more 18th-c wittering

This is a corset I own. Ignore the lumpy transparent pj's I'm wearing under it.

It is a farby, metal-grommeted, semi-Victorian number in blue-and-black brocade that reverses to black brocade. It has a sweetheart neckline, and no straps.
It also was perfectly sized for me, then too small for me, and now seems to be too large. (WTF, I did not gain/lose THAT much weight! I'm only like 10lbs different! Insane. I've resigned myself to nothing I own ever fitting me ever.) Though in this pic they're not laced all the way shut in the back, so I've still got a couple inches to play with. Still, that's my approximate shape in them.

My question: close enough to 18th century to save me about 40 hours of work on the stays???
I haven't found anyone quite my shape to compare to. Most of the dress diaries online are either by twigs or by allover large women. I want to make a gown like this, but of course, I don't look anything like that.
Images online of 18th-C stays.
The silhouette should be more flat-fronted, more like a cone than an hourglass (the hips slant out abruptly and are padded, unlike the mid-19th-c look this corset gives, where the natural curve of the hip is accented by the compressed waist). The neckline should be totally flat across the front, or maybe a gentle scoop.
Yeah, it's pretty much totally wrong. But. Can I cheat??
The thing to keep in mind is that the dress bodice will be built directly over the foundation layer of the stays, and so if I cheat, I cheat forever-- I can't just make myself stays later and wear the dress I make over those, because they won't fit. I suppose i could leave a generous seam allowance and figure on altering it if I ever get around to making proper stays, but then, I won't.
I have to make this decision before I start anything else because of that. The foundation layer has to come first. If I get all the way to the end of making the dress and decide it just looks too awful, it'll already be too late to start over. I can't just say if I have time I'll do them later.
But if I start on stays and run out of time, well, I'll have nothing else done, basically.
Decisions, decisions.

At least yesterday I had an hour to kill between the end of work and going to a team dinner, so I zipped into the mall across the street from my workplace, into which I had never been. On a coworker's recommendation I stopped by Deb, and there I found a dress for $15 that is perfect to wear to a wedding I'm going to. I thought I'd need to alter it, but I got it home and tried it on with a plunge-front bra that sort of fits, and OMG, all I need to do is shorten the shoulder straps two inches, and it fits!!!
Holy crap. That's never worked before. We'll see. I'm going to try to find double-sided tape like whatever kept J.Lo in that scandalous dress those years ago, and stick the shit out of myself to make sure that a) the bra doesn't slide out from under the dress and b) my tits don't slide out of the bra, which as I recollect is pretty much the inevitable thing that happens after thirty seconds in a plunge bra (my boobs don't like staying put-- all plunge bras are set too wide for them), but I think this will actually work.
Watch me spend the entire wedding hauling my tits back into my bra and trying to find artful ways of concealing the fact that my shit does not fit. Oh well. It was fifteen dollars! And it is covered in gold glitter!!

I also bought a garment I don't know if I'll ever wear but it was three dollars. It is a funky draped-front twisty-strap-back hip-length tunic shirt made entirely of blue glitter dot fabric. I tried it on over the corset in the photo above but did not think to take a picture. It was somewhat awesome. I don't know where I'd ever wear that, though. Or what I'd wear on my ass. I'm tempted to wear it with glitter booty shorts and opaque tights and just let my ass hang out to the world. But that's probably the roller derby talking.
Still and all. Where would I wear that? I would have to go Out Clubbing just once in my life, so I'd have somewhere to wear it.