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The Scroop Patterns & Virgil's Fine Goods Augusta Stays scrooppatterns.com

Where to buy materials for the Augusta Stays

A quick guide to where to find materials for your Augusta Stays. There are a lot of specialty materials needed, so working with a supplier who is familiar with historical staymaking (for View A), or corsetry (for View B) will make the process a lot easier.

In addition to the ones listed, many local fabric shops will carry suitable linens or wools, and with the theatrical stays your fabric imagination can go wild, as long as you achieve the right level of support and strength with your mix of materials.

Have I missed a supplier? Let me know in the comments! I’m most familiar with US & UK suppliers, so a huge thank you to readers who advised me about suppliers in other places.

This list was accurate as of October 2019. The available materials at each supplier change all the time, so we cannot guarantee that the list is still accurate.

View A: Historical:

Everything you need:

Burnley & Trowbridge (US):

This wonderful business is your one-stop Augusta Stays materials shop.

They carry: synthetic whalebone; a wide range of suitable linens, silks, and wools; linen thread & beeswax; seam tapes and binding, and lacing cord; and even tools like awls, and bodkins.

The only thing they don’t have is gums to make your own buckram from their linen. Their paste buckram is not suitable.

Sartor (Czechia)

Sartor has almost everything you need for the historical version of the stays, as well as everything you need for the theatrical stays.

They carry beautiful linens, silks (including the reproduction fabrics they are famous for) and a very small selection of wools, as well as synthetic whalebone and linen thread. The only things they don’t have are linen seam tapes and binding, and sewing tools.

Fabrics & Notions:

MacCulloch & Wallis (UK):

Carries beautiful, but pricey, silks, wools and linens. Not a historical specialist, so you have to know what you’re looking for.

Nehelenia (Germany):

A very small selection of linens and silks, as well as linen thread, linen tape, and beeswax. Unfortunately Nehelenia doesn’t carry synthetic whalebone.

Renaissance Fabrics (US):

Carries a lovely selection of linens, silks and wools.

Wm Booth, Draper (US):

Carries suitable linens, wools, and silks, as well as thread and tape.

View B: Theatrical:

Corsetmaking.com (US):

Carries boning, lacing cord, grommets, and coutils.

Farthingales (Canada):

Has a wide range of corsetmaking supplies, including coutil, lacing cord, grommets, and synthetic whalebone (German Plastic Boning). Their GPB is a type I’m not familiar with, and comes in 7mm rather than the 6mm called for in the pattern, so you might need to adjust the width of the boning channels to accomodate it.

Piccoli Shop (Germany):

Carries synthetic whalebone, aiglets, and possibly other notions.

Richard the Thread (US):

Carries a range of corsetry fabrics, as well as boning, lacing cord, aiglets, grommets and other corsetry essentials.

RÃ¶da TrÃ¥den (Sweden):

Carries all the basics of corsetry: coutil, synthetic whalebone, grommets,

Sartor (Czechia):

Sartor has everything you need for the theatrical stays: coutil, synthetic whalebone, grommets, and amazing silks for the outer, if you’re that way inclined.

Sew Curvy (UK):

Carries synthetic whalebone, corsetry fabrics, grommets, lacing cord, etc.

Vena Cava Design (UK):

Carries synthetic whalebone, a range of coutils, and lacing cords as well as other bits like aiglets, grommets, and sewing tools.

Rate the Dress: a 1910s suit

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week’s steel buttons and hat trim weren’t popular with most of you, and I know that this week’s buttons, and buttons, and buttons won’t be popular with at least one of you! So apologies to anyone with koumpounophobia. However, if you are a fan of buttons, maybe you’ll enjoy this week’s Rate the Dress.

Last Week: a 1780s redingote in purple silk

Alas, as fun as I find fashion plates, you don’t find them very fun to rate – there . There were things to like about the ensemble though: the rich colour, and jaunty collar. No one was a fan of the long torso and the scalloped peplums of the redingote, just like no-one liked them on the yellow 1780s number we looked at a few months back. And the hat definitely wasn’t winning friends and influencing the rating in a positive manner.

The Total: 7.8 out of 10

Not terrible…but certainly not great.

This week: a 1910s suit with all the (button) trimmings

This week we’re going from a late 18th century suit, to an early 20th century suit.

Suit, ca. 1910-14, linen with braid trim, Kent State University Museum 1983.001.0256 ab

This 1910s number is typical of early 1910s fashion. It features a slim silhouette, with just enough fullness to make walking easy and practical. The asymmetrical effect of the overskirt is balanced by the wrap collar and the asymmetrical buttoning of the jacket.

The buttons-and-more-buttons trim, and contrasting striped collar and cuffs, are classic bits of 1910s whimsy.

Despite the quirky use of buttons, the suit is generally quite conservative. Since last week’s extremely moddish ensemble was considered a little too devoted to style, perhaps you’ll prefer this one: fashionable, without being faddish.

Do you like it?

Rate the Dress on a Scale of 1 to 10

A reminder about rating — feel free to be critical if you don’t like a thing, but make sure that your comments aren’t actually insulting to those who do like a garment. Phrase criticism as your opinion, rather than a flat fact. Our different tastes are what make Rate the Dress so interesting. It’s no fun when a comment implies that anyone who doesn’t agree with it, or who would wear a garment, is totally lacking in taste.

(as usual, nothing more complicated than a .5. I also hugely appreciate it if you only do one rating, and set it on a line at the very end of your comment, so I can find it! And 0 is not on a scale of 1 to 10. Thanks in advance!)