Anyone know of a pattern for wrap around stays?

[Val]

Other than your's Dawn, does anyone know of a pattern, either a purchased one, or one that you would scale up? I have a friend who teaches Victorian corset making, and has branched out into Colonial stays and now wants to try Regency. She'd like to teach a class on them, other than the usual full size ones. I told her about a wrap around one, and I've seen them made by folks but for the life of me, I can't find any info on them.
Dawn, I'm sure you'd be the one who could answer this.

[dawnluckham]

Val, I’m not sure I’m following but I’m trying…

Your friend wants options for wrap around Regency era stays? Or is she looking for other eras? Or is she looking for other options?

There’s a new book out there in the world that’s really worth having: It’s Frances Grimbol’s “The Lady’s Stratagem”. For anyone looking for information on a middle class woman’s life in general, this covers it all. It’s a direct translation (from French) of a series of lady’s books printed between 1820-1830.

She discusses “Half Stays” and “morning belts” in the chapter entitled “The Art of the Stay-Maker”. There are scaled drawings of stays patterns of many different styles in this chapter. The half stays are very like my pattern with just a small change at the back where the slot for the wrap is at centre back instead of in the side seam. These are not ‘direct’ patterns in that you can’t just scale them up and resize them as you can with Hunnisett or Arnold, but these patterns give you the correct shape for draping.

www.lavoltapress.com/LadysStratagem-page.htm

There is another new pattern out – though it’s not a wrap. Saundra Ross Altman has a new short stay pattern out and it looks promising. It’s based on the Connecticut Historical Society stays (from Kent State’s Age of Nudity exhibit). The research package included in this one is AWESOME! I’ve purchased the pattern but I haven’t had the time to make it up yet.

www.pastpatterns.com/038.html

My wrap stays pattern is available directly from me or from Spencer’s Mercantile: Daffodown Dilly Regency Era Wrap Stays.

www.spencersmercantile.com/patterns/Regency.html

Does that help or did I misunderstand the question?

Have you had the chance to make up the wrap stays for yourself? I know you’ve been working on eras other than Regency as of late.

[Val]

Thank you Dawn. Sorry I was confusing. She wants to make Regency stays now.
And your link to the two stays was very helpful. I'm glad to see yours are for sale now, so I can point her to them.
*cringe* I'm sorry, no, I haven't done anything with your pattern yet. I've been so busy on these other two gowns, and making the stays to go under one of them, that I haven't had time to try them. I'm just now finishing up my 1830s gown to wear to our Dickens Fair on Feb 7, and I'm 3/4 done with my 1770s gown that I plan on wearing to Colonial Williamsburg in April.
On top of that, we had to make a weekend trip to Arizona, where we had to repair & paint the entire inside of our rental house there, that the former renter had destroyed.
Then last Thurs we had ANOTHER water pipe break in our house, and flooded the kitchen and livingroom. We had no water for two days while they fixed the pipes and now we have to pack and empty our entire downstairs so our wood floors and kitchen vinyl floor can be pulled up and replaced. Lots of stress, I can tell you, and lots of chocolate chip cookies eaten. Good news is all the old pipes have now been caped off and water rerouted, so we shouldn't have anymore leaks.
But sewing progress was made while I stayed upstairs in my sewing room. You probably saw the photos of my gowns on my LiveJournal already. I don't have them uploaded to anywhere at the moment that I can link to here, and I don't know how to post them here either.

[dawnluckham]

No need to cringe, Val. I know you’ve had an insanely busy time of it as of late. I do read the LJ but I hardly ever have time enough to post. Your new gowns are so fun to see. My own life gets away on me sometimes too and I’ll admit to being running in my own circles since before Christmas. I certainly would not be in any position to say anything at all! But… You know, those wrap stays would work just as well into the 1830’s.

For your friend, keep in mind that the Regency era is a time of extreme experimentation in corsetry and there are many, many, many variations and options. If she’s interested the variety of styles and the clear evolution from the cone shaped stays of the 18th century can be traced.

[Val]

Just heard back from my friend, and she really liked the look of your pattern. So I think she's going to order one. I have a feeling if it works out well for her, she may order more for her students to purchase.
Yes, I wished I'd had time to make it because it would have worked for my dress. I can't get in or out of my stays w/o someone helping me lace it. I'm feeling like I should pull it out and make it now, especially since I hope to wear this dress a couple more times.

[dawnluckham]

That’s pretty neat!
I’ll send you a little e-mail.

I’ll bet you could make up those stays pretty quickly if you wanted. Because there’s no boning, they’re pretty straightforward. The most difficult part is deciding what size gusset to use and if you need to lengthen the shoulder straps.

For the later Regency and into the Romantic period (1830’s) I’d definitely go with the version with the busk. You can always take it out of the pocket if you decide you don’t like wearing the busk but it will give you the “better” look for the period with it.

[Val]

Jan 30, 2009 10:55:56 GMT -5 dawnluckham said:

For the later Regency and into the Romantic period (1830’s) I’d definitely go with the version with the busk.

Oh darn, that's too bad. Would have been a great help.