I wasn't sure about how low they came up on my bust. From other patterns I've seen, mainly 1830s ones, they tend to be pretty full cupped, but since these are 1810s-1820s, when the fashion was pushed up and separated, I'm not sure. I'm not falling out of them or anything, but they do look like they could've used an inch at the top, perhaps where my chemise neckline is.
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| The black sharpie dot of shame!!! |
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| didn't manage to lace these up at the bottom properly.... |
The Story....
I own a lot of patterns, 95% of which are historical. More than a few years ago now I attended a Regency ball in Edinburgh for which I needed a dress. I ended up making quite a few empire-waisted dresses during that time, all of which are sold. I have no desire to make more because the silhouette doesn't suit me at all.
The foundation garment for all of the dresses were the short stays from Nehelenia patterns. I made both variations (with tabs and without), and they did the purpose fairly well for literally being just a layer of coutil and a layer of cotton lawn, with no cording, and the only bones being at the CF opening. The only thing is that for gals with a bit of tum, short stays aren't the way to go. They're also apparently not great if you're well-endowed, which, as regular readers will know, I'm not. They were fine, but are hopefully living a good life in new homes.
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| Nehelenia stays pattern |
And that was the end of my Regency story. It didn't suit me, and the ball I attended a few years ago wasn't fun so no more Regency events for me. The 1790s is a great substitute if I ever changed my mind, and I already had that covered.
Then Emma came out in cinemas. I had no intention of seeing it in theatres, I'd wait until it came out on Prime, if I even remembered. I saw the costumes, read the blogs by other costumers reviewing the stellar attention to detail and accuracy, was impressed, and that was an end to it. I had other stuff to be getting on with, I had 2 immersive events set in the 18th century and had my hands full making 3 outfits.
Then Covid-19 hit the world. The UK went into lockdown, both of my events got cancelled, and I found myself watching Emma on Prime. I agree, the costumes are brilliant, but again, don't suit me, and I wasn't wasting stash fabric on yet another empire-waisted disaster. But the unfortunate thing was that Emma gave me an idea for my own writing. This isn't uncommon, I get inspiration and ideas from practically anything. Some are developed enough to start writing, others never get to that stage and sit in my creative writing folder at only 1 page long. Fortunately, or unfortuantely, I had quite a few extra hours thanks to lockdown of developing this idea, and the starting point was era.
Obviously it was historical fiction, Emma was the inspiration so late Georgian period, but not the 1810s. When do fashions start suiting me better? Not the 1830s, ugh. I know a lot of costumers love this decade because it's so ridiculous, but I have yet to be converted. Which left the much negelected 1820s.
I, through some unknown reason, tend to be drawn the most to transitional periods in fashion history. The 1790s, the 1720s (in an unpublished blog post I take a deep dive into this mystical decade, maybe one day I'll get around to finishing it), and now the 1820s. I think due to the 20s starting all over again some costumers are regaining an interest in previous 20s decades (for me this was the aforementioned 1720s), but the 1820s have never been on my radar. Yet, due to lockdown, and growing fatigue with my 18th century projects, I decided on spontaneously doing an 1820s project, from theskin out.
I remembered the Laughing Moon patterns I'd bought during my first Regency phase, and one of them being the corded stays pattern. I dug it out of the very last box, where every pattern I never see myself using ever again gets banished, and began to use it properly. Thankfully when I used this I had just started to trace patterns from the master copy, meaning all I had to do was trace the right size.
The first mock-up was surprisingly fit pretty much perfectly, except it closed fully at the back. I admit I'm not sure what the rules are on corded stays, whether they require a lacing gap or not, and I was lazy and didn't research it, but I wanted room for growth. The pattern was quite specific about where you couldn't make changes to the pattern, but since I wasn't going to be using the same amount of cording, I ignored these.
In the ultimate act of laziness, and not really having a clue on how to take the damn thing in just to have a lacing gap, I just cut 1/2" off the CB. A small lacing gap was fine. You also have to account for some shrinkage for the cording, and reading on another blog found this was about 1/4" for every 20 pieces of cord. I didn't intend to do much cording, but the amount I did would probably make the lacing gap a little bigger. I also ignored the fact that the bottom was slightly too big at my hips, and I'm now too lazy to fix it.
After this I got to cutting out the proper fabric, and this is where I cheated. Corded stays are traditionally made out of tightly woven cotton, perhaps even linen, and the cording is what gives it the support it needs. However, I wanted more support than I was convinced that would give, and so used cotton coutil. I think I'm justified in this cheat because I never intended on doing much cording, so needed the stiffness that the coutil would provide in its place.
For the outer layer I used this really weird cotton sateen I've had for years and originally bought for the short version of these stays about 4/5 years ago. It's weird because it stretched on the cross grain but not on the straight grain...if that makes sense...? Regardless, it had a stretch in it that wasn't on the bias (although it did also stretch on the bias). This wasn't that much of a deal, since I'd be flatlining it onto the very non-stretchy coutil, except that was the problem: getting it onto the coutil without it wrinkling and jumping all about the place.
I find I literally can't stand wrinkles in garments. I don't know what it is, but they annoy me so much and can spoil a project for me. I was unbelievably careful when machining the panels, making sure nothing was stretching or warping, so much that my hands began to hurt.
Then it was the fun process of adding the cording. I, as usual, didn't even read the pattern instructions. From the few blogs I saw that documented their process there was the way or cording the pieces by using a bodkin and running the cords through that way, but that would've been impossible for the cording layout detailed in the pattern.
My way was pretty similar to what I'd done with my corded petticoat. Sandwich the cord between the layers, stitch, and then go to the next one. It was a bit tedious, especially at the corners of the patterns, like where the cording met the busk channels, but nothing a pencil couldn't fix.
I had a small amount of trouble with the bust gores on one side. They were the first side I'd put in, therefore are always the worst. As a result for somer eason they were too big. I ended up ripping them out, re-cutting them, and then barely getting them in alright. The bust gores were the smallest size in the pattern because as I've said a bajillion times, I have a small bust for my size.
As for the busk. I personally haven't been ablefind wooden busks of the length I'd require for stays in the UK, they're always too short. What I do instead is use straight steel boning. I used a thicker steel for these, 13mm instead of my usual 7mm, and it worked really well. This would've been a great opportunity to try the extra thick steel boning as substitute for a busk, but due to lockdown ordering anything was a bit fraught.
Other things I cheated on was using spring steel bones on the the seams, and metal grommets for the eyelets. One additional thing is the way I've laced this. I'm pretty sure in the 1820s stays were still being spiral laced, but I was sick of lacing myself into back fastening stays using a spiral pattern (from my 1780s stays), and so I laced these ones up like you would a corset (with bunny ears at the waist). This wasn't for any kind of waist reduction, but just so it was easier to get them on and off, and lace them up.
I didn't have long enough white lacing, so had to use some purple ribbon, which is kind of annoying because it's satin and slips really easily. When everything gets back to normal I'll get some white lacing.
All in all this was a quick and satisfying project. I really like how these fit and the silhouette they give me. The minor problem is that they're a bit too big at the bottom. And the cherry on top is that I was careless with some black marker pen and now forever have a big black dot just under my bust....I know it's tradition to bleed on your garments, but does sharpie work too?
