A pair of transitional stays, c. 1790, from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Last year when I attended the Jane Austen Festival, I remember my sister saying how comfortable her short stays were. She felt well supported but not restricted from doing the things she wanted to do. One of the problems I have always had with historic costuming is how restrictive the fashions could be for women, which has the undesirable effect of making you feel uncomfortable when you are wanting to have fun! So for this reason, I decided to have a go at some Regency short stays for myself.
I had planned to do these as part of the Historical-Sew Fortnightly Challenge #3: “Under it all” (for undergarments), due February 11, but I have finished them a tad early!
The corsets, or stays, of this era were first “transitional” (where they transitioned from the eighteenth century stays to the new Regency style) and then they are commonly thought to have been either long or short, with usually little or no boning. The Regency style of stays really just provided posture support and helped to define a high empire waistline, with a “bust-shelf”, that was popular in the fashions of the day. In researching short stays, I have struggled to find information on historically accurate short stays from primary sources of the period (such as pictures, paintings or extant examples). If you are interested in historical research of the so-called “short stays”, have a look at ‘Short Stays’ Studies by Kleindung um 1800, which examines some historical patterns and journals on the topic.
Pattern and Construction Details
Step One: First I drafted my own pattern using the method I used for my long stays (My Regency Journey: How to draft a corset pattern). I found this process a lot more difficult to do than I had previously, mainly because I did not have much of an idea what these types of stays looked like. I could not find many extant examples online, except for modern historical patterns (such as Sense and Sensibility Patterns) that mention that they are based on extant examples and pictures of the era. I decided to do a toile out of calico, just to make sure that it fitted properly, and then I adjusted the pattern pieces accordingly.
Toile pattern pieces: Front, side back and back. I ended up taking off quite a bit at the side seams, and adjusting the curve of the side back. Gusset pieces are not pictured.
Step Two: I cut out the fabric, making sure I added the seam allowances. For these stays, I have used three layers of material: the outer and inner layer are white cotton broadcloth, and the interlining is cotton calico.
Step Three: Beginning with the front pieces, I sewed along the centre front seams so that the three layers were all attached and could then be turned with the right sides facing out.
Centre front pieces, turned right sides out. Shows the layers of broadcloth, calico and broadcloth.
Step Four: Again treating the outer layer and interlining as one piece, the side back and back pieces were sewn, leaving the front lining pieces free.
The side back and back pieces sewn in.
Step Five: For the gussets, I cut slits through all three layers in the top of the front pieces. The slits were marked on my pattern piece and are placed either side of the nipple area. For this reason it can be useful to have a bust separation measurement (the distance between the nipples) for that part of the pattern drafting. I used the instructions from Sempstress’s tutorial on setting gussets, which made it very straightforward.
Breast gussets pinned ready for sewing.
Step Six: As you can see in the picture above, I began decorating the outer layers at this point.
- Boning Channels: I decided to run a decorative stitch along the outer layer of the boning channels, just to make them pretty! I had a line of nylon boning on each side of the eyelets at the centre front, one line of boning on each side seam, and one line of boning running diagonally from under the arm, forward, to the bottom of the corset.
The decorated boning channels and underbust cording
- Cording: I did three lines of cording, with cotton cord, running horizontally under the bust on each side.
- Decorative stitching: I added a bit of decorative machine embroidery stitching around the bust gussets. I also did some extra lines of this stitching along some of the back seams (see below).
The bust gussets, with decorative stitching
- Embroidery: Just because I love embroidery, I decided to draw out the outline of a little flower stem that I had in my stamp collection. Using a basic backstitch with some coloured embroidery thread, I followed the lines. So pretty!
The embroidery on the side back panel. You can also see the decorative top stitch on the seam (to the left).
Step Seven: In order to complete the lining, I sewed the side back and the back pieces of the lining together. Then I laid it on top of the outer layers (wrong sides together) and sewed a decorative stitch as a topstitch along the back seam lines, through all the layers. For the side seams, the side back lining edge was folded under and pinned to the front lining edge, with the same decorative stitch being sewn through all layers. This seemed an easy way to get the lining attached without fiddling around too much with it!
Front view
Back view
Step Eight: The straps were attached. The eyelets were hand sewn and laced with a length of cotton cording. The garment was then bound with bias binding around the top and bottom edges and around the armholes.
It took a few hours for me to draft the pattern, almost two days to get the toile adjusted and looking right, and then three full days of my holidays to sew it. The total cost was approximately $12 AUD. As the fabric, sewing thread, embroidery thread, and boning, were already in my stash box, the only thing I actually bought was the cotton cording and the binding (which came to $5).
I am really pleased with the fit. It really does pay to do an accurate toile first for less fitting dramas later. And I am really pleased with how pretty it is!
For more Regency costumes, go to My Regency Journey.
Related Posts
My Regency Journey: How to draft a corset pattern
My Regency Journey: Corset Construction – construction of a pair of long stays.
Sources and Relevant Links
A pair of transitional stays (pictured), from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Another example of a cotton Regency corset (c. 1800-1825) – from the National Trust website
How to set a triangular gusset – Sempstress
Achieving a proper fit with Regency stays – by Oregon Regency Society
Examples and pictures of Regency era underwear – Jessamyn’s Regency Costume Companion
Jane Austen Festival, Australia – website
Historical Sew-Fortnightly – hosted by Dreamstress
‘Short Stays’ Studies, by Kleidung um 1800 – a great blog post looking at a book published in 1810 by J.S. Bernhardt, on the construction of a ‘new’ sort of stays.
Tea in a Teacup 
I have been a bit behind on my blog reading and I didn’t know you were doing the HSF! Have you been enjoying it? You certainly seem to have been quite prodigious in your work! The stays are absolutely gorgeous and I think I might use your stays tutorial and brave a bit of drafting for the undergarmet challenge.
I only decided to do the HSF after the first week of January, and I had already been completing some sewing for this year’s Jane Austen Festival in Australia. (Hence the reason I look so productive!) I saw your name on the list and have been meaning to get over to your blog to see what you are doing. There are a few of my blogging friends doing it, which is great!
Drafting is a challenge. I must say that I work better with at least some pictures in front of me. (I need to get some books like “Corsets and Crinolines”, or something like that!) At least the short stays are relatively simple as far as corsets go, in terms of pattern pieces. My suggestions are to make a mock-up or toile and go to town cutting and fitting with it (make sure your grain is always perpendicular to the waistline though). I look forward to seeing what you come up with!!
If you end up desperately frustrated (which I have before!), my sister used the Sense and Sensibility pattern for her short stays (available online), and quite liked it.
Kell, your blog is so awesome. You’re doing such an amazing job over here!
Thanks so much Kelly! I am really having fun with it (which is what counts most of all, I think!).
Please help! I am embarking on this project and am confused on such a basic issue – what is cording? I get it as a basic concept but there seem to be so many types but most costume bloggers just automatically seem to know what to use! (Sorry for the agony aunt feel of this-thanks in advance)
Cording is just sewing a basic channel or casing and then inserting cord (like thin cotton rope or a drawstring type of stuff) into it. Cording (in terms of corset making) is not as stiff or as restrictive as boning, but still helps support the desired shape/silhouette of the body. They also used to use cording in Regency times for hemlines, to help them stand out and not cling to the legs. In earlier periods cording could be used as decoration as well.
Does that help?
It does 🙂 Many thanks! I’m trying to decide what sort of cord to buy to make my regency stays and there were so many different types I was getting confused! I’ve seen some people just using yarn and some seems much sturdier stuff. Do you have a recommendation?
For all of my cording on costumes, I have used a plain white (or natural-coloured) cotton cord. It usually comes in a variety of thicknesses. For hemlines that I want to cord to help them stand out I usually use a thicker cord that is about 1cm in diameter. For Regency corset making I usually use a thinner cord of about 3mm-5mm in diameter. There are lots of different types of cord, but I find cotton cord the cheapest where I live.
It probably doesnt matter how sturdy it is, as far as being hard-wearing or strong, because it merely sits inside the layers of your corset. However, you may want something stiffer or thicker than yarn (which to me sounds a bit too “bendy” or “loose” or not dense enough?).
I would suggest buying a little bit of some cording (maybe just 30cm) and practising on two layers of scrap fabric. Sew some channels (maybe three) and thread the cording through, as you might be surprised at how much it stiffens the material once it is sandwiched between layers of fabric. That might help you decide what sort and what thickness of cording to go with… Sometimes experimentation is better than buying all your supplies without knowing if it will work out the way you want it to!
This link uses hemp cord, but gives a good demonstration on how to do cording. http://www.jennylafleur.com/study/runners.htm
Thanks very much for the link! This project has taken a back seat as I prepare for another event but I am definitely going to refer back to this when I do finally get round to it!
Could these be made and used without straps?
Maybe. I suppose it would be a similar process to having a strapless bra in the sense that when there is no straps you need to make sure you have enough other support. The bigger the bust, the longer a strapless bra needs to be in order to provide more support for the bust lower down. You may also need more bones.
In terms of obtaining the “Regency bust shelf” that was desirable in that period without straps, that will be more difficult, as the straps are important in holding the bust in that high position.