1770s Stays Part One

I realised today that this blog has been neglected for a while, so it's time to catch up and hopefully get a few posts written up this weekend!

I decided a while ago that I wanted to make some 18th century clothing for myself. As the 1770s is a very versatile period with lots of  new fashions and changing styles I felt it would be the best place to start. I've covered a little of the history behind 1770s stays as well as how I made my first pair here

The Pattern I used was the 1770s stays from Corsets and Crinolines

1860s Pantaloons

Myself and my friend Abby (her Instagram is here) spent a day obsessing over all things Little Women and decided that, once she's graduated, we needed to make 1860's costumes. While researching for this project I remembered the 1860's Pantaloons from Jill Salen's 'Vintage Lingerie' and decided I wanted to recreate them as part off my ensemble.

In the first half of the nineteenth century women wearing pantaloons became more popular. These garments would be worn as a base layer with a chemise. All pantaloons had a split crotch for when their wearer went to the loo, and was actually considered to be more modest than a joined crotch would have been. The bottom hems of pantaloons would often be embellished with frills and lace.

A pair of 1860's pantaloons from The Met

Project: Polonaise- Part 6, The Petticoat

During the 1700's women would wear quilted petticoats in order to smooth out their silhouette over the false rump or panniers. This was also a sign of status, earlier in the century rich, fashionable women would sometimes wear their gowns with a visible petticoat (as in the picture below) and so they were often made of silk. As the character for my polonaise costume was a rich lady I decided that I too had to make the petticoat out of silk.

Project: Polonaise- Part 5, The False Rump

In the 1770's and 80's the emphasis moved backwards from the hips and the panniers that everyone associates with Marie Antoinette were discarded in favour of false rumps. These 'rumps' would be stuffed with horsehair of made from cork and came in various shapes and sizes as can be seen in the caricature 'The Bum Shop' (R.Rushworth 1785).

Project: Polonaise- Part 4, The Pockets and Garters

This part of the underpinnings was one of my favourite to construct. During the eighteenth century women would wear sort of bag shaped pockets around their waists and the other layers of clothing would have slits cut into them so they could be reached. Garters would be worn to keep stockings up. Both of these items would often be embroidered and I decided to make them to match. My main source of inspiration was a pair of pockets from the Snowshill Collection and two pairs of garters from the V and A that I got to sketch during my visit.

Pockets from the Snowshilll Colllection

Project: Polonaise- Part 3, The Stays

The next stage of the project was the stays, which is essentially the eighteenth century name for a corset. The Stays worn during this period were designed to elongate the wearer’s silhouette. The corsets typically had a low Scooped bust-line to accommodate the fashionable low necklines of the gowns and were pulled together at the shoulder blades to give the wearer a more upright posture. I decided to make my stays using the 1780's pattern from Nora Waugh's 'Corsets and Crinolines' and also took inspiration from the pair below which is from the V and A that I got to see personally during a visit. I will say this is definitely not the be all and end all of how to make a pair of stays. There are A LOT of things on this project that I would do differently given a second chance but I hope this post is helpful anyway.

Project: Polonaise Part 2, The Shift

A Shift or Chemise (They seem to have been used interchangeably) is the base layer of any pre-19th century European outfit. I chose to make mine out of linen, as the vast majority seem to have been at the time due to cotton still being a luxury item. The majority of this garment was stitched on the machine (as per our course guidelines) with finishing done by hand.