I’ve always wanted to have an 18th century embroidered stomacher and now I actually made two! 😀 One of my 18th century stomachers is hand-embroidered and the other is machine-embroidered on my old treadle sewing machine. In addition, both stomacher are reversible: so I have four 18th century stomacher now.

Hand Embroidery Stitches

For my hand-embroidered stomacher I used various 18th century embroidery stitches like satin stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch, buttonhole stitch, woven wheel stitch, back stitch, colonial knots, fly stitch, herringbone stitch, long & short stitch (soft shading), couching stitch, ladder stitch (open chain stitch) and laidwork. And the embroidery design is based on antique 18th century hand embroidered stomachers and pockets.

Blue Linen Fabric

For my blue 18th century stomacher I used a scrap piece of linen fabric. I only had a small piece left from the linen fabric after making a chemise and my 18th century linen stays: It was just enough for an 18th century stomacher! 😀

Related: 18th Century Linen Stays

So I joined the selvage of the two small fabric pieces that I had left with the old German stitch. The old German stitch is similar to the baseball stitch but more closely spaced: It’s an ancient stitch that was traditionally used to stitch two fabric selvages together.

Related: 34 Types of Historical Seams

After sewing the two pieces of fabric together, I dyed the linen fabric blue so that it matches the color of my blue skirt.

Machine-Embroidered Stomacher

I embroidered my machine-embroidered stomacher on my old treadle sewing machine which can only sew straight and zigzag stitches! I used embroidery floss and cotton crochet thread as embroidery threads. And because they were too thick to use as top threads, I used them as bobbin threads! 😀 So I stitched with the wrong side of the fabric facing up.

By the way, if you think the machine-embroidered stomacher was quicker to make than the hand-embroidered stomacher, you’re wrong! 😉 It took just as long or maybe even longer than my hand-embroidered 18th century stomacher! But I love how both stomachers turned out even though I didn’t enjoy making them! 😉

18th Century Outfit

With my 18th century embroidered stomachers, I’m wearing my:

• 18th century linen stays
• 18th century chemise, corded petticoat & blue dyed skirt
• 18th century linen jacket
• hand-sewn 18th century lappet cap