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 staysthat 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.