these late 1790s crossover dresses that are my main inspiration were, in fact, considered robes a la turque. even though they don't look very much like earlier robes a la turque. then again, i suppose we don't have a problem with the fact that this and this were both referred to as chemise dresses within their respective eras...

anyway i finally found a good way to baste the bias tape on my stays. use actual basting thread and a relatively short needle (both things i've never bothered with before), press the bias tape in half beforehand, use a short gathering thread in the middle of the bias tape to help ease it around each u-turn. i thought the gathering thread thing would take up a lot of additional time, but compared to the time it takes to get the tape to look halfway neat without them, it's honestly not that bad...