As I’ve been traveling from place to place over the past few months, I’ve not had a set work space, and until a week ago I didn’t have a sewing machine, either.
Not wanting to completely stop working on my own projects, though, and inspired by my time at Williamsburg and by a book I had recently acquired, “Stays and Corsets: Historical Patterns Translated for the Modern Body” by Mandy Barrington, I decided to make myself 18th century stays, based on a 1776 pattern originally from Diderot’s L’Encyclopédie, “Tailleur de Corps”.
The book Stays and Corsets gave instructions to flat pattern draft the stays, which I did, fitting them to myself.
Wanting to keep the materials fairly period accurate, I used a dusky pink silk as the outer layer, backed with a layer of linen, a layer of coutil for strength, and then lined with linen, making it four layers in total.
As I didn’t have a sewing machine, I decided to hand sew them entirely. Starting with the cut pieces, I pinned them carefully, basted them to prevent any shifting, and then started stitching the channels, which had been marked on the back side (later to be covered with the linen lining). After sewing all of the channels, I hand worked the eyelets at the centre back and then stitched the panels and straps together.
They took three weeks to complete, working two or more hours most week days and up to twelve per day on the weekends. It is boned with reed, which I found fairly easy to work with but a little too brittle for my liking.
For a finishing touch, when I got my sewing machine (just a week ago) I made myself a linen shift to wear under the stays.
I’m very pleased with how my stays turned out. Especially after occasionally working on stays while at Colonial Williamsburg, I enjoyed having a chance to make myself a pair, and I truly appreciate the effort that staymakers of the 18th century put into their trade.
