Waistline in 18th century stays

[florialparis]

Hi all,

I'm having some problems understanding 18th century stay patterns regarding the waistline. Is it directly at the top of the tabs, or is it slightly above it? Some sources say it's at the top of the tabs and some pictures prove that as well:

Comments

[virginiadear]

First, my apologies for being late, despite being first on this community, to respond to your question.

I think the answer might depend on what you're making these stays for, and it might also depend on how necessary historic precision is going to be

[florialparis]

Thank you for your reply! It sure did give me something to think about. Since I'm making this for myself to wear under a robe a la Francaise, I decided it doesn't have to look 100% authentic, but the shape should be close to the original as possible. I scaled it up in basically the same way as I would with other corsets and a quick mock-up turned out fine. Now let's see if the actual one will turn out fine. If not, it's a lesson learned :).

[virginiadear]

You're welcome. :^)

"It sure did give me something to think about."

It's very kind of you to say so! I actually have to do a bit of thinking myself, about a set of stays I'll be needing for an Independence Day (Fourth of July) celebration and parade in my community.
I've been asking myself if I want to make stays that are "generically 18th century," or stays which are or were au courant in 1776, or stays which could have or would have been worn in that year although they would have been made some years earlier.
In the end it won't matter to anyone but me, but one thing going through my mind is always, "What if I need accurate stays later on?---and have to invest the time and the labor and materials a second time?"
I know that isn't helpful to you, and I apologize for that, but I hope you'll continue to post here on this community because I'll be interested in watching your stays as they progress or progressed, and how you make or made the decisions you'll make.

re: stays

[ext_4545987]

Something I know!! I can expand a bit on why different extant examples of stays have different lengths and different waistlines. As the other commenter noted, stays design shifted over the course of the eighteenth century

Re: stays

[florialparis]

Thank you for the reply! Yes, I'd love to get more detailed information about stays! The pattern is from the book Fashion, a history from the 18th to the 20th century volume 1 and it's taken from an actual corset (Kyoto Costume Institute)which is dated 1760-1770.

[virginiadear]

By the way, are you familiar with this site?
www.marquise.de

Instructions for 18th century stays:
http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frauen/18corset3.shtml
http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frauen/18corset2.shtml
http://www.marquise.de/en/1700/howto/frauen/18corset.shtml

This might be old hat to you, but I am fascinated to read in these pages that the author of this site knows of no extant examples of any half-boned 18th century stays with the boning channels showing from the outside. Whether that helps in any way...