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Green 18th century Kyoto stays
Green, green days, green green stays!
A pair of stays I made 2022. We moved after I made them so it has taken me a while to photograph them and some other things I made. More coming up!
Since i first saw these stays from the Kyoto costume institutes collection i wanted to give it a try to make them. I loved the swirly pattern going across the front of the stays. Since I am 2 feet tall and a bit bigger than the originals I off course had to adapt them a bit and make them wider. I also skipped the front lacing since I have that on my pink stays and I didnt feel like doing it on these.
Notice that these stays have shoulder straps in one piece! Not super common… As they usually are attatched with a lacing cord in the front to be ablte to adjust. I cant say that Im a superfan. They where adjustable for a reason! Haha! But you gotta try.. Since I have a lot of shoulder pain I actually prefer to have without shoulderstraps or the tape solution like on my pink stays that are super easy to adjust if you are unconfortable.
Materials:
I used 3 layers of linen for these stays. I did not put any extra canvas layers in the front piece as I wanted this pair to be a bit more soft. If you want a more stiff and straight front you need to add several pieces of heavy canvas and you can also use a wooden busk.
-Green 185g linen .
-350g linen canvas.
-280g linen as lining.
-4mm plastic whalebone
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Pink 18th century stays- part 2
How to make pink stays- part 2
A ducktape dressform is great to make small changes! It is not as good as your self as you have bones to work around but its better than having to lace up every time! 🙂And here are the final stays!!
I just realized I never did the shoulder straps haha! I will add those later then..
Edit: I have released the pattern as the Freya stays, both on paper and digital. you can find it here:
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Making pink 18th century stays- part 1
This winter and a bit of last winter I have been digging more into stays making. I have been making two stays at the same time but I decided to finnish this one first. Pinterest has been a great source to find the right materials and layers and off course the wonderful Patterns of fashion 5!The stays I wanted to make was these 1785-1790 stays from McCord Museumhttp://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/M969X.26?Lang=1&accessnumber=M969X.26
So first the toile! Not a easy task to do on yourself...! And I dont have an easy body type for this shape... My best tip is to not just look in the mirror, ask someoneto take pictures so you can see better where to adjust and if you want; compare to a original pair of stays. It took me alot of tries. After like 4 toiles I was happy. I made a lot of misstakes like to long, to tight over the chest, to short in the front and so on but I have learnt alot!
Now to try with all layers of fabric:Materials I used (layers from the outside):-Pink linen/cotton fabric-Heavy linen canvas-265g linen-creme colored linen lining-4mm plastic boning (fake whalebone)-Cotton ribbonsI made most seams by machine and the edges and embroidery by hand. If you do it all by hand you would sew the seam allowance first on each piece and then sew the pieces together.
First fitting:
First try: Good in the front. Slits to low in the sides and back.
Second try:
Good fit but to long on the sides, need some cutting; a cm or two.
Better! Now I felt ready to make the inside. First I sewed the curved line decorations and then I aded a waistband for strength, boning over the chest held by a cotton tape, and finally 3 layers of linen canvas on the ”beak”.
Next step is herringbone cotton tape over the seams ad a 12mm cotton tape over the edge.
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White 18th century stays
White linen stays done! This is a smaller version of the first stays i made in high school and that one i made from alternating the buttericks pattern B4484. I feel like I should have made them even smaller in the back but they will do for now.
I made the stays in 2 layers of linen and used strong plastic boning. You can find it here in my store.
On the edge i used white cotton tape. I sewed it from the front and folded it over to the back. Seams and lacing holes I sewed with vaxed linen thred. You can find ribbon here, and linen thread here.
I will make a new bump roll soon, this one is from high school… The shift is actually my medieval linen underdress, its the same pattern anyway.
The petticoat I made from the stiffest old sheet we had in the house, antique ones are alot better and stiffer than modern ones.
