Welcome, I’m still working through my 18th century silhouette fixation, and today we’re
going to make a modernized, simplified version of my 1790’s stays.
This video will be much heavier on construction details and instructions, so if you’ve been
considering a similar project, hopefully this will help.
To make the pattern, I’m simply going to combine the bottom half of my 1790’s stays,
with the altered top half from my sports bra stays.
I rounded out the back neckline, to make the strap connect and flow better.
I also tried to reshape the tabs a bit, but I ended up completely redrawing the tabs once
I had the boning channels in.
For a modernized pair of stays, I’m primarily changing the construction methods, and there
will be little alteration to the pattern.
So if you want to do this, you could use any 18th century stay pattern you want, so long
as it’s been fitted to you well.
I’m attempting to make these stays from only two layers of fabric.
The outer layer will be a medium weight natural linen, and I’m hoping the color will work
under my clothes as a sort of “nude bra” alternative.
For the lining, I’m using a slightly heavier white linen.
I cut out the layers, adding my own seam allowance, and I traced the pattern pieces on to each
layer with a water-soluble marker.
I did outline the side seams with a quick machine basting stitch so that I could see
the markings from both sides of the fabric, but I ended up not needing that, and in fact
they kind of got in the way and were a pain in the butt to rip out later.
I also tried making the strap as one piece with the outer layer of linen, but I’ve
since decided that that was not worth the effort, or the fabric wastage.
With my 1790’s stays, I was attempting to follow Patterns of Fashion 5 to the letter,
and that included several stiffened layers of linen, called the “belly piece” at
the center front of the stays.
For this scaled-down version, I decided to cut a single extra layer to add to the center
front, as I figured it would help reinforce the ends of the boning, which will center
here.
I stiffened it by painting on Gum Tragacanth, which I have leftover from the previous project.
Gum Tragacanth can be purchased on Amazon, and if you have the means I highly suggest
playing around with it.
It makes a tremendous difference.
But in lieu of Gum Tragacanth, you could try Modge Podge, or some diluted Elmer’s glue,
or just plain old iron-on interfacing.
For these stays I’m going to use a weird, inverted seaming method.
I like this method because the results look so clean, and it’s very strong, but it is
kind of a pain, and it makes later size adjustment almost impossible.
But they don’t need to be seamed this way, it’s just what I felt like doing for this
project.
So, with this method, believe it or not, the first thing I’m going to do is actually
insert the zipper.
To line up the pieces, I’m going to start with the reinforcement piece, and line up
the edge with the center front of the outer layer.
I’m going to place my zipper facing in and line up the teeth with the seam marker.
Then I’m going to add my lining layer over top, and sandwich it all together.
I started by hand-basting it, since there were so many shiftable layers.
Then I machine stitched it, getting as close as I could to the zipper.
When I unfold the layers, so the teeth point out, it should end up with the outer linen
on top, the lining linen in the back, and the reinforcement piece and all of the seam
allowances folded neatly to the inside.
I finished it off by running another seam 1/2” away from the zipper, flattening the
seam and forming a boning channel for later.
I’ll sew the other seams using a similar inverting method.
First I’ll line up and pin together the side seams from the previous piece.
Then I’ll take the front and back of the next side pieces and line them up over and
under the panels, with all of the seam allowances together.
I didn’t always baste them first, but I wish I had.
The seams I basted turned out nicer, especially along the waist curves.
After stitching, I’ll clip any curves that need clipped, then flip the new pieces into
position.
Iron them flat, pinning the new edges together, and sew a new boning channel alongside the
finished seam.
And you just keep repeating that until you get to the center back.
In the center back, I pinned and basted together the fold line, basting in a strip of thick
linen canvas, which will reinforce the eyelets.
I also used this inversion to attach the straps in the front and back, The strap didn’t
meet in the back smoothly, so I used my marker to draw in a new curve.
Next I want to sew my eyelets, so I can lace it up and check the fit as I add boning later.
First I’m going to fold the center back piece along that basted fold-line, and add
a seam 1/4” away from the edge, to make a boning channel.
Then I’ll open it up, and trim that canvas down to about 3/4”, which is just wide enough
for the eyelets.
I’ll trim the outer and lining layers a bit too, maybe 1 full inch, so there is enough
to fold over.
Then I can use the thick canvas as a guide and fold the two layers of linen around it,
then pin everything flat.
I’ll sew it down, right along the edge, and all of the raw edges have been encapsulated.
To mark the eyelets, I’m using my paper-folding eyelet placement method.
Then I’ll be sewing the eyelets using a double strand of waxed linen thread.
The boning channels took a lot of trial and error.
So much in fact, that I ran out of space on the front and had to draw them on the lining.
I placed the front bones in that lovely starburst pattern.
Mostly because I like it, but it’s also a very practical pattern, since the bones
will spread apart and be more lenient at the top and bust, but they will be close together
and reinforce each other at the center and stomach, where you want them to be very strong.
Ok, so the boning is done in the front portion and all of the side seams and the back, however
I was contemplating whether or not I should add more boning in the side panels, because
I don’t it to be too stiff, I want it to be very comfortable and very practical to
wear.
However, even with as much boning as I put in this front panel, I can still bend it.
It is not rock-solid in the way that one is.
I think that if I add boning in the side panels even up to an inch apart, that is still not
going to cause a problem.
After the boning was in I could bind the edges.
I used a 3/4” linen twill tape from Burnley and Trowbridge.
I machine stitched it to the outer layer, eyeballing about 1/4” away from the blue
markings.
Then I trimmed the excess fabric along all of the edges, folding down the twill tape
and pinning it in place.
I used a small whip stitch inside the stays to tack down the other edge of the twill tape.
At this point the stays were nearly finished, and I went ahead and soaked them for a few
minutes, then took them outside to air dry while I made the final piece.
I’ve read before that some stays had crescent-moon shaped cups sewn to the inside, but I’ve
never seen an extant pair with them, so I tend to forget that that exists.
But when wearing the sports bra stays, I was struck by how convenient something like that
would have been.
So I decided to try cups out with this pair of stays.
I drafted a pattern by tracing the underwire shape of a bra, and by filling out below that
to make a crescent-moon shape.
I cut the pattern out of 4 layers of linen, 2 per side, then stitched them together, leaving
a small opening.
I clipped the edges and turned them right side out through this opening.
For stuffing, I wanted to try shredding some scrap fabric, like Bernadette did for her
Victorian hip pad.
It made for a very interesting stuffing.
Very dense and compact.
I’m used to having to overstuff things with poly fill, but on these I had to take half
of the stuffing out, because they were too thick.
I think they still ended up slightly too thick, but, meh.
As far as the pads go, they are perfect.
I will never again make a pair of stays without them.
They allow for much looser lacing at the bust, making it so much more comfortable for chest
expansion.
But they hold the bust in position even better than stays laced tightly without them.
In the future I’ll play around with my pattern and improve it, but for daily wear stays,
these cups are game-changers.
So, when I first finished these stays I was not super thrilled with them.
Then the weather got cold, and I’ve found myself frequently choosing them.
One of the primary reasons I’m interested in making practical, modernized stays and
corsets, is because of how much I freeze every winter.
I’m talking doubled socks, at least two shirts plus a thick sweater, and I’ll still
be cold.
I frequently put legging on underneath my blue jeans.
But a while back I watched a (NOT Townsends, it was CrowsEyeProductions) historical dressing video, where they talked
about how knitwear, sweaters, and cardigans became a regular part of women’s wardrobes,
corresponding to the decline of corsetry in the 1910’s.
Because one of the very many practical functions of corsetry is insu lating your core, and preserving
your internal body heat.
Because for every comment talking about how hot all of those layers must have been, the
winter version of myself is like yes dear God give me the layers.
And it’s been getting just cold enough, that I think this experiment is very, very
near to paying off.
So yes, overall I love these stays.
The zipper in particular, I was uncertain about.
But I’ve found it possible to completely zip the stays without needing to adjust the
back lacing at all, making them even quicker and easier than a bra to put on.
And can I just say, tucked in shirts and blouses tend to look terrible on short-waisted people.
But with stays to anchor the blouse, it’s just so flattering.
However, for the bad, there are some fit issues.
In hindsight, these issues were present in my 1790’s stays too, but I haven’t worn
them enough to get a consistent read of what exact areas aren’t fitted right.
With stays, if a person is complaining they can’t breathe, it’s not because the waist
is too tight, it’s because the bust is too tight.
With these stays, I can tell they’re just a little bit too restrictive.
They are much more comfortable if I unzip them about halfway down, which tells me I
need to add at least and inch and a half to the bust width.
However when I unzip them I get annoyed by the cold air seeping in.
So toss up, would you rather breathe freely and be cold?
So that’s the biggest problem.
The other issue is the lower back.
I’m short waisted, but I think I might not have shortened the waist enough, either that,
or my waist is shorter in the back than it is the front.
I’ve noticed they become uncomfortable in the lower back area especially, and after
trying on a mockup of the pattern, I noticed how much the back wanted to wrinkle.
It’s almost a stretched feeling, pressuring my hips down and preventing my body from sitting
how it wants to, which is more like this.
So that’s something to work on.
But what all of this means, is that these stays are successful enough to wear around,
and I have been, but they are not quite “it” yet.
Which is why I’ve been experimenting with drafting my own pattern from scratch, but
that experiment is still in progress.
So, see you next time.
I hope you learned something, and I think for the next video we will be going over other
modernized 18th century underpinnings, including shift-combinations.