Pennsbury stays - finished

[mandie_rw]

FINALLY. Now I can move on to bigger and better things!

Well, sort of.






They're not lined, mostly because I didn't grab any lining fabric when I was at Pennsbury, and I don't really like them enough to waste any of my linen on lining them! So I just covered the seams on the inside with more of the pink binding. I've seen that on some 18thc stays (minus all the icky machine-stitching, of course). The boning layout is weird because I didn't have much to work with in the way of boning, especially in long pieces.



I'm so not enamored with the shape of these things. I mean, I can't try them on or anything (not anywhere near my size!), but that doesn't look like it'll give the nice long cone of c1700. And even if it does, it's obviously based on the Court bodice in Corsets & Crinolines, that's meant to be just off the shoulders - that very open neckline of the end of the 17th century. Which is fine, except Pennsbury was a Quaker household and most of the people we're costuming are portraying the working class or some sort of servant. So, my point is, nobody needs off-the-shoulder stays!

Yeah, gotta work on that.

Comments

[hiraimi.livejournal.com]

Hooray they're done! Cheers! What you should do - at some point - is make them for yourself, but better and actually cone-shaped. So you can show them up. or something. >.>

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

So glad they're off my plate! I'm going up there on Sunday so they can take them off my hands completely!

Yeah, I want to make some NICE ones for myself before Holly Nights, in case they need me for that...I'm thinking of hand-sewing them, just to be pedantic and to be able to say WHY YES THESE ARE HAND-SEWN (but I probably won't, because I don't like 1700 fashion THAT much!).

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

What size are they? If you want to see them on a body with ahem, more volume, bring them along on Saturday and I'll be your pudgy muse :-)

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Lol! I think they're too big for you, too - they're, like, super-large or something (okay, I don't remember what size they had me cut out)! I sort of don't want to see them on a person because I'm afraid they'll be horrible! Which is stupid because even if they are I didn't come up with that pattern...oh well.

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

yeah...I'd be willing to bed they'd fit just fine on me. And they'll be fine, isn't this a pattern they use all the time?

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

So is this a mockup or for display? Because I thought you were making an outfit for yourself?

I'd suggest trying the pattern right after this one in C&C, when you make ones that fit you. It's definitely more conical and not so off-the-shoulder. Or maybe some variation on Tudor bodies?

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

I am, eventually - but these are for volunteers (and we have a lot of, ahem, women of A Certain Age and Size, haha), and they had me use the RH pattern. Which I won't be doing again. "Look, I'll make you a scaled up version of the 1720 C&C stays in every size, just DON'T MAKE ME USE THAT PATTERN AGAIN!!" If I'm going to invest that much time into a pair of stays for someone else (which I really don't mind!), I would like them to not suck...

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

OIC. I hear a lot of contradictory stuff about RH, some people really love it and some really dislike it.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Yes...I'm not a fan. To put it delicately. ;)

[chocolatepot.livejournal.com]

Any details? In case I end up being asked to use/consider using one of their patterns at some historic site or other. I don't use any commercial patterns in my historic sewing (hipster alert) so I don't really know anything about what problems any of them have.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

I'll message you!

[jennil.livejournal.com]

They're great! I love your colors!

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Thanks! They had pretty limited fabric for me to use, so for binding I dug pink linen out of my own scrap bin to dress them up a little! I was actually calling them the Ugly Stays for a while, haha.