Completed: Laughing Moon 115 Chemise/HSM May ’22

For the May Historical Sew Monthly challenge the theme was "Protection." I decided to tackle this theme literally and make a new chemise (mostly because I really needed a new one and it was the only challenge that seemed to fit when I made up my list!) Chemises/shifts protected the body from chafing from the…

Completed: LM 115 Regency Long Stays (HSM ’22 #1)

This post is a summary of my more long-winded, narrative-style posts about these stays as a work-in-progress: toile, #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5. Progress photos from these posts have not been re-posted here. These stays were sewn in preparation for my thesis work, for which I am recreating a ca. 1810-1815 dress in order…

WIP: LM Regency Long Stays Part 5

Photo by author. Slowly but surely I have come to the end of my stays making project! Starting it in August of 2021, I have finished it in February of 2022. How naive I was to think it would take but a month or two to complete! I will have a "completed project" post up…

WIP: LM Regency Long Stays Part 4

Since my last I posted I really got cranking on finishing these. First, I put in the bust darts that I decided I needed in the last fitting. Left bust dart (interior). Photo by author. Right bust dart (interior). Photo by author. Next, I re-hemmed the CB edge by double folding, as I didn't want…

WIP: LM Regency Long Stays Part 3

Photo by author. Work has not progressed as quickly as I would have liked for this final stretch. I was delayed by the holidays and then by the fact that my sewing room had devolved into a very messy storage space over the past year. After a day and a half spent tidying it, I…

WIP: LM Regency Long Stays Part 2

Photo by author. This past week I managed to get my Laughing Moon #115 stays to the point where I could take them to my mentors for a fitting. I elected not to trim any of the excess yet, just to be on the safe side. I safety pinned the side seams together and had…

WIP: LM 115 Regency Long Stays

Progress on my stays has gone slow. I seem to have trouble switching back and forth between reading/writing and working with my hands. It is much easier if I can take a half a day or more to work on one sort of work and then switch the next day. This is not the case…

Toile: Laughing Moon #115 Regency Long Stays

My latest project is a pair of long stays. I need a pair of later stays for my thesis project, and for them to be as historically accurate in silhouette as possible. I went with the LM stays because of the company's reputation for HA, and because I didn't have time to mess around with…

Review of My First Chemise and Short Stays

It is amazing that these little garments were about 10 years in the making. I was so nervous about messing up that it delayed me from completing them for a long time. I started the chemise in 2010 and completed it in the fall of 2012. I've since made one in a week, easily, as…