Unbound

[atherleisure]

I've been looking at my inspiration stays, and I don't see any binding.



I really do think this is a set of stays rather than a boned bodice due to the straps. The picture doesn't zoom all that far, but I don't see any signs of binding. It looks like the silk is wrapped around to the back and the lining turned under and whipped down along the edges. It sounds like that's the way they did the reproduction described here. There's no mention of binding, but everything else is mentioned.

Binding was used on the stays in 17th Century Women's Dress Patterns, but I guess it wasn't used on the Plymouth ones or these in the Met. I know it would make them sturdier and longer-lasting, but honestly, how much am I going to wear a pair of late 17th century or early 18th century stays?

Suddenly, my stays are much closer to completion than I had expected!

Comments

[mrs_maupin]

I've had this discussion with several local costumers/costume historians, and it seems binding as we use it was much less prevalent in the 17th and 18th century than what we recreate. Yay for quicker completion !

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

There are certainly a lot of extant stays from the 18th century that have the edges bound, and the rather famous pink 17th century stays at the V&A definitely have binding. I'm not really a student of stays so I don't know how common it was. And is it possible that many of the extant stays are extant because they are bound and were better protected against wear? Maybe. At any rate, I'm going to take advantage of it on this pair and maybe have them finished within a week or so!