Saturday 18 May 2013

V&A Stays 1780s


 
After being really annoyed with the Reconstructing History pattern, repairing my old set of stays and a lot of grumbling I still felt the need to make a new pair of stays. I had fallen in love with this lovely pair in the V&A Museum a long time ago but never really managed to get into making them. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115752/stays-unknown/










 THEN something almost surreal happened - the lovely Before the Automobile had not only made them but was kind enough to share her pattern with the world. :) I've been admiring her work for quite a while now, such perfection in action there!! But this has been just marvellous. So I DID pull myself together and got to work, trying something new. I have used rattan cane to bone the stays, they are made of Coutil as interlining, cotton gabardine as fabric and white linen lining. Around the armholes I used kidskin leather. Together with working and baby and moving house this took so much longer than I expected but finally I've managed to get somewhere with these! :) Though not flawless (what of my work is...? ehem...) I am quite content with the outcome. And next weekend I will try them out. I will be taking my old stays, though. Just in case... ;)

edit: after wearing them for more than 16 hours non-stop I can only say: SUUUUPER material, those canes are great! shaping good and really comfortable to wear! I couldn't see and damage of the bones, the seams and the design of the boning pattern is brilliant! They really did know what they were doing back then! :)








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