What I Do Mindlessly While Watcing "Poirot": New Regency Short Stays

Hey, there.
   So, this doesn't technically meet the requirements of HSF'15 projects, as I did not complete it in the past two weeks, but it fits the project theme of "Foundations." I'm going with it.
I haven't been in a sewing mood as of late. But before this handicraft slump, I made something just for the heck of it.
   I know, it's weird. I had no pressing commitments, no event happening the next day. I just wanted something to occupy my hands other than flat patterning for class.
   Here they are: my Regency short stays!!!!

   I used this image as inspiration and a starting off point:

Image from Jane Austen's World

   I really liked the meshing of transitional stays and the ubiquitous short stay used today. I'm not incredibly endowed, and don't really have any figure-smoothing needs that would warrant a long stay (though they do make figures look incredible), so I wanted to go short. But I do have enough bust that I needed something more than a wraparound stay.
   This little guy seemed like the perfect fit. I added tabs to the bottom of the Sense and Sensibility pattern, so that there wouldn't be a hard line under my bust and at the Regency waistline.

Materials:
   I used some bleached linen that was lying around the stash, this super awesome fat quarter that was sort of mid 19th century, but looked a little like an indigo resist popular during the Regency. I used linen thread and some reeds cannibalized from an abandoned pair of late 18th-century prow-front stays.

Construction:
   The construction was similar to that of my 1790's stays, with two layers of linen with a boning between them, and a floating lining added after construction. I did add the lining before adding twill tape binding, just because I didn't have much in the way of lining fabric, and couldn't add SA to turn down the hem.

Thoughts:
   Well. I have recently lost a good deal of weight, and the stays are a little big, as evidenced in the pictures. I'm not swimming in them, but they are a little loose with the lacing edges touching. I may add some padding, or may just deal with the lack of intense lift I was hoping for. I could take them apart, but . . . who am I kidding. these are done; I'm not going to mess with them. And I do love the shape they give me. I'm almost done with a bodiced Regency petticoat, and am extremely excited to make a spencer and a shako. The day gown is necessary, of course, but I have the perfect striped velveteen for the matching spencer/shako combo and can't help but mentally jump ahead. I'm also painting shoes to match.

   Well, that's about it. I'll be posting next week about my bodiced petticoat!

   Cheers!
   Meg

It Can't Already Be 2015.

Happy 2015!!!

This year has been full of awesome bouts of sewing, and months of learning how to cope with 4am mornings on a regular basis (#lifeasabarista). I made a few things that I was extremely proud of this year, and I hope to keep on surprising myself.

There were a couple of garments that I made at the tail-end of the year that I haven’t blogged about yet –final class projects, last-minute costumes –that I will include in this year’s posts.

I have also made myself a 2014-2015 sewing list located on the blog. I can’t keep flying from one item to another on a whim (the thought alone leaves me exhausted), so I've set down the items that I would like to finish by December 31, 2015. I will cross out and mark up this page on my blog, and post when I’m done with an item.

I’m also doing some additional research on a topic I may teach at CoCo 2015. Fingers crossed about that!

Here’s to the new year!

Cheers!

Meg