Yeah, you all know me: I have a tendency to get very enthusiastic about new things, so what I did yesterday is not so strange: I started on a pair of late 18th century transitional stays.
Anna has chosen the very late 18th century as her period for our upcoming regency picnic which of course fueled my enthusiasm. Since I had already bought white thin cotton to make a round gown to be worn either separately or with an open gown, the idea was there already. It was mainly the timing that was affected, since I had thought about making this later in the autumn.
Well, that was not to be: having run out of hand sewing projects that I could work on in the evenings - the embroidered smock I am making for Valeria requires good lighting and eyes that are not tired - I needed another project. I started with the skirt for the round gown, which will have two rows of very pretty coral pink silk tabby ribbon around the hem. I could not, however start on the bodice before I had decided whether to wear it with my slightly later regency stays, or make a new, late 18th century pair.
And yesterday I decided to go for it. I dug out some strong linen for the stays, my just a little bit too large effigy stays to have some idea of size, and an extremly sturdy polycotton twill that I use for mock-ups for stays.
I also looked around on the internet and found several useful blog posts to help me figure out what I wanted to do.
These were the ones I looked at the most, two of my old friends here in the costuming world, and a new for me blog.
Festive AttyreKatherine's dress siteRococo AtelierMost of these mentioned the book Corsets by Jill Salen, and I have ordered it on ILL, but of course I couldn't wait for that to arrive. So by studying the pictures on Rococo Atelier, which showed both her version with cups, and the original pattern with a gusset I came up with a pattern that I tried with enough success to go on to cutting the linen.
I got as far as making all the lacing holes on one front piece yesterday, and the rest this morning, and I have now also sewn all the boning channels on machine. Yesterday I was sorely tempted to make it all by hand, but sense prevailed, I have lots of real life work and many other projects to work on.
Since I don't have any white bias tape at home, and I'm not that interested in making some I am going to take a walk downtown and get it, as well as catch some pokemon.
