Regency Short Stays, finished.

I recently finished my short stays and I am pretty pleased! This is the first time I've only done an entire hand sewn garment. GO ME!


Pattern: It is a self drafted pattern based off of the Sense and Sensibility "Regency Underthings"
Fabrics: I have no clue what the outside fabric is, but it is like canvas. The binding is the same "canvas-y" fabric. They are lined with muslin.
Other Materials: 14 Zip-ties for boning, hand quilting thread
Time: Patterning, 20 min. Fitting the gussets, 2 1/2 hours. Sewing, MANY MANY HOURS. Binding, 6 hours.
Stitches: Mainly saddle stitches, except the binding.
Cost: $2 mystery fabric + $1 muslin + $1.50 thread + $2 zip ties= $6.50 total.

Here's some more pics and then I'll talk more about it.

Sorry again.
What I like:
It is amazingly comfortable. It is quite effective. It was a relatively fast project (if done by sewing machine). It was relatively easy, being my first run with gussets. It has a pretty back. Some of my stitches turned out fabulous, after I got the hang of it.
What I'm okay with:
It's an odd color of creme. There's some puckeryness around/on the gussets. Ironing took a while to navigate the zip-ties/bones.

What I would do different:
I would have used 3 layers of fabric, to prevent the puckery. Used a fabric that I could identify. I would have made it a little smaller. Make sure that the front was even (it goes slightly downhill on the right side).

What I'm going to do: 
I plan to do some flossing on the stays in a light blue or just a white, but I'm still not sure how accurate that would be?

Some pretty stitches

Thanks for reading!

5 comments:

Belinda D. said...

What I like best is the innovative use of zip ties. Very nice indeed. Heartiest congratulations, and I hope your fingertips survived all of that heavy handwork.

Stephanie Ann said...

They look really good! I find that hand-sewing is sometimes a lot faster than we would think it would be.

Hannah Morgan said...

I want one of theeeeese

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure the flossing would be accurate. I've never found a pair of early 19th century stays with them. It's more of a late 19th century feature, like 1870ish going into 1880s.
Great job with these though! Just to comment, I love your 1860s dresses. I myself am working on a mid 19th century project of re-creating an 1840s paper mache doll with historically accurate clothing. It's fun designing gowns and what not on a smaller scale! : )

Anonymous said...

I find that when working with historic costuming, there is typically not ever a "never" or "always". I am sure somebody somewhere thought adding some blue onto their stays would have been lovely and it had to have been done somewhere before it just "popped up" in the later corsetry. So if that is what you would really like to do, go ahead.