Regency Short Stays - drafting, part one.

 Greetings, friends. 

I think I might have alluded to the fact I was taking my regency wardrobe to task in my last post. I can now confirm that I have done this, as well as take apart a Chemise A La Reine that had never really worked. The first regency dress I ever made (hand stitched: I was terrified of my sewing machine) has now had its sleeves and front bodice removed, leaving the lining, back etc as a petticoat. I am also casting a stern eye over my other petticoat, which is similar style and I now want to attack and change. That’s by-the-by.

I have a set of long regency stays - stitched by hand, some 11 years ago - and a set of short ones, which have a wrapover back. I do actually have another set of very short stays, beautifully made for me, which never quite worked and are like the extant example in the Kyoto collection. The short stays I have are based on an extant example, but which did not have pictures of the back at the time. It was assumed crossover back, but it turns out only the straps crossed over and the back was secured with a series of ties: Slightly different to lacing, but not much. As this is kind of what I’m looking for, I then decided to dig out all the patterns I have. (This is the point I found out I could not find my Mantua Maker stays pattern to work from. I looked everywhere. So I bought a replacement from my usual site then realised I could have got it cheaper at a U.K. site. Argh). So I’m working from the Daffodowndilly short, wrap-over stays and also the Simplicity Sense and Sensibility patterns. Then cue many YouTube searches and watching of videos, including one on how to draft your own ones, as well as online searches for drafting and making said short stays.

I should say that when I say short stays, I mean somewhere between short and long: There is no way, with the sizeable assets I have, that short stays are going to work. This is primarily because, due to cup size, the gussets would need to be an extreme length, so mid length stays this is. I already know that the wrap-over ones are comfortable to wear, so I am not worried about them digging into my waist. 

(I will also admit, at this juncture and knowing what I know about pregnancy stays and my body’s ability to sway in size, whether it would be an idea to use some degree of side lacing, but I digress). 

So, having dug out the patterns, I decided to create a pattern by tracing each part of the wrap-over pattern and then over-laying the simplicity pattern pieces. 

To begin with, I’ve taken some measurements: 

1) underbust; 2) Overbust (usual bra); 3) overbust in sports bra (to give an idea of the right amount of compression - in my case 2 inches), 4) gusset (which is the distance between your underbust and apex/nipple) and, finally, 5) the distance between nipples (which, as it turns out, is quite important for situating your gussets).

I already knew, from the wrap-over and other stays, that the gusset size in my case needed attention, both in respect of width AND depth. In my case, 3 inches is NOT going to cut it. Add to the issue that there is a large gap between the twins AND a lower apex point on me and whatever I design is going to look a lot more like later regency/early Victorian, but i have to adjust for what I’ve got. So I have looked at my pattern pieces and marked ALL the gusset cut marks on there, with the ones related to my chest measurement (5) noted. Basically, I have temporarily marked my midpoint. What I don’t know YET is whether I’m having one or two inches between the gussets. That I’ll figure out on my mock-up. I have drafted two sets of gussets, which correspond to the overall difference between underbrush and sports bra measurement - (each gusset = 1/2 (measurement 3 minus measurement 1, divided by two), so the top point of the gusset will be 2 inches. One set is more triangular and the other is more rounded. The latter will give me more room to play with. If those don’t work, I’m going to use a more transitional design, cut out the cup shape and have adjustable cups with a lot of drawstrings, if I need to. I actually have a yet ANOTHER stays pattern design that shows just how to do this.

Having transferred these measurements over, per usual, I note that one of the gusset marks is literally going to be right under my armpit, but that’s my body. Anyway, as I’m a useless blogger, please see the photos attached showing my processes and the drafting of all the bits and pieces, including where I laid my existing short stays over the pattern piece to see if I was, indeed, correct, re the position of the side Gusset slit.

That’s all for now. Unfortunately, none of the photos are in order, but I don’t think it matters particularly. It’s just to give an idea of where I am in the process. Next step is to cut out my mock-up and see where those gusset slits are going to go and if I need them to be as long as I think they should be.