Well, for better or worse the silver stays of doom are finally done. They continued their inclination to bad luck through the last few steps. As I was working the eyelets they got sparkling apple juice splashed on them. Luckily it didn’t stain the linen, but liquid is very bad for kid leather, so I think I’m going to have to replace part of the binding at some point. And then, after all the fuss about loosing the shoulder straps and having to cut a new pair, once I got all the eyelets worked and was finally able to try the thing, on the shoulder straps just didn’t work very well. So all that perfect, painstaking hand stitching got unpicked, the back got cut down just a little and I now have strapless stays. Without the shoulder straps tying in pretty bows in front, the front has little visual interest, so I felt the need to lace it with fancy ribbon. Of course, this means I can only unlace it via the back, which means …
The Idea and Inspiration: I fell in love with a gilt linen fabric, and thought it was the perfect excuse to make a pair of front and back lacing linen stays that were both practical and pretty. The stays were very roughly based on the 1750s stay pattern from Jill Salen’s Corsets: Historical Patterns and Techniques. I altered the pattern pieces to suit a 1770s date, and used a 1770s half-boned boning layout with horizontal bust support bones, rather than the fully boned layout of the Salen stays. Sewing the stays was a bit of a trial. Every small, silly thing that could go wrong, did. They were variously called ill-begotten, evil, and the Silver Stays of Doom. Fabric and Materials: Gilt linen outer, brown linen support fabric, blue cotton lining, kid leather binding, rayon ribbons, plastic whalebone (cable ties) to bone. The Dress Diary: The beginnings of bad luck Felicity helps with the stays The binding and eyelets The finished stays Research: Lynn, Eleri. Underwear: Fashion in Detail. V&A Publishing: London, 2010 Salen, …
I’m still working on my ill-begotten silver stays. They are not moving very fast, partly because I haven’t had a lot of free time, but mostly because they are cursed. Every time I take them somewhere intending to work on them I find I have missed something important: the kid leather binding, my awl for doing the lacing holes, the thread for the lacing holes, the thread for the binding, my snips, a needle, or (in the case of my Australia trip) HALF of the stays! Here is where they stays are now: Since the last post I sewed down all of the gilded linen outer covering fabric: I also worked all of the front eyelets, binding them in blue thread for a bit of contrast, and to match the lining: The lining is completely done, but I still need to work all of the back eyelets: I’m binding all the edges in white kid leather cut from damaged vintage gloves: The binding isn’t completely accurate – it has both raw edges showing, and most …
