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


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 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.

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.

Pink 18th century stays- part 2

Making pink 18th century stays- part 1

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