In September 2009, I finally let myself order the stays kit from Silly Sisters in blue linen. It took me months and months - it's hard to commit to sewing miles of boning channels when you have papers to write - but I think around the September of 2010 I had them basically finished (minus … Continue reading Blue Stays
Category: corsetry
1790s Stays
The shift was easy, apart from all of the flat-felling, but the stays are proving less so. There don't seem to be any patterns of extant examples in the style I'm looking for - as I pointed out in my post on corsets of the period, most surviving pieces are either conical (early 1790s) or … Continue reading 1790s Stays
Corsets 1790-1810
Throughout the eighteenth century, the female body was compressed by whalebone corsets into conical shapes, but within the next few decades, as the silhouette became more high-waisted, corsetry changed drastically. The extant corsets of the early nineteenth century are slim columns of linen, embellished with quilting, cording, and embroidery. This change is intriguing: obviously, it … Continue reading Corsets 1790-1810