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The Scroop Patterns Cassandra Stays Sew-Along scrooppatterns.com

The Cassandra Stays Sew Along: Eyelets

Previously on The Cassandra Stays Sew Along:

It’s time for my favourite part of staymaking! Eyelet time!

Seriously, I’m not kidding. I love making eyelets. There is something so relaxing and repetitive about it.

Marking the Eyelet Hole Placement:

First, mark the hole placement for your eyelets. Use the pattern piece right side up for the Wearer’s Left side, and the template for the Wearer’s Right.

I like to fold my pattern piece and template through the centre of the eyelet marks, as shown below, to mark the eyelet spacing:

The Cassandra has offset lacing holes because both the historical and theatrical versions use spiral lacing.

Use something that will last to mark your holes: I like good old-fashioned pencil for this. It will disappear into the hole anyway!

With your holes marked, choose whether you want to try working the holes with the lacing bones in, or out. If you try one way and don’t like it, you can always take the bones out or put them in!

If you are doing a fully theatrical version with metal eyelets, install them as per the instructions in the manual and your eyelets/eyelet press.

Historical Eyelets

Use a tailors awl/stiletto to open your holes. DO NOT punch your holes. Any thread you cut or break weakens the eyelet. Plus, it’s much harder to sew an eyelet around fraying cut edges than a nice strong pushed-apart thread hole.

A tapered tailors awl will make your job much easier than a straight awl. I use the Clover tapered tailors awl. It’s not a pretty historical thing, but it works really, really well.

Hand sewn eyelets sound fragile. Will they really withstand strong lacing?

Yes, absolutely! In my experience they are actually stronger and less likely to pull out than metal eyelets. I’ve never had a hand-sewn eyelet tear out, but I’ve had many metal eyelets tear out. Ideally a metal eyelet should be set into a pushed-apart hole, but it’s often extraordinarily difficult to do that, so you end up punching a small hole, and weakening the fabric.

In addition to pulling out, I’ve seen metal eyelets cut through the threads on the outer layer of fabric over time. Finally, it’s very hard to find eyelets today that crimp down without breaking the metal in some places, and the sharp edges of those breaks can wear on your lacing cord, scratch your skin, and catch on your underthings.

Hand sewn eyelets, on the other hand, can easily be worked in a hole without breaking a thread, making them very strong. You can continue to use the awl to stretch open the hole as you sew. The holes just need to be big enough to lace your cord through, and over time the lacing will open the holes just a little bit more. The stretching action of the cord going through the hole will also compact the threads around the hole, making them stronger with wear.

I recommend using linen thread for sewing historical eyelets, as linen threads will compact together while cotton wears out, so they last longer.

Conclusion: Hand sewn eyelets are strong.

Here are my eyelets. Those suckers are going to last forever!

Hope you enjoy working your eyelets!

Next up: we finally get to boning!

Edwardian Unders: what went under the Persis Corset samples

Published by The Dreamstress

What do you need if you have a photoshoot with corset samples? Pretty unders to wear with the corset – and which also have enough coverage to make the models feel comfortable!

I used the Persis Corset pattern shoot as an opportunity to play with different underthings patterns, and with the lace insertion techniques given in the Ettie Petticoat Pattern. Because who doesn’t love lacy drawers?

I made three items to go with the Persis Corset samples: a chemise, drawers, and combinations. My primary source for all three patterns was Cutting Out for Student Teachers (1906). I also took inspiration from a number of other pattern books in my collection for trim ideas, and to refine the patterns for the best fit.

The Chemise & Drawers Unders Set worn with View B

For View B I decided on a separate chemise and drawers, to give the person who this set would eventually belong to (I don’t believe in making pattern samples that aren’t going to get used again!) the most flexibility.

For the shoot we tucked the chemise into the drawers. This provided the model with a further layer of modesty, and allowed me to show off the pretty drawers.

Both chemise and drawers are made from very soft, lightweight striped cotton sateen, with matching lace on both.

The drawers are circular cut (which the book calls ‘American cut’, which I think is just delightful!), and have a lace trimmed ruffle attached to the hem with insertion lace

Attaching a ruffle with insertion work was a fun challenge, but it paid off. I also love the way the stripes work with the circle cut of the drawers:

The drawers fasten at the front with a button, and have a clever drawstring at the back, to make them adjustable. The drawstring technique is borrowed from a couple of extant petticoats in my collection, but I’ve also seen it on at least 1 pair of drawers.

The drawers are split drawers, but I machine basted them closed for the photoshoot for the comfort of the model.

The chemise features a square neckline, and a pointed yoke that echoes the neckline of View B.

I’d have to have a play with this, but I think it would be possible to leave out the inset and straight neckline of the yoke, to create a chemise with a lower sweetheart neckline.

The Combination Unders Worn with View A:

My inspiration for the combinations was this pair in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (just with slightly less insertion work!). I liked the front fastening, brief bodice, and the angled outside legs with their bow trim. This pair has similar elements, just without the side bows.

I used this beautiful broderie anglaise for the ruffle, and attached it with broderie anglaise beading trim. A ribbon went through the beading with a bodkin to create the side bows:

I had exactly enough of the broderie anglaise trim left to create a decorative central panel for the bodice:

The middle is a placket which will have buttons. The join of the lace to the bodice fabric is hidden with a tuck:

With all these pretty details this should rightly be a chemise to wear over a corset to smooth out the lines, rather than one worn under it. With very narrow seams and finishing, and nice flat buttons, it was comfortable under a corset.

Conclusions, and a question…

I was very happy with how both of these turned out. The models were comfortable, they look good, and the owner of the chemise and drawers is delighted with her new under set.* What more could you ask for?

*Obviously it was well laundered and she knew it was used for this!

So, the question. Would you be interested in patterns for these items?

And the question is a hint about something that will be happening this week…

Can you wear the Cassandra Stays for decades before or after 1760-1780?

Published by The Dreamstress

We get it. Some people love making stays, and some people don’t. Even if you are someone who loves making stays, they are time intensive, and relatively expensive to make. So it’s very tempting to make one pair of stays that can work for a wide date range. Not surprisingly, lots of people have asked us…

Can you wear the Cassandra Stays for dates other than 1760-1780?

We’ve dated the Cassandra Stays pattern to 1760-1780 because that was the date range of the extant stays we based the pattern on where we were absolutely confident in the dating of the stays. However, we have been very cautious in our dating, so the Cassandra Stays are definitely plausible for decades before 1760, and about 15 years after 1780, for those who preferred a more old-fashioned fit and silhouette for their clothes.

Wearing the Cassandra Stays under 1730-50s outfits:

There are numerous examples of stays that are dated to earlier than 1760 which have similar pattern pieces and boning layouts to the Cassandra Stays, such as these examples:

Woman’s Corset (stays), France, circa 1730-1740, Silk plain weave with supplementary weft-float patterning

Corset (Stays), 1740–60, American, linen, leather, whalebone, Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Jason and Peggy Westerfield Collection, 1969, 2009.300.3330a–d

Corset (stays) with green thread trimming, ca. 1755

Spanish Stays, ca 1750

Stays of violet taffeta dated 1750-60, featured on page 110 of Stays or a Corset, Narodni Muzeum, Czechia

However, we’re not entirely confident that the dating on all of these stays is accurate. We were not able to examine them in person or see patterns taken from most of them, and some of them have very limited information available. Because of this, we chose not to rely on them as absolute evidence this style of stays was worn in earlier decades.

Of the stays I showed above, the final pair, of violet taffeta is very well researched and the date range is probably accurate. Stays, or a Corset? includes a pattern for the stays, and it is very similar to the Cassandra Pattern. The primary difference is that the seam lines in the violet taffeta stays are straighter than those for the Cassandra.

If you do want to use the Cassandra Stays patterns for 1730s-50s costuming, you can make it shape your body so it more closely resembles earlier stays by:

Wearing it without the bust rail. The bust rail is a very late 1760s-onward feature.
Wear it with a front busk to create a flatter, straighter front line, typical of earlier decades.
If you could plausible go with either the Curvy Fit or the Straight Fit, choose the Straight Fit: the silhouette of earlier stay patterns is straighter, with less curvature to the seams, and less waist compression.
Wear View B with the optional stomacher. The stomacher will flatten the front silhouette.

Wearing the Cassandra Stays under 1780s & 90s outfits:

The date range given for the Cassandra Stays is when this style of stays was most fashionable. Stays like the Cassandras continued to be worn throughout the 1780s and 1790s by less fashionable women. This includes those who preferred a more old-fashion silhouette (often older women) and by poorer wearers who could not afford to update their stays. So wearing them for 1780s and 90s is totally accurate, as long as you’re not aiming for high-fashion!

However, as Jenni amply demonstrates below, it is entirely possible to achieve a very high-fashion, 1780s prow-front silhouette with the Cassandra Stays:

How did we do it? First, we fitted her Cassandra Stays so that they were a little snug in the bust. This means they can be worn laced over a stomacher with the lacing in an V shape, to achieve a very 1770s and earlier silhouette. For a 1780s silhouette they are worn without a stomacher, with the lacing fully closed except at the very top, forcing the front into the typical ‘prow-front’ curve. Boom! Two totally different fits in one pair of stays.