18th century stays

November 10, 2016

Hello lovelies,

a few days ago I finally finished the 18th century stays I have been working on for a few weeks now. The pattern I used was from Nehelenia patterns and it's called "Halbversteifte Schnürbrust" (in German).
I had already started making stays this year but I was so dissatisfied with them that I tossed them into the trash and re-used the boning for this stays.

I used the small pattern and took away 1cm of the length. The mock up suited me fairly well.

I had to pad my dress form with my bra because without it wouldn't have my measurements. I of course also tried on the mock up and it fit snugly.

The next step was cutting out all pieces of the fabric. I used very inauthentic sewing materials. There was a cotton layer, a linen layer, another cotton layer and the fancy floral fabric.

I hated cutting out all the pieces and I usually don't but that was due to the fact that I am missing my good scissors.

All layers are basted with a large stitch to keep them from moving.

In the end they did slip around. It was maddening because they fit together perfectly and then they betrayed me. I tried not to snap pictures of those failures but they were everywhere. So please overlook those mistakes.

Sewing in the channels was not my favourite work too. Okay, the whole process of making the stays was not my favourite work. At least I already had a metal cutter for the boning so this process was easier.
Afterwards I did the binding and let me tell you, that work I hated the most. asdfghh. All the pins poked me and I got some scratches from them.

The rounded edges weren't smooth at all and didn't want to get smooth at all.
But I found a very helpful site that helped with my bindings. Even though it didn't look as good as on that page.

At least it was over at some point. The next step was doing the holes for the ribbon.

I nearly forgot to make the holes in a spiral form and would have made the holes like in a Victorian corset.

The stays look so weird on my doll.

But here are the finished stays.
My cute cat loves to bite through ribbons and shoe laces and she did this again for the ribbon I used. This is why the ribbon on the left side is so much shorter than on the right side. Just ignore this please. I will buy new satin ribbon asap.