Description

This pattern was taken from stays in the the Connecticut Historical Society collection. The package contains background notes, published for the first time, reviewing differences among eighteenth-century stays, transition stays of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and classic stays of the first quarter of the nineteenth century through the early twentieth century.

Also shown are detailed drawings of transition stays in museum and private collections, plus contemporary documentation dating the Connecticut Historical Society stay to between the late eighteenth century and 1820. Additional illustrations from advertisements, catalog companies, United States patent records, and ladies’ magazines of 1840-1899, as well as original garments, document cupped stays made both at home and commercially.

These garments were in addition to, if not a complete substitute for, the stiff and inflexible, waist-compressing item that most people imagine when the word corset is mentioned today. Detailed illustrated fitting and construction instructions complete the package.

Sizes US 8-26 (Bustumfang 80-122 cm = 31 1/2-24″) included.