Stays

The right thing to do when you begin a historical costuming project is to start with the undergarments. An unpopular opinion in the historical costuming community, but making undergarments is the part of historical costuming that I dislike the most. I dread it. So much plain white fabric and straight seams! And trying to fit corsetry with my long, narrow torso and slightly flared ribs is full of frustration. My 1910s and 1900s projects have never gotten off the ground because I hit fitting roadblocks with undergarments, and then just bundle the whole thing into the "maybe I'll return to it later" pile of lies. As frustrating as foundation garments can be, they are what make the silhouette of a historical era. Stays and corsets also help to support the often heavy layers of a gown, distributing weight onto the hips so that the whole thing doesn't pull at the shoulders and fits as it should.

Using linen repurposed from a failed wrap dress project and American Duchess' Simplicity pattern (no. 8579), I began working on these in January of 2021. I found this to be a good beginner pattern for stays. While the fit is not perfect, the pattern instructions are clear and easy to follow. The boning is imitation imitation whalebone, a.k.a. zip ties. I can't cite one specific source for this decision, but there are lots of sites that go into why cable ties/zip ties/duct ties are an acceptable if not perfect substitute for whalebone, as well as being easy to get and inexpensive. I used 120 lb weight 21 inch ties which are just about 3/8 inch wide. This meant they were a perfect fit for the 1/2 inch boning channels the pattern recommended. This isn't a big deal really, but it meant there was one less variable for me to tackle for my very first project. 

One of my sewing helpers, sleeping on the job.

I bound the edges with cotton twill tape. I've since learned that leather is the more historically accurate option, so I put that on my list of improvements for the next pair. Because the idea of doing the right thing of hand sewing twenty eyelets made me want to cry, I used metal eyelets. I do want to have a set of stays with correct, hand-stitched eyelets in the future, but for a start, I'm happy with it. The back of my stays will not be visible to anyone else, and by making these, I was able to move forward with creating the rest of my ensemble. I can now take the time in the future to create a more historically accurate set of stays with properly hand sewn eyelets at a pace that will allow me to rest my wrists and not feel pressured to rush so that I can move on to other parts of the ensemble.

Below are the photos of my stays the day I finally finished them in January of 2022. It took a year to complete them, but the fact that I finally did was a big win for me! After that, it was on to shift and pockets.

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