Hello 18th century, part 2: the 18h century stays

So stays... that are not corsets. Even though in Hungarian they are called by the same name. 

You could ask me, that I have done a corset just a few weeks ago, why can't I use that, because they are not the same.

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been hankering after the 18th century forever (even before Ive seen any Outlander or Poldark). I had patterns, I had fabricks, but I had to start with those stays,and that held me back. Seriously. Until I decided to take the plunge.

As for the pattern, of course, I could have taken something put of a book, or teh net, and enlarge it, but 1. Not enough space for that, 2. not enough time. 

I actually had three different pattern, two from teh two big amerivan pattern companies (which I have been warned might need more fitting than others) and one I bought from Redthreaded at a sale, last year. The pattern was a PDF pattern, so I needed to print it out in a shop, then puzzle the pieces together, and cut out. 

Utána jött a szabás, és a merevítőházak berajzolása... két réteg farmer-szerű anyagből szabtam li, majd összetűzögettem. Sok helyen olvastam, hogy gyorskötözőkből i sjó egy ilyen fűző, és persze, van ilyen gyorskötözőm. 

Miután összevartam az elemelet, azonnal látni lehetett, hogy bár a mérettáblázat és a pontos méreteim szerint vettem, az eredmény nagy volt, ki kellett vennem az eleje és a háta közepéből

Bg, big, big. Tilda marked the mock up, and left. I've tried, as much as I could, redraw the pattern on a new piece of paper... sewn it up, and then, it was waaay to small. I don't know, how it happened, it was small. New pattern was drawn up based on the two previous failure, and now, cut and sewn entirely.. Including the handsewn edging of the tabs... I was rather confident, that this would suit me,,, but then it was too big. 

It already gave me some shape, but I felt that it could be wastly improved... besides, I hated the endging. It was ugly. Whats more, it was fugly. 

You see, I am so ashamed of that, I only show it to have some comparison. 

So, after two days of stays making, I started again, for the fourth (or was that the fifth?) time. which I did not mind. I did ask Norbert where he would put me on a scale of 0-10 of craziness for starting over yet again, but he said , he thinks it is completely normal. (I guess there are several reasons I love that man.) 

This time, I kind of measured, that putting the stays toogether takes me 12 hours. No handsewing, or the minimal. I know, handsewn stays are the best, I also know that at least the lacing holes should be done by hand... 

However, these were/are test pieces, more like wearable mock ups, to pratice stays making, to see how it is done. I do have some really nice fabric too and as soon as I know what I am doing, I will do one that has somewhat more handsewing, and spiral lacing. 

Interestingly enough having done it a few times over, cutting out did not bothered me, and I actually enjoyed sewing up the channels... what made me want to grow hair outta my head was drewing up the boning channels. Don't ask me why I thought it was worst than sewing them up, but I felt they were. 

In the meantime, I looked up some tutorials about edging the tabs, and isntead of the bias cut strips, I dug out some heringbone twill tape, and used that:

Yes, it is a sraight tape, and somehow still worked better than the biastape I have cut out. Mind you that after sewing it up on the wrong side with the machine, I had to turn over and sew it down by hand on the right side, constantly turning under, and pushing the tape out, which put a strain on my hands. 

But I think, it was worth it.  I am much more staisfied with how this turned out.

Now the finished stays are still a smudge too big, or I should phrase, it could still be somewhat smaller, but it did hold me in, it is sercviceable, it can be used. The lace is closing thepiece completely, meaning if I ever manage to loose even 3-5 kilos, I will have to make a new one, but then I would do that happily. 

By now I hacked the heck out of that original Redthereaded pattern, that I wonder, what should I do next. By the same pattern in a size (or two size) smaller, try some entirely new pattern (I do have two other opatterns to work with), the question is still open. 

And here is a comparison of the 18th century stays, and teh mid-victorian stays I just made a few weeks ago. Ihave drawn a red line showing how the 18th century is going for a cone-shape, and the victorian for an hourgalss shape. 

Admittedly, I have been prorastinating a bit, I have done a bumpad, while trying to figure out what to do about the edging, I will show that the next time. 

So, to be continued.