Making Regency Short Stays by Hand | linen, corset-making, and backstitching

Hello everyone and welcome to a new video!

As I explain in the intro, I was ~somehow~ in the mood to handstitch stays. I think it's because I bought Patterns of Fashion 5 a couple of months back and I can't get it off my mind! However, I wasn't ready to commit to full 18th century stays, and to be honest I already have two pairs of 18th century stays that work decently enough, so I am in no need of new 18th century stays. Having been surrounded by Pride & Prejudice for the past few weeks, and Redthreaded had a conveniently timed pattern sale, I ended up going for the Regency short stays (though I have no intention of actually making Regency clothes).

If you are wondering what stays are, stays are the predecessor of the corset. They were structured garments worn as undergarments, often stiffened with materials such as reed, cord, and baleen. There are references in contemporary texts of people still referring to corsets as stays late into the 19th century.

I did some research before hand as I was curious about the historically accuracy of these stays. I found a few articles that were very helpful. Although there are few examples of short stays, they do exist. Most of them seem to have a different construction than this particular pattern. This pattern just seems to be a shortened version of regular Regency stays, while the extant stays have interesting features such as being wrap arounds. However, there are some short transitional stays from the late 1790s etc that seem to follow the same logical thought as these stays. Here are some articles:


- I mention this table in the video, this is a MOST interesting article! Highly recommend, even if you're just curious.

And @Costuming Drama is making some Regency short stays too! Check out her video here:

The Redthreaded pattern:
I am very pleased with this pattern! It was a neat little project, and if it is your first time threading into the costuming world and making structured undergarments, it is a great place to start to learn the steps of construction. Plus, they are very comfortable and flattering, so definitely a good reward at the end!

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sewing,sew,costume,historical,costube,regency,19th century,stays,corset,