Fixing My Stays; Finally Costuming!

Long time readers may remember that last summer I made two pairs of stays. The nicer of the two sets turned out way too small, and so I started a second pair. Then when I finally finished the second pair earlier this spring, the back was too tall/long and created an unsightly ridge. In the picture above you can see how high the back of the stays go. I just couldn't win when it came to stay-making last year! I let the too tall stays sit for a while again, frustrated they needed yet more work to be usable. Well this week I finally got the courage to cut down the tops and fix them!

I sliced off the top inch 1/4 from the back, cutting through the three layers of fabric and the plastic (cable tie) boning. I then had to re-trim the boning, clip off the sharp edges and sand each piece smooth, before re-inserting the boning back into the channels. Then I added new bias tape over the cut edge and stitched a new eyelet for the spiral lacing. I have yet to try them on again since this last remodel but I have my fingers crossed that they will finally work!

Eek! not very pretty anymore, function over fashion people

I have had a floral cotton 18th century jacket planned for so long now that I can't wait to finally get started. If  I finally do have a pair of stays that work, I plan on diving into a hand sewn swallowtail style jacket (this jacket from Colonial Williamsburg) Check out my last post on the jacket plan, and in the meantime go take a look at the wonderful swallowtails and instructions over on A Fashionable Frolick! I will definitely being following their tutorial for how to make this jacket as this will be my first ever hand sewn costume project!

Woman's Jacket, printed, 1775-1785, Colonial Williamsburg

Strapless Stays of Doom

I say of doom because I started sewing these at the end of summer and I just now finished, but also because they have some issues. I finally got to try them on after finishing the hand sewn eyelets down the back and the top of the back edge sticks out oddly from my shoulder blades. I think my options are either to a. cut down the top edge of the back, trim all the boning and reattach the binding or b. add some sort of strap to hold down the top edge to my back. I honestly am loath to do either because I want these to be done! Oh stay making, why must you be so troublesome! I would rather trim the back down and inch or so, but if that doesn't fix the problem I would be so sad to have done all that work for nothing!

These stays are made with three layers, a simple cotton for lining, a cotton twill for stability and a fashion fabric outer layer of jacquard. I had started binding these in the summer with light pink binding but I hated how it looked which is what originally stalled me. I found a few packages of this golden tan bias binding on sale at Denver Fabrics this fall and like the color combination so much more! These are entirely boned with thick cable ties from Home Depot which I think is actually contributing to the way they flare out since the cable ties come rolled and have a natural coil because of it. Other than that, and having to sand the edges smooth, I really like using these cable ties for boning.

This fabric has been in my stash waiting to be transformed into an 18th century something for a long time. I just love the print and the colors so much! I want to construct a jacket, probably something like the costume close up swallowtail jacket because it is just too cute! I'll be constructing the whole thing in the most historically accurate way possible in an attempt to have some actually accurate 18th century costumes for once. I can't help but want to use my sewing machine all the time because I am ever impatient, but this jacket will be a longer term project and challenge to do everything the accurate way! I can't wait to start even though I have other projects to finish first!

Strapless Stays Progress

After I finished sewing all of the many many boning channels I began to cut my heavy duty zip-ties to size and sand down the corners. This is hard work! I rounded the corners of each cut piece of boning by sanding them against high grit sand paper which works great but wrecks havoc on your hands, I had a nice big blister on my finger afterwards but at least it was over!

Now it is time to attach the brocade outer fabric and bind the stays. That's the thing about stay making, after every step you are thinking "whew thank god that part is over!" then you realize you have to sew on the binding which is just as tedious! I cant say stay making is my favorite activity! I haven't made a regular 19th century corset in such a long while I am quite looking forward to it! I will be making a waist cincher for my Halloween costume this year and it is going to seem so easy I can't wait! More on that at a later date!

I start a new job this week (full time!) but I hope to continue posting just as regularly but if I disappear for a while, you now know why!

Strapless Stays Progress and a Little Velvet Hat

The strapless stays are coming along swimmingly but I ran out of boning after finishing off an entire package of heavy duty zip ties in just the front piece. I will have to visit home depot and get some more! I also put together a little velvet hat for winter with some black velvet in my stash. I took some progress pictures but the process was very similar to the last little wire hat I made last month.

Make a cresent out of stiff millinery wire

Wrap the wire in velvet ribbon

I added some flower shapes cut out of velvet and some large bows made of black velvet ribbon

Looks a little odd on the block but cuter on the head :)

I want to add another bow in the center open space but I have to figure out how

Brocade Strapless Stays

I have decided to take my trusty old stays pattern and make a quick pair of fully boned strapless stays. I need a stiffer more conical pair of stays for more 1760's-1770's costumes as opposed to my half boned "prow front" stays more appropriate for the 1780's. I added 5/8 of and inch on the back edge since this pattern has been rather small on me lately. I cut them out of some spare cotton and for the outer layer some leftover ivory brocade from the "renaissance" skirt I made earlier this summer. The shape is based on some of the extant strapless stays in collections like the ones below.

ca. 1780, MET

ca. 1765-1775, Memorial Hall MA

ca. Mid 18th century, Philadelphia Museum or Art

I'm going to be fully boning these with heavy duty zip ties as I am fresh out of whalebone :) I want a pair of stays with a more stiffly conical shape. I hope to be able to wear these under the new gown redo I just finished which I will hopefully get pictures of this weekend!

Finished Stays

So the stays are finished, but they are too small! The mock up fit fine but wasn't fully boned and somewhere along the way these ended up much too small. It is perfectly acceptable to have a few inch gap in the laces in the back, but these have a 4-5 inch gap! Much too big of a gap, and so sadly these don't fit me very well at all. I am also disappointed in my sewing on these, ever since I decided to give up on hand sewing them and machine sew the rest I started rushing because I wanted them done.

Overall this was still a new adventure in stay making for me. The shape of these stays is different than any other I have constructed before and this was my first time using horizontal boning across the chest which I do like now that I have tried it. Again these remind me of how annoying trying to get into a back lacing garment on ones own is and I think my next pair will be front and back lacing. Even though I just finished these I am already itching to make a new improved pair! I think I will instead start the gown re-do over my old stays which fit much better than these new ones. My only hope is that if I end up losing some weight these new stays will eventually fit, until then its back to using my old pair.

I didn't even bother lining the tabs :/

They are even too small on my dress form who is much smaller than I am!

yikes gap!

So its back to the drawing board for my next set of stays! I have two stays/corset hybrids I made ages ago that are so comfortable and fit so nicely that I wish were accurate. They are stays to the waist but then flare over the hips like a corset. I actually based them on extant examples but they are no good for accurate late 18th century :(

ca. 1620-1630, Manchester City Galleries

 This was the pair I based mine off of, front lacing over a stomacher and with webbed tabs over the hips. I have never seen another pair like these from the Manchester City Galleries and would love to see more documentation for this style as it is so comfortable. The pair I made below which have a true 18th and 19th century mash up going on with a fantasy element as well.

Stays Progress

The stays are looking a lot more like stays at this point! I ended up being lazy and just machine stitching them together at the side seams. I know I always start with the best intentions! I just feel like these are taking forever and I wan't to move onto the gown! In any case, its time to sew on the binding, the least fun part of any stay making experience. I have some seriously tedious work ahead of me. 

After I have finished binding the stays I plan on making the lining (with as few seams as possible) and sewing that in over the binding on the inside. I'm not quite sure if one is supposed to sew the lacing holes through the lining or leave that area blank so I am going to have to look into that. Still so much left to do on these! 

In news related to my post a little while ago about floral headbands/hats, I paused my stay-making to try my hand at making a little flower hat/headband thing in a vintage style. I will write up how I did that and show you guys that soon!

Stays Pattern Modifications- Part 2

After making a quick mock-up of my first pattern using a thick fabric, my on hand lacing strips and masking taped on boning I could plainly see what needed to be fixed. Firstly the stays fit great across the top but were too small in the waist. I rectified this by squaring off the side front pattern along the side seam so that the side seam was then horizontal. 

The red line is the new side seam and the light blue line is the old one. This added in about 2 inches overall to my waist measurement and also made the side front pattern piece look more like the V&A pattern so it was a win win. At this point I also added length to the top of the two back pieces because the back was too short on my first mock-up. I then cut out a new mock-up to see how the new pattern fit.

The new mock up fit much better and the shape created was looking good but I then noticed the arm hole was way too big. There was too much space under the arm and also along the sides where skin was being pushed out from the stays. Though this extra space allowed for more arm mobility that isn't exactly historically accurate. Women in formal stays probably could raise their arms very far and indeed had no need to! i modified the pattern again to raise the arm hole on the side seam and smoothed this extra height into both the front and the back. 

After these modifications I felt happy with my pattern and decided since it was looking really messy with all those lines and modifications to trace it onto nice clean paper.

I next set about marking where the boning channels would go. I used the V&A pattern and stays again for reference. I will be using flat and spring steel boning for these stays as I obviously have no access to whalebone like the originals. I prefer to use the steel boning though it is anachronistic because it is thinner than plastic boning or zip-ties and therefore retains the look of the original stays better. I would rather have stiffer stays anyways seeing as these are only half boned.

The next step will be to cut out the stays from the real fabrics. I really can't decide weather I want to hand sew these stays or not! I have never hand sewed stays before, though that is the historically accurate way to make them. Sewing so many straight lined boning channels sound next to impossible but I may just take the plunge with these.

I know it will take longer and be altogether more difficult than just machine stitching these together but the challenge a accuracy are very tempting! I think I will do a little research on the types of thread and stitches used in sewing stays before I decide!

Stays Pattern Modifications- Part 1

I started my experiment with modifying the strapless stays pattern from this generator (and also sorta this tutorial) into new stays like the red V&A example. I looked through my books and some online resources as well to find drawings or diagrams of how stays like the V&A pair were patterned. A book I dearly want but haven't sprung for yet is Corsets and Crinolines by Norah Waugh. I have found scans of the pages detailing the exact stays from the V&A that I am basing mine off of here.

So this illustration was my goal while editing my stays pattern. This was the first time I have tried to document the patterning process so I attempted to keep things color coded with little success ha ha

So supplies: paper scissors, a nice transparent ruler, different colored pens, pins, a french curve ruler if you have one, and of course the generator pattern. My generator pattern is from years ago and is a bit worse for wear and has some modifications already but I will explain those in a sec.

So here is a tracing of my current generator pattern in orange marker. Mine has been cut into individual pieces so I lined each up as I traced. It also has tabs drawn on so I drew the lavender outline of what the original generator pattern was like so you can have and idea of where to start from. Looking at this I already noticed where I had made less than optimal modifications to my generator pattern in the past as my waistline above the tabs was wonky.

So I have made several pairs of stays and have a copy of my most recent pattern laying around so I traced the center front piece from that over the orange and lavender originals to see what modifications I had done before. The easiest way to understand where to lengthen and where to place the straps is to make a mock-up of the strapless stays and pin on muslin to it while you have it on and trace in where those lines should be. At least that's what I did years ago when I first modified this generator pattern.

The easiest way to make corset or stays mock-ups is to tape the boning in place on a single layer mock-up with masking tape and to keep a set of back lacing panels around for just this purpose. I have back lacing panels with metal eyelets laying around to sew to the back of stays and corset mock-ups to be able to try them on without lots of work wasted on the mock-up. I think these mock up lacing strips are probably the best thing to have around when making historical foundation garments because they save you so much time!

Because I know I will be trying on several mock-ups I feel can be a little adventurous (haphazard) when it comes to modifying patterns I already know fit. I figured if I kept the bust and waist measurements the same in my new pattern as in the old one I would be okay. So using the diagrams from corsets and crinolines I redrew the side seam of my front panel. I made a point in the center of the underarm and ran the line from there down to the original waist point of the front panel. (the dashed blue line up there ^ )

Looking at the V&A stays it seemed that the front side seam was a bit curved to I tried to add that in as well. I began to outline the second side front piece as well trying to match the shape as much as I could to the diagram of the V&A stays.

Using the completely official method of eyeballing it I continued to re-draw the pattern pieces to look more like the V&A stays. When I had something I thought I could start with I cut out each piece. This is where it becomes really convenient to have old pairs of stays and a thin dress form. My new dress form is much smaller than me, meaning conveniently she can be padded out and corseted to match my measurements. I didn't go that far this time but I did put her in an old set of stays and pin the new pattern on to see how it fit together in a 3D way.

Here you can already see that the side seam isn't fitting exactly at the waist.



And here you can see that the top of the stays fit but the waist is much too small, unfortunately I didn't stop and add more to the waist at this point and jumped straight into cutting out a mock-up to try on.

So I made my first mock-up and there was some success but it was way too small in the waist so I reassessed the V&A pattern to see where I had left out the waist ease. I'll show you what I did next, next time!