A gasket for providing a gas and fluid tight between parts of an internal combustion engine, for example around a combustion chamber opening, is provided. The gasket includes a functional layer with a full embossment spaced from the combustion chamber opening. A stopper layer is attached to the functional layer adjacent the combustion chamber opening. After attaching the stopper layer to the functional layer, half embossments are simultaneously formed in the functional layer and the stopper layer adjacent the combustion chamber opening. The aligned half embossments are together referred to as a half-stop. The half-stop maintains the load on the stopper layer, limits compression on the full embossment, and protects the full embossment from combustion gases when the gasket is compressed between two parts of the internal combustion engine.