All posts tagged: 1770s

These are the stays that never end

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 …

Sewing a set of ill-begotten stays

Published by The Dreamstress

Some time ago, I decided I needed another pair of stays, and started on a set. And they’ve been nothing but trouble since then. They are almost making #4 on the list of evil things. First there was the fabric. I bought a bunch of linen with a gilded finish in a fabric sale, because it was soooo pretty, and I’m a magpie. Linen is a great fabric for stays, right? And who doesn’t want a pair of gilded stays? Linen is not a great fabric for stays if it warps. And gilded linen is an even worse choice if the minute you iron it, the gilded finish comes off, leaving you with plain, boring, ecru linen. But I didn’t even get far enough into the stays to find these things out before it gave me problems, because it turns out that gilded linen is actually really, really hard to match for a lining. So I finally settled for black, because it was really the only thing I had that didn’t look hideous with it. …

18th century menswear: the waistcoat

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve told you all about the 18th century jacket I made. Here are the construction details of the waistcoat that goes with it. The fabric is a white cotton with a slightly irregular diagonal rib woven in. The breeches are made out of the same fabric. There is more info on the fabric and trims here. Like the jacket, the pattern basically comes from Costume Close-Up, though I made so many changes that CCU ended up being just a basic guide to 18th century waistcoat construction. I patterned up the waistcoat without having anyone to try it on, and I was really worried that it would be too small, so I used a clever feature that I saw on an extent waistcoat (unfortunately I can’t remember where from!) and left the back seam open, with ties to make it adjustable. I’ve also seen images of waistcoats with closed back seams and ties, and waistcoats that laced up the back. The LACMA has a pattern for one. As with the jacket, I managed to do a …