Creation of new Regency stays

Back in December, I went to a birthday party for Jane Austen hosted by the local JASNA chapter.  I posted pictures of my final outfit, but thought some more details might be helpful.  One of the first things I needed was new stays.  I posted about an attempt at making short stays earlier on this blog and if you read the associated posts (here and here), you will know that I ruined them.  Basically, they were very comfortable and gave a great shape for everything but driving.  Since I have to drive to almost all local events, I decided to add cording and boning to the short stays.  This turned out to be a really bad idea and completely ruined the shape.  Modern lifestyle strikes again!

I decided this time to make a more traditional set of Regency stays.  For these stays, I was inspired to try to recreate the stays from the Ohio Historical Society by an article on Foundations Revealed.  The stays have a pattern that is readily available from 19th US Regiment of Infantry Capt. Angus Langham's Company 1812-1815.  Actually they have a bunch of really neat information and surviving garments.  Here is the information page on the Ohio Historical Society stays.

The pattern shows the placement of all the cording and has simple pattern pieces.  I took this pattern and sized it up using photoshop.  The original pattern has a 22.5 inch waist!  To keep the overall proportions to the pattern, I figured out which measurement (bust, waist or hips) would be hit first in upsizing.  In my case, it was the bust.  Once I had the bust measurement correct, I figured out how much bigger I needed the hips and waist and simply drew alterations to the pattern.  The only other alteration I made is that I wanted to add some steel boning to help support the back lacing.  I made this decision after reading the article on Foundations Revealed in which the author spoke about the lack of support she found on a mock up with just cording down the back.  To make it easier to add a steel bone down each side, I straightened the back panel center back. The picture to the left shows most of my pattern pieces, it does not show the shoulder strap and the straight center front piece.  I did use the pattern piece for the strap, but the center front is dictated by your busk and is simply the width needed to accommodate the busk.

These stays were super easy to put together!  I made them out of linen lined in sturdy cotton.  The cording was natural tone cotton thread done in the same manner as the short stays.  Here is an image of the cording from the lining side of the stays.












The front busk is a shaped piece of wood specifically for Regency stays that I have had laying around in my stash of stuff forever.  To make the busk removable, I left the busk pocket open by binding only the outer layer of the stays across the busk pocket.  I carefully hand hemmed the lining at this point.  I then hand sewed some small eyelets through which a ribbon is laced.  The ribbon keeps the busk in place when the stays are worn.

The stays were finished and bound, then I added the straps by hand.  At this point, I tried the stays on and figured out that the straps needed a completely different angle on my body than on the original.  Thankfully the straps were added last and could be easily repositioned. The picture to the left shows the new positioning.  The straps start at the back of the corset and tie to the front using ribbons and hand bound eyelets.  I am thankful for this, because the straps are way to short.  I may alter this when I make a new pair.  You can also see in the photo another deviation from the original.  I used metal eyelets, this is not correct but I was unsure of my pattern and did not want to spend all the time to make hand bound lacing eyelets when I was not sure these would fit. 

Here are my finished stays!  One thing I noticed is how very narrow the arm holes are and how very far out on the shoulder point the straps sit.  However, they are very comfortable on, even if it feels sort of odd to have the straps so far out.

 As you can see, the stays don't fit my poor dress dummy very well.  She has no squish and the boobs cant move up like they do on a real person.  However, since she can wear them without a chemise and has a blue body, you get a much clearer image of how they sit and how odd the straps seem.  I had a friend come over and take a quick pic of the stays on me so you can see what they look like on a human.  I love the subtle shape they give and they are so comfortable.  I was very worried since the front busk is 14 inches that they would be impossible to sit in, but the are completely comfortable.

Cording regency stays and finished stays

I finished the cording on the regency stays. I thought I would share some pictures of the method I used to cord the stays.  The cotton cording I used is pretty thick and I needed to widen the needle hole before I could pull the cotton cording into the channel.  I used my corset maker's awl to widen the hole and looped the cotton cording through doubled up regular thread and a blunt needle.  Here is the basic set up:

Regency stays

I have been working on a pair of Regency stays.  I wanted the stays to be long since I have a fuller figure that is really not conducive to the stays confined only to the bust. I also wanted the stays to be comfortable.  I ran across some amazing research by Sabine about short stays ('Short Stays' Studies) and thought these would be a perfect fit.  Short stays have very little boning while still providing the correct shape.   Sabine provides all the necessary information to make several different types of short stays.  I used her information and quickly whipped up a set using Figure C with full cup coverage. I boned only the center front and the center back to support the lacing. The stays were amazingly comfortable and surprisingly curvy. However, the curves did not show at all under my dress and gave me the correct shape even when sitting!  I am sorry I did not take a picture of my stays prior to starting the alterations (I was rushing to finish them before an event and then plain forgot after).  Thankfully others have gone before me and provided wonderful pictures of the unaltered stays.  Of course Sabine has pictures as well, but also have a look at the lovely work of Abigael of My Darling Dear and the Regency who is posted several times about her version of the stays (J.S. Bernhardt Stays, c. 1810-11, Part 2, Part 3) and the always inspirational Before the Automobile who also made a lovely set of these stays (Shift and Stays for 1810). The pair I made looks very like those made by these two wonderful ladies.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the short stays were great, until I had to drive. After one wearing I determined I was going to have to add more support to be able to use these stays for my figure with my modern lifestyle.  I added more boning to each side to support the sides and added cording.  There is not a specific issue I hoped to solve with the cording, I have just always wanted to try it. Originally these stays were 2 layers in all areas except the gussets, so I could simply sew boning and cording channels. To add the cording, I used an awl to poke a hole into the channel and a needle and thread to lead the cotton cording through.  Here are a couple of pictures of the almost corded stays, I promise this time I will get pictures when I next try them on!

In this photo, the right side had had the boning and the cording added. I have just started the left side.

Here is a close up of the left side, where you can see the area with stitching but no cording added yet.