> Standard plastic boning works if you use enough of it. Otherwise it may > not give you much support at your size.
This is the important thing so many people seem to forget. The stays or partial stays we have extant are fully boned. Each bone sewn right up against the next. This is how whale bone (nb: for those who don't know, baleen with is not bonelike at all but a very relatively soft material when cut into strips, it can also be steamed into shape) can be used in corsetry. I would also recommend the effigy stays as a model. I am rather hourglass shaped so I find untabbed stays dig in terribly at the waist. The tabs reduce the hourglass shape somewhat, but the pressure is taken off the waist (and lower back especially) and more evenly distributed. It's probably a good idea for the tabs to be all in one with the body rather than cut seperately, easier for getting the boning into the tabs for sure. Butterick stays are indeed 18th to 19thC. However if you have the pattern already, you can ignore the boning lines to make view a or b more like the effigy stays. A bit of tweaking of the neckline would help as well. http://costume.dm.net/corsets/history.html Drea Leed has a photo on her site you could use as a guideline, as well as her step by step detail of how she made hers. http://costume.dm.net/effigy.htm There are many of us who have made these stays that can offer advice. For me I made the stays pretty much as they were with the very long point in front and large tabs all around the waist. I used over 100 narrow cable ties of various lengths, the longest of which were 45cm (18") I made mine from fustian, but I guess the weave is too loose as there are bits of bone poking me in some places. So I'm going to over sew some fine closely woven silk over the top. Probably just laying it flat wover the existing seams so that the fronts are on the bias to give it some stretch like the fustian has anyway. I think it will be in a purple;) Or a pale pink. I think pale pink would be good. http://costumes.glittersweet.com/sca/16thunderwear.htm http://costumes.glittersweet.com/sca/valois.htm (though most of the stays information is near the start of the diary (around July 2004) The pattern goes together really easily as well, and the shape you get is dependant on the direction of the bones. I want to do a show and tell of how the direction of the bones affects the shape (diagonal makes a much rounder shape across the belly for instance.) I don't know if there is any way to make the drafting easier. I just used the image in Corsets and Cinolines blown up to a size where I could more accurately work out the pattern pieces. I'm larger than the original, by about 10 inches at the waist, though really 8 once you actually lace properly. The shape is also very comfortable, for a given value of comfort. I found it more comfortable than any corsetry from the 18thC, 19thC or other stays I have made/used. The cable ties also helped in that, because of their softness. I got a good rigid shape, but my ribs didn't feel like they were being compressed. michaela de bruce http://glittersweet.com -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.338 / Virus Database: 267.10.10/73 - Release Date: 15/08/2005 _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
