#regency stays

[whennnow]

The Good, The Bad, The Short Stays

February 13, 2019

[Image ID: a flat photo of Regency-esque short stays made of unbleached muslin]

I started my Regency fashion journey back in the summer of 2017 and I… have not made it very far. All I have right now are a chemise that I can’t get over my shoulders (whoops!) and a set of nice looking short stays with some dark secrets. I’m disappointed with my progress - it’s hard not to be - but I’m trying my best to look at this as a learning experience. So, without further ado, let’s dig into my stays!

These are the designs and pattern pieces I started with. I drafted the pattern myself, which was a first for me, and the pattern turned out surprisingly well! The finished product even fits well!

[Image ID: three mostly rectangular sewing pattern pieces labeled, from right to left, "front", "side", and "back"]

In the original designs, I had planned to have boning on either side of the center front lacing. I was forced to scrap that, as my chest just isn’t that wide. I also changed the number of gussets in each cup to four, instead of three, and made each gusset the same shape. They seem to work fine, but I’d be curious to see if shaping them would make much of a difference.

The gussets did not turn out well at all. I had never sewn gussets before, and didn’t bother doing any research before I jumped into them. I admit I still haven’t read up on gussets, but I suspect that part of the problem was that I had mis-measured the gussets and made the seam allowances too small, so when I folded in the seam allowances for the front panels and sewed them down, the gussets didn’t catch in some places. To remedy this, I hand sewed them using what could, on a technicality, be called a whip stitch, I think. The quality of my stitching isn’t very consistent, but it is very nice to run my fingers along in some places, and it serves to reinforce the seams there, which is probably a good thing.

The eyelets were also a first for me, and most of them turned out very nicely! There are 14 eyelets total, all hand-bound, with metal jump rings inside them for reinforcement. You can definitely tell which eyelets were my first if you look closely, but I’m very happy with how they turned out!

The body of the stays is just two layers of unbleached muslin. Something sturdier would have been better. The edges are bound in off-white bias tape, which seems to have worked well enough. The boning is heavy-duty zip ties, a carry-over from my cosplay days. The boning at both sides of the center front, where a busk should be, is actually just a wooden dowel. Doubling up the zip ties wasn’t giving me the support I needed for the bust (lift and separate!), so I had to find an alternative. Obviously, neither zip ties nor wooden dowels (or the jump rings in the eyelets) are ideal or washable, but they do, technically, get the job done.

Each cup has a drawstring at the top for adjustability. The shoulder straps tie to the front, also for adjustability. I ordered the cord I used for those and the front lacing from Wm Booth Draper. I had never heard of them before, but they seemed to be well-established and had lots of good reviews on their Facebook page, so I took the chance and was not let down!

To finish off, since this has gotten to be a lot longer than I meant it to, I’m not completely happy about how these turned out, but they fit and have been a very good learning opportunity for me, so I am content. I do plan on remaking them in the future, but that might be very far into the future, at this rate.

Stay warm, stay safe, stay dry.

[slightlymediocree]

AJDJSJJDJD WHY ARE HER SHORT STAYS ON BARE SKIN

[bietrofastimoff23]

obsessed with killing Aegon, Daemon. eager to get everything that Aegon has, Aemond. i'm starting to think that the battle above god's eye will be about who will be the end of Aegon: Daemon piercing him with a sword or Aemond swallowing his older brother to become him.

[sesamestreep]

it really is SUCH a shame that there’s no episode of TOS where the enterprise crew time jumps to Regency-era England or goes to a planet that modeled its culture on that era or something, because it would truly slap for every single main character. Like I don’t even have to explain why this would be awesome for Spock— Mr. I’ll-smash-a-computer-with-my-bare-hands-before-I’ll-admit-I’m-horny himself, king of repression, who basically recreated the famous Pride and Prejudice Hand Flex Scene™️ with his beloved Captain that one time, who meets a blind woman with a high tech gown that helps her “see” and LITERALLY tells her to give his compliments to her dressmaker, who mislead a woman once about his affections and tenderly promised to safeguard her reputation forever about it, who has the perfect angular features to be set off by a cravat—I mean, you get it, but then you’ve also got Kirk—handsome, affable, brave Naval captain who loves his crew more than himself, who falls in like deep profound love with every woman the plot throws at him—and then McCoy—cantankerous, sure, (ever heard of a grumpy/sunshine trope??) but with impeccable, downright old school manners towards women and, yeah, a doctor’s not that prestigious in Regency times, but for like a young lady in trouble who needs the protection of a man’s name or who just wants to piss off her stuffy aristocrat family by marrying “beneath” them, who could be better? If you throw Scotty in the mix, well, he’s Scottish, which [points at a whole subgenre of regency romance novels] is all he’d really need. I’m just saying they would have CLEANED UP, okay??

[ghw-archive]

[rauchendesgnu]

Choose a title with me!

I have now narrowed it down to the following title options for my fan comic (Jonah's fan comic). Pick the one you like best in the poll :)

[haverkampink]

I realized I had only uploaded like half of the drawings from URFP here hahaha. Anyway, these kids have been living in my brain since 2019 and I'm finally getting somewhere with it so I feel like I can actually post about them without jinxing myself!

[dragons-r-cool]

Starting a *regency* project!!!!

I'll be attending a regency inspired ball in June, so I've been planning out a full regency outfit to make specially for the event. I've never done regency before (I'll even admit that I never liked the look of it, but it is growing on me...), so I've had to do some research for this project.

This is what I have planned:

- A chemise/shift I made previously

- Short stays

- Petticoat (with straps/suspenders to stop it slipping down to my waist)

- Dress (green with gold embroidery and beading)

- Potentially an open robe/overdress (ive seen these on some fashion playes for ball gown, and it may be a good way to have a train without ppreventing me from re-wearing the dress day to day. It would be gold, with a train, crossing under the bust at the front)

- A gold ring I already own, and a green ribbon around my neck, potentially some more gold jewellery

- Black leather boots

- Stockings that I made previously

- Reticule (Potentially sewn, or I've come across a crochet pattern...?)

I've decided to document this project here so that I can look back on it and see the progress I've made. (If someone other than me actually sees this, then I encourage you to try some historical clothing, I wear it day to day and love it!!!)

[whatkindofnameisella]

“I can’t go on pretending I don’t love you. I can’t pretend it doesn’t scare me spitless to see you in danger […] Althea, I am so damn lonely. Worst is to know that whether we fail or succeed. I still lose you. Knowing that you are, every day, here on the same ship with me, and I cannot so much as share a meal with you, let alone touch your hand, is torment enough. When you will not look at me or speak to me… I can’t go on with this coldness between us. I can’t.”

[tennessoui]

i saw that you had a body swap fic on kofi, does that mean you wont add it to ao3 or that kofi get's earlier updates? either way is fine!! im just curious since i don't really know how it works

this is a great question, and i hope my answer isn't confusing

for the fics i post on kofi, like the body-swap fic, that's their final destination! i'm currently not planning to post those fics on ao3 because i want those specifically to be for my kofi monthly supporters.

however, many if not most of those fics are based on aus or posts here on tumblr and i promised ages ago that i wouldn't post anything on kofi that you would feel like you HAD to read to understand a tumblr au (for example, i would never write the moment regency au obikin get together and then put it on kofi because that's a tumblr au)

basically i'm super willing and ready to talk about (and write more ficlets for!) the body swap au with anyone on tumblr! but that ficlet on kofi is specifically for kofi supporters and i'm not planning currently to share it to ao3 as well 💙

[greguette]

i imagine he just follows tom around and holds his stuff til they are ready to leave the roy estate

[arollofmirrors]

Casual fans: I love how wholesome Weird Al is! Not just as a person, but also his work. The humour isn't dark or mean-spirited or vulgar; it's just lighthearted, goofy, family-friendly fun!

Weird Al:

[youngpyromaniac]

Corset, 1820-39

[clios-purls]

but who am I, really, to resist the impulse to handsew historical garments

[marzipanandminutiae]

"and they were RedThreaded" "oh my god they were RedThreaded..."

guess whose corsets were all in her dresser when her house caught fire

guess whose dresser was firmly swollen shut from water damage when she went back into her burned-out apartment to retrieve her things

guess who really misses owning at least one corset

[artschoolglasses]

Cotton stays for a doll, 1800-25

From the London Museum