A set of 1780s stays

I was never really happy with my 1776 stays. They weren't the right decade, and I just didn't like the overall shape of them. Not to mention they've now become my very first UFO. Quite quickly I wanted to make a later pair, the ones over the page in Waugh's book, the 1780 pair.

Stays are quite strange to me because they're one of very few garments you can wear whilst it's not technically finished. What I mean by this is you can wear them without the seams finished, without a lining, and if you're brave enough, even without binding. I think that was why these stays aren't finished. I also don't like the shape, or lack of, they give me. I think the linen canvas just makes them too stiff and the tabs don't end up shooting out like they're supposed to. I gave up halfway through the binding, but they go under my floral chemise a la reine, and my Pierrot jacket. I'm currently planning to re-make these.

I think they have to be one of the fugliest pair of stays I've seen. What I am proud of is the binding. This is my second attempt, the first being short regency stays with tabs, but my first working with chamois leather. My favourite part is the underarms, they're just so pretty, shame they'll literally never be seen.

The Making of...

Since I've become a little faster at sewing now, it ended up being scaled up and drafted at the same time as the garments for the Victorian Ball. May as well do them all together. I had also booked 2 Georgian events a month after the ball, and knew it was better to get a head start on the garments before then. It was quite fortunate I stumbled upon American Duchess's live video just before I scaled up these stays. I didn't catch it live, but it appeared on my trusted Pinterest feed and I watched all 55 minutes of it, because it was all about stays. Can't tell you how much help it was when drafting the pattern for these stays.

I will confess here that I nearly caved and bought stays. This may not be so surprising as every costumer outsources certain garments, and I've done it once back when I first started in this hobby and gave up on the corset for my 1860s ball gown, but haven't done it since. A part of me feels like it's giving in, and not to mention money is always on my mind, and I really can't seem to justify in my head buying a pair or having them made for me, when I have the growing skills to do it myself. I was so close to buying the front opening 1780s stays from Redthreaded, but wasn't ready to give in with my stay journey at the first junction, so didn't.

Using my corset lacing mock-up panels for spiral lacing, not a good idea, but serves its purpose

So perfect if they weren't short-waisted.

Still proud about that curved front.

In between making my ball gown, I drafted these stays. I think I suffer from beginner's luck when it comes to sewing. I swear my 1860s ball gown is the best thing I've made to date, and it was also the first. My first pair of stays that I scaled up were quite good, a few mock ups later and I had stays that fit well. With these 1780s stays I was on 3 mock-ups and still didn't have a finalised pattern.

I also made a mistake in that I miscalculated my bust to waist measurement, so my first mock-up was empire waisted....well, not quite as bad, but certainly not at my natural waist. I was, however, proud of the curved/bow front that a slightly curved side front seam created. The second mock-up was better, still not quite sure about where tabs are meant to "break". I thought at the waist, but wasn't sure if the tabs were actually breaking at the waist. All very confusing, and difficult when you don't actually have a mirror.....I know!

the tabs definitely break at the waist now, wrinkles may indicate it's too long waisted now

still curved front = win!

At the second mock-up everything fit ok, but I wasn't liking the lacing gap. In all honesty I hadn't actually factored in a lacing gap when scaling up, so they are quite snug. The gap was roughly 3.5 inches wide, and although I could get away with it seeing as these were front lacing only, I was concerned the lacing would be seen underneath gowns. The smaller the lacing gap at the front, the better.

Mock-up 3 included enlarging the pieces by about 1/2". It laced all the way closed (which wasn't supposed to happen either), and fitted relatively well, but they just didn't look right. The back panel looked too wide for stays, and the scooped front was also really weird. It was here that i learned an important lesson. Don't throw out paper patterns for draft versions. in order to enlarge mock-up 2, I had to cut them in half and separate them by 1/2", then after the new pattern was on paper i scrunched them up and threw them in the bin. Thankfully, I still had the calico mock-up of V.2, and got the seam ripper out. My solution, instead of enlarging the whole thing, was to simply add 1" onto the CF seam. the front panel is very low and scooped, but because i changed it to CF opening, the actual CF is a straight edge. I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place, but I've never actually learned how to enlarge things properly, i always thought you had to add onto all pieces, but maybe that's only with certain garments? Still unsure, but learning slowly.

I decided at this point that 3 mock-ups for these stays was enough, so using version 2.1, I cut out the outer layer. My 1760s stays were made from purple linen, and I stitched the boning channels in red, and the eyelets in royal blue. Neither goes, in case you're wondering. Since I still had the purple linen left, and with nothing else planned for it, I decided to use it.

On my travels around my usual suppliers, I found the elusive linen canvas that people use for stays. I actually found 2. Linen canvas, when i looked the first time around, is expensive ££, because it's mostly used by artists now, and I assumed cotton canvas was the same thing. It is, and it isn't.

Looking through the fabric that my usual suppliers sells, I saw a fabric they called artists canvas (which I assumed to be linen canvas), but then a page later also found actual linen canvas. what is the difference? The "Artists's canvas" was 100% cotton, whereas the linen canvas was obviously 100% linen. Another difference was the price. The linen canvas is roughly the same price p/m as plain cotton coutil used for making corsetry, whereas the artists's canvas was only about £5 p/m. Curious, I bought a metre of both.

Instantly upon them arriving, I understood why our ancestors used linen canvas. This stuff is stiff, and very lightweight. However, the artist's canvas was also quite stuff, although a little less so, and was definitely a lot stiffer than the cotton canvas I'd used the first time around. I'm still not sure what the difference is between artist's cotton canvas, and other cotton canvas....

The linen canvas is a lot like coutil, but even coutil isn't as stiff, and is a lot smoother to the touch than this stuff was. Unfortunately, 1m wasn't enough for 2 layers of interlining, and so my stays have 1 layer of linen canvas, 1 of artist's canvas, and 1 of outer  medium weight linen.

Before the stays were sewn together, I hand sewed the eyelets. This was quite weird for me to do because at the time I was having an existential crisis as to what kind of sewer I was. A costumer, a HA sewer? I'm neither, but I had used the HA linen canvas, so may as well try and be as accurate as I wanted, and sewing eyelets is quite therapeutic.

Then I sewed everything together and quickly tried them on. I was quite concerned that the tabs didn't "break" at the waist, as I was having some wrinkling problems at the back, but I didn't take pictures, or even a look at this stage as this was checking fit rather than anything else. They fit well at this stage, with a modest lacing gap. The problems were to come later.

I stitched down the seam allowances, which was.so.hard! The next time I do stays I'm doing to put the linen canvas layer in the middle, with these I put it on the bottom, and getting a needle through it is an absolute bitch. I actually had to use a thimble!! Needless to say, they're sewn down now, another HA thing.

Then I tried them on, and found a minor irritation. The front is a bit big. I don't know how else to explain it. The bowed front looked perfect to me when I compared it visually to others, but when it was on, there was definite gaping. I'm unsure if this is because the shoulder straps were only pinned loosely into place, therefore not lifting the stays at the shoulder, or whether because stays are meant to encourage your shoulders back, I was just slouching, therefore creating some gaping. The front curvature was also extreme, so extreme I worried something had gone wrong. These stays made by other people online don't have as exaggerated curvature at the front. They also weren't fully boned when I tried them on at this stage because I ran out of synthetic whalebone.

There was also some wrinkling at the front where it curves, so it needed a few more bones in to prevent that.

Then I let the project fester. I made a false rump instead, or I started drafting the pattern for the Pierrot, not sure, but it was exactly what I needed. After a few days I went back to them.

1.) Tabs break at the waist, and these did not, so I cut the seam so they "broke" at the waist. Sorted.

2.) The front wasn't low enough. After trolling through pictures of other stays, I realised mine were too high necked. I removed the top bone, and sliced the curved front.

After attaching the straps properly, and finishing the boning, everything was sorted. I had a relatively well fitting pair of 1780s stays.

A slight niggle is the shoulder straps. I think they're too wide, even for this era. Something to work on for the next pair, which if I have time there will probably be.

And then they were left again, because my natural form era ensemble had been sitting for too long, and i knew if I didn't set aside a weekend to make progress, it would forever remain unfinished. The only thing left to do on these stays was the dreaded binding.