Staying it up...

Next one down. My full regency stays. These have been sitting complete, simply waiting on some lacing, which arrived in the mail today. I have made these before, so I did know what I was doing when I went into it, and I really didn't have to change my pattern (I did make my hip gussets slightly larger so that it would be more comfortable at the waist this time). The first time that I made these stays, I made them entirely as the pattern (Mantua Maker) dictated. For a start, they were way too long in the body for me, and they have almost no waist shaping. While I realise that regency full stays are to straighten your figure, it's not overly comfortable when the stays fit just about everywhere except that they are way too large in the waist. My fault really as there is a huge different between my waist and my hips. At any rate, I rectified this problem quite simply with a little pattern adjustment. And after my last set had to be retired because the boning worked its way through, I made sure that I rounded the corners of it all this time. 

The other thing that I found difficult was the spiral lacing. Because of my shape, there is more stress on the lacing at the bottom than the top. This caused a lot of problems with the spiral lacing as I found throughout the day the lacing would slightly slip so that it pulled in too much at the top and loosened at the bottom. I had the same problem with my first set of Georgian stays. I have since switched to my regular even cross lacing. I also whacked in some metal eyelets down the back as I really could not be bothered hand-stitching them. The ones on the front where the straps tie in though, are simple hand eyelets, more for comfort. 

 I am only sort of pleased with these. They will suffice for the purpose but they are by no means pretty or my best work. They give me the right shape, especially for under my 1820s gown, but I would really like to make this pattern again sometime with a little more tweaking and perhaps some cording and embroidery. They just feel so dull to me, even with the hot pink linen lining. Maybe if I make them out of a nicer white fabric than homespum, they would feel nicer. It definitely bears consideration.