Thursday, October 29, 2015

Historical Sew Monthly Challenge #10 - Sewing Secrets

Apologies for an unplanned absence! October has turned into a very busy month (though pleasant and quite beautiful) and blogging has taken a backseat. It has been a month filled with trips, school projects, visits to the river to see the fall foliage, David's 9th birthday and time spent with friends. And sewing! I finally finished my regency underthings and photographed them *just* in time for the Historical Sew Monthly Challenge #10.

Sewing Secrets.

This was a hard one. Although, for my stays, kind of obvious. What can be secret about stays? The busk! It isn't seen, although very necessary to get the correct lift and separate look of the regency era. And a busk was an ideal place for a lover to inscribe a secret message to his sweetheart. When worn in the garment, his message was against her heart. (or supposedly so) ;) How romantic! Right? So those are the secrets of my stays.

They went together quickly and easily with the Laughing Moon pattern. This is the same pattern I have used the past six years, with modifications made to my master pattern every time I use it. The boning and cording placement is my own.

It's made of two layers of lightweight cotton twill, with cotton Peaches n' Cream cord used for the cording. Zip ties for the boning. I made many eyelets by hand to lace it with, but the ribbon I used for these pictures was too short to lace through every eyelet so for now it is laced through every other eyelet.

Since my bust size is still fluctuating since sweet baby Rose is still exclusively nursing, the cups are a little small. Hopefully once she is weaned my size will return to normal and the cups will fit better. Still, I am happy with the shape. I think in these pictures the corset is kind of sitting a bit low. Moving the whole thing up a bit will help with bust position. I just didn't have time to properly evaluate the way it looked before having Judah snap a few pics yesterday afternoon.

I hope to post more details soon, but for now, away to life and adventure! ;) Have a wonderful Halloween weekend, dear readers!

Love to all,

Sarah

What it item is: 1800-1820 corded stays
The Challenge: Sewing Secrets
What's the Secret: A message from my beloved one inscribed on the busk wink emoticon
Fabric: Cotton twill
Pattern: Laughing Moon
Year: 1800-1820
How historically accurate is it: The shape and cut is good, as is the cording and fabric, but I sewed most of it on the sewing machine and used zip ties for boning.
Hours to Complete: Maybe 10
First Worn: For pictures, yesterday
Total Cost: Under $15


1 comment:

  1. The stays look wonderful! I still need to finish mine, one of these days...

    On an unrelated note, I checked your "Sangamon Settler" blog today, and noticed that it appears to be overtaken by an online role-playing game? It may have been hacked. If it's something your children have done, nevermind!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your lovely thoughts!