1780s Stays

Read The Dress Diary

The Concept

An attempt to make as exact, and historically accurate, of a recreation as I can — which also includes these related projects:

• 1775 maja costume
• 18th c. shift & petticoat

… except that I caved and first made a machine sewn, modern materials version (in red silk damask), then made an entirely 100% hand sewn version (in green silk damask).

The Fabric & Trim

1st pair: Stays made of corset coutil, covered in red silk damask.  Boned with spring steel.

2nd pair:  Stays made of one layer linen canvas, two layers linen/cotton fustian, covered in green silk damask.  Boned with German Wissner plastic whalebone.

The Pattern

Based on an extant set of stays c. 1775-85 in the Worthing Museum, England, patterned by Lynne Sorge-English.

Useful Links

• 18th Century Stays blog
• Cherry Dawson, Milliner:  Stays Making Workshop Notes

Bibliography

• Dorsey, S.  “For Neatness, True Fitting, Shape and Fashion”:  The Craft and Consumption of Stays in Eighteenth Century America. MA diss., University of Delaware, 2008.
• Sorge, Lynne.  “Eighteenth-Century Stays:  Their Origins and Creators.”  Costume 32 (1998):  18-32.
• Sorge-English, Lynne.  “’29 Doz and II Best Cutt Bone’:  The Trade in Whalebone and Stays in Eighteenth-Century London.”  Textile History 36 (1) (May 2005):  20-45.
• Waugh, Norah.  Corsets and Crinolines. London:  Batsford, 1954.