1790s Stays: Part One

Because I can't just stick with one project at a time... I decided that I should make some stays, because why not? I used a pattern from Nora Waugh's Corsets and Crinolines, taking a screenshot of the pattern I wanted to use (the 1790s stays). I ended up having to scale the pattern up to 400% in Adobe paint to get the size needed.

Then I taped the pieces together and cut out the pattern, leaving LOTS of seam allowance.

Yay! Big pattern pieces!

Next I made the first mock-up from - you guessed it - old sheets.

This was simply to make the pattern fit me a bit better, as it still needed to be a lot bigger. Apparently the person who wore the original stays was tiny! Which is why I ended up scaling the pattern up so much: it ended up much bigger than it said it needed to be.

Though I intend to hand sew the final stays, I knew this mock up wouldn't fit me and would be made pretty quickly in the first place... so I just machine sewed things to keep it easy.

Then I spiral laced them up and tried them on (unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the fit). Oh yikes! They are tiny. Wide enough, yes, but so short! They need to be about four inches longer...

Next time, I am going to work on making the pattern pieces longer... and I will probably fail at math. Thanks for reading!