18th century,  18th century stays

Making pink 18th century stays- part 1

 
pink stayspink stays
 
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 Museum

http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/en/collection/artifacts/M969X.26?Lang=1&accessnumber=M969X.26

 
 
Patterns of fashion 5
 

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!
Trying on stays front
 

pink 18th century stays sidepink 18th century stays back

 
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 ribbons
White and natural linen thread
I 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.
stays pattern
stays pattern
outside of the stays
inside of stays
stays boning

stays boning
boned stays



stays lacing holes
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.

 

18th century stays lacing
 
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”.
inside of stays
edge ribbon stays
Next step is herringbone cotton tape over the seams ad a 12mm cotton tape over the edge.
edge cotton ribbon stays
 
 
stays lining
finnished stays
 

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