We have sleeves

[mala_14]

I totally missed the HSF due date on this one, so not I'm taking my time instead of trying to rush through. (A good thing because it gives me more time to read. I have a lot of reading to do before I meet with my thesis advisor in late July.) After taking yesterday off, I got back to it and set the sleeves in today. They have three little pleats on top, although I had originally wanted no pleats, but I don't really mind them. They're not that noticeable when the gown is on. I think I also figured out the elbow wonkiness, so that was good. I just needed to change the half seam on that side of the sleeve so that it went farther up the sleeve in a curve over the outside of the elbow. Now all that's left is hemming the neckline, wrists, and skirt.

I've also been doing lots of thinking and planning for my next HSF project. The challenge is Shape and Support and I want to make a pair of Regency stays. Initially interested in the Short Stays Studies at Kleidug um 1800, I did some further investigation into the J.S. Bernhardt book that Sabine references and found the page that has all the stays diagrams.

There is, of course, text that describes how these stays are made. Unfortunately I do not read German and the free, online translator I used was only moderately helpful. I was interested in Fig. E (bottom middle). It seems to have elastics/springs in the front piece and shallow cups. There is a similar, though shorter, set of stays in the Met collection. After looking at this picture of stays from 1813 from nuranar's Flickr, I decided that I wanted to make a sort of mash-up of Fig. E and Fig. C. It'll be mostly Fig. E, with the shaped pieces, single hip gusset (I hate putting in gussets), and shallow cups, but like Fig. C at the bottom, longer and curvy. Also, no springs in the front. I think this should give me a set of stays that will be suitable for a pretty good range, say 1805 - 1815ish. I think that closer to 1820 bust gussets are the prevailing thing. I'm hoping that I can build a pattern off my 1790s stays using these diagrams as a guide. I'm also hoping I don't stall over sewing the eyelets. :p

Comments

[quincy134.livejournal.com]

Very interesting stays diagrams! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Should be interesting trying out a new style. :)

[nuranar.livejournal.com]

These will be so neat! I can't wait to see what you do. :)

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Hope I'll get them done in a timely fashion. ;p

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Sabrina,
I'm very much looking forward seeing another one of J.S. Bernhardt's stays made up. Fig 'C' was his own creation and he aimed that the back is cut on the straight while the front is hence very much cut on the bias (with just one pattern piece for each side).
If you're intending to assemble one of the stays (Schnuerleib) on the bottom row (I did a mix of 'D' and 'F') you have to keep in mind, that if you base it on 'C' you have to be careful to not add anything on the front to take out the stretch effect of the front. Bernhardt designed the 'C' to give lots of stretch to the front, hence the fabric curves wonderfully around, any additional cording, fastening should be carefully considered to not restrict the stretch effect, because then the stays would simply be too tight and not fit.
The three Schnuerleiber on the bottom row are made of different pieces, which have bias edges, so the stretch effect does not only lies in the front piece. I hope my explanation hasn't confused you in the process.
I hope you enjoy assembling these, they are very comfortable to wear once fitted.
Very best
Sabine

[mala-14.livejournal.com]

I'll be sure to let you know how they turn out. It should be interesting to play with the bias cut. Thank you so much for all the information! Your research is inspiring as well as incredibly helpful.