Stays, Round 1
Baby’s first grommets last spring when I finally finished a corset I had started in 2023
For 18th century dress (ok any historical dress), the foundation garments really are the foundation. You can’t get the look or feel right without them. And you can’t get anything else fitted properly without them. So the first part of the big "costume-for-friend” project has been working on stays.
I have my own lovely Redthreaded 1750s stays, and have made their 1780s pattern for myself as well (ok, ok, I never finished them because binding…). I also made a 19th century corset for myself. So I generally know what I’m doing in theory. The part of this where I DON’T know what I’m doing is fitting, because I’m lucky enough that the only pattern adjustment I’ve needed to do for myself has been to shorten things. And because my friend is very petite, there is a lot of fitting that needs to be done to most pre-existing patterns.
I started from the Redthreaded 1780s pattern. The dance my friend is working with most of the time is a bit earlier, from the beginning of the century up through the 1760s, but it’s important that she can get in and out of her costume by herself if she needs to so front lacing seemed like the way to go and I knew it was a reliable pattern since I’d used it before. The problem was that the smallest size in their patterns is still a little too big and most of the advice I was finding for how to alter stays and corset patterns helpfully tells you to just go down a size if the waist measurement is the problem.
Don’t worry, I said to myself! You are smart and understand the basics of pattern drafting, and there are a bunch of lovely people teaching things on the internet! (Shout out to YouTube University where I learned most everything I know about sewing, and in this case in particular to Mariah Pattie and French Meadows for their videos on arc drafting stays). So I set about drafting the pattern to my friend’s measurements. The first fitting of the unboned toile went SHOCKINGLY well and I was extremely proud of myself!
This is the only photo I took. Believe me, it was worse around the back.
Because the first test had gone so well, the adjustments I had to make were minimal and involved slightly changing the neckline, lowering the top of the back, and adding a small amount to the back lacing gap. So I made them and went right on to the next mock up, with bones and a test run to practice grommeting which I’d only done once before for a corset I’d made.
Reader, 40 hand-set grommets later, the second fitting was a demoralizing disaster.
I still believe in my heart of hearts that I was on the right track with this. I think what happened was a combination of a bad measurement and not being experienced enough to catch it early. But I couldn’t quite face the process of what felt like completely starting over, especially since I wasn’t confident enough in my drafting to be sure it wouldn’t just happen the second time too. And I knew at the time I didn’t have the knowledge I needed to troubleshoot these kinds of fit problems.
So I did what any other geriatric millennial would do in this circumstance: I asked Reddit. Specifically about recommendations either for resources for learning how to make these kinds of alterations to stays, or for patterns that would give me a closer starting point. And some beautiful humans in r/HistoricalCostuming pointed me toward a different pattern to try out, one that not only had extended sizes (in both directions!), but also came with a stunningly clear and helpful fitting guide AND was created by a lovely maker on Etsy. STAY tuned!
(Sorry, I’ll see myself out…)