Category: 1780s stays

I FINALLY finished boning the 1780s stays.  You know how you read about how 18th century stays were made by tailors (men), not mantua makers (women), in part because it was thought that one needed a man’s strength to get the baleen into the stays?  Well, I don’t agree that men = strong and women = weak, but I gotta say, sticking that German plastic boning into the casings was HARD.  No doubt, some of my channels were slightly too narrow (they were fine for metal boning, but the plastic is slightly thicker, so it takes up a little bit more room).  Some went in smoothly, and others took MULTIPLE teeny-tiny shoves… so much so that it took me the good part of Saturday to (cut, sand, and) stick in the boning, and my arm still hurts a bit three days later.

I draped and drafted out a strap pattern a while ago… but apparently I am a genius, because it’s not in the pattern envelope, nor is it anywhere else in my sewing room that I can find.  Sigh.  So I draped yet another!

Here’s the stays with all the boning in, draped temporary straps, still no tabs cut:

Finished that final seam last night – yay!  Then came the 15 min. hunt through the sewing room for the boning I’d ordered, which came last week, and (brilliantly) instead of putting it with the rest of my boning, or anywhere else logical, I stuck it in my “random sewing tools” drawer.  Go, self.

I was too tired to do more than put in the metal bones, which are in the back piece (center back, and then inside of the eyelets), side front (1 right along the seam, next to the center front), and 3 in the front (center front, about midway across the piece, and then near the side seam).  I’ll need to cut the plastic boning to the correct length, and I’m thinking I should probably sand the ends a bit so it’s not poky, and I didn’t have the energy to do that last night.  And I haven’t yet cut the tabs.  So, not a lot of boning + no split tabs = some wrinkles!

But, it fits!  Next: straps!  Then:  attempt to bang out a riding habit while simultaneously finishing up my Brunswick and binding the stays — AGH!

Cynthia freaked me out yesterday by casually mentioning that we had about a month of sewing before the Colonial Williamsburg symposium, which left me hyperventilating.  So, with that, a renewed vigor to get these stays wearable so I can start sewing the riding habit that will go over them!

Almost done with putting the pieces together; I’ve got one seam left on the other side.  Hoping to finish that, and do a try on, tonight!

I thought for sure I’d be able to whip together the stays pieces on Friday night — I mean, what’s six seams?  Nothing!  Well, I now have 3 of the 6 seams done, and obviously this is going to take me another week.  It’s HARD to sew through that many layers — pliers help, I have found — and to make sure you actually catch ALL of the layers, you have to stick the needle in, then check each side underneath to make sure you can see a bit of needle, before you can finish that stitch.  Le sigh!  I’ve basically killed my leather thimble, and my wrist is still tired…

Here’s a fuzzy shot of the outside and inside of one of the seams — thank goodness for welting, which will cover those ugly stitches!

Who thought I’d ever get here?  I certainly didn’t!  Now I just have lacing holes to finish and a strap to cut out, and then I can finally sew the pieces together and actually get cracking on my Williamsburg riding habit…