Beginnings of the Tan Stays

Monday, July 15, 2013

I was thrilled to get a commission from someone who does French and Indian War reenactment and wanted some 18th century stays made for her. Of course I jumped at the chance! When most of my summer sewing work is mending, hemming, making pillows, and other tedious tasks, a historical garment, and one I have experience with nonetheless, was a definite yes! 

So, I drafted a pattern based on Ashley's measurements, with help from La Couturiere Parisienne's helpful guide as well as various scans I found online of the Diderot stays from Corsets and Crinolines (the book is on my wishlist for sure). I messed up a bit in the original patterning and thus on my first set of stays as well: I had assumed the side seams on the pattern were in fact side seams, and drafted my pattern thus. After a little reconsideration and wondering why my pattern didn't look like the original, I realized they're about an inch back from being a true side seam! Luckily I had only cut out a mockup thusfar, and luckily it was really easy to simply chop off an inch of the back piece and tape it to the front. 

Here is a photo of the front pattern piece lying on the heavy duck fabric that I'm using for the inside layers. I made the front point shorter than usual because Ashley said that her reenactments involve more sitting than standing, and I thought that would be more comfortable for her.

The two pattern pieces side-by-side

The fronts all layered together

The backs all layered together

This is my attempt to show off the outer fabric that Ashley picked out. I think it's some sort of rough cotton or possibly linen, but it's got this silvery sheen to it which is quite lovely and quite hard to capture with a camera! (This was also to show off my new camera, which does quite well in natural light especially.)

I already have all the boning channels done but did not have time to take a picture of that yet. The eyelets will be done by hand, as will much of the binding. It is amazing how quickly sewing the boning channels went, compared to doing them by hand! 

This will be my (probably) one and only entry into the Dreamstress' Historical Sew Fortnightly, late I admit, under Lace and Lacing. I will get it done in 2 weeks however, because I'm leaving Vermont next Tuesday! Time for some speed-sewing!

-Madame T

The Stays

Friday, October 21, 2011

Actually, I've finished the stays. !!! I knowww!!!! But I haven't taken any pictures of them and I haven't posted these in-progress pics yet so I thought I would. Hopefully I can take some really awesome (read: not iPhone) pictures of them soon.

Here's the front:

And the side. My face was rather derpy so I cropped it.

And the best one of the lot, the back:

Gotta love that spiral lacing. Even if it's a little wonky in these pictures.

I will totally post a real, detailed post about this, I promise.

In other news, I was the lead in Cinderella of Loreland at my school, for which I made this:

It's a goodwill skirt with a bajillion patches added. It was like, freehand patchwork. Took forever. But it was very effective. Obviously that's not the top I wore. Hopefully, more on Cinderella later, too. I also made my ballgown!

-Madame Taylor

Howl Jacket Done!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Yes, it's done! I shipped it off on Thursday and Cindy received it on Saturday. She says she loves it!

I don't have too many progress photos but here is one where it's almost done:

And finally, the finished product!

Here are some pictures of my fabulous brother modeling for me:

What a cool kid. So it's in Atlanta now and I am waiting for a check.

In other news, I have been furiously working on my 18th century stays. I'm so sorry that there are no pictures of them yet! By the time I get around to it, they'll probably be done. Oh well.

I wanted to share this game:

Dress the Part

It's from Colonial Williamsburg. You have to figure out which clothes go on which social classes. It's quite informative and fun, although I did catch a mistake: someone with no maid would have had to put on her shoes before her stays! :D

-Madame Taylor

Diamonds are Howl's Best Friend

Sunday, August 14, 2011

I've been working on like 5 different projects. Of course the most impressive at the moment is the Howl jacket. I've gotten the diamonds I need sewn on, and now I need to get more grey fabric to finish the outside. Then I'll sew the two layers together including the diamonds. Here's what I've got now:

Also I'm working on a modern adaptation of an 18th century robe a l'anglaise, some 18th century stays and those miniatures still. I should've taken pictures of those things but whatever. Still pretending people actually read this blog...

-Madame Taylor

Howl Jacket, etc.

Monday, August 8, 2011

On Saturday a family friend and fellow Quaker called and told me she had a bunch of sewing stuff and fabric to get rid of and did I want it? OF COURSE I wanted it. So I went over there yesterday. There's some great stuff and some okay stuff and some weird stuff but I totally love it all.

Isn't that white floral on the top just wonderfully 18th century? I want to make a polonaise out of it. But we'll see, I have to make stays and all that first. The ugly orange blocky thing is heavy weight linen. PERFECT for the inner layer of some stays. Not useful for very much else. There is a lot of patterning paper and these cute 70's pattern drafting kits. I love it. Oh, and that Walmart bag of scraps.

And see that white box on the far left? That's filled with yards and yards of handwoven teal silk from Thailand or somewhere. SWOON.

MEANWHILE...

In the spring I got a comment on dA on the Howl's Moving Castle jacket I made last fall. This person wanted me to make her one. I told her that I was busy at the time but she didn't need it until late September. So we've been emailing back and forth and yesterday I started working on Cindy's Howl jacket!

I made the lining first. It's made of the same red poly satin that I used for the first one. I somehow miscalculated and ended up with twice as much as I needed, so I had plenty to make this one with.

Same for the pink front and sleeves, I had plenty left over. So all I have to buy is the grey for the back, and the yellow ribbon edging. Sweet!

Here are the other pieces I've cut out so far. The pink is the front (the sleeves are under), and then there are 12 diamonds and 2 half diamonds. Really I need 18 grey pieces total, but since 6 of them are half-diamonds, I think I might be okay on the diamond front. If not, I have to get more grey anyway so I'll cut out some more.

In other news, school starts on Thursday. I'm still working on the mini 18th century things. Did I mention miniature stays take just as long as their full-size counterparts? Well, I actually wouldn't know, since I haven't made those yet. But I did win a pattern on ebay.

Sorry for the bad pictures. They're from an iPhone.

-Madame Taylor

Progress on the 1/4 Scale Stays

Friday, August 5, 2011

So remember those 1/4 scale 18th century things I told you about? Well, I thought I'd post about the progress I'm making!

I started the polonaise first and realized it doesn't fit my miniature dummy, who was made for the renaissance stays. So I decided to make a new dummy, but first I'd need to make some stays to go with the dress. So off I went.

I got the basis for my pattern from here and then fixed up the dress bodice pattern to look more like that. The boning layout is also based on that.

I traced around the pieces onto "linen" (cotton scraps) and "silk" (poly satin). Once they were cut out I started sewing the layers together. There were some "oops" moments, including the one when I realized I couldn't get boning in from the top if the top was already sewn shut! Luckily I remedied this. Here is a picture of half the front, the piece I've currently made the most progress on:

The green is my "sturdy layer." There's going to be another lining after it's all together.

And here are all the pieces laid out side by side.

I haven't slit all the tabs yet because poly satin frays like nobody's business. For the edges I'm basically doing some sort of buttonhole whipstitch around them. Yes, I know it will take forever. I didn't start this because I wanted a quick project!

So that's those. I'll hopefully post about the dress itself soon.