Regency boobs support woes

[green_martha]

I'm fighting with the Simplicity/Sense&Sensibility short stays pattern. And I can tell you that my boobs are NOT in the place where an average woman's boobs are. Methinks I have some patterning to make tonight.
Onto mock-up #2... Never surrender, never give up... *goes forth clapping hands in a stupid way*

Comments

[joysdaughter.livejournal.com]

I am making one for someone else, and had to move the gussets to get the right amount of lift and separate.

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

Thank you ! Now I know I'm not completely crazy. I hope I got them correctly placed on the second try...

[maidm.livejournal.com]

I made my regency stays from the Jean Hunniset pattern, as those stays did not look like they could support anything, whereas mine is about the most supportive thing I own. :D

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

I heard they actually work quite well. Support in itself is not that much of an issue for me. It's more a problem of getting the shape right.

[quincy134.livejournal.com]

I found the gussets were slightly the wrong shape for me, and other people have found they aren't long enough. I'd use them and the placement more as a guide.

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

It's good to know I'm not the only one. At least it gave me a starting point.

[bauhausfrau.livejournal.com]

If you can buy or borrow a copy I'm pretty chesty and much prefered the Mode Bagatelle bodiced petticoat pattern.

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll give that one a try someday. For now, the Simplicity one was what I had at hand and could buy here without ordering from abroad. The fast and lazy way ;)

[jehanni.livejournal.com]

What I've heard is that when Sense & Sensibility sold her patterns to Simplicity, she emphasized that they are meant to be extremely close fitting in the bodice, and had been drafted that way--and that Simplicity re-drafted them with 3 inches of "ease" to fit modern conventions. Doh!

That said--and operating under that idea--I made the short stays recently, scaled up to fit my 43 DD-DDD chest. Since I have the luxury of a sewing group to discuss fit with, I brought my first, pretty much straight from the pattern, mock-up to Sewing, and had the group debate the fit. They recommended adding 2 inches to the center front opening, and 1 inch between the gussets, because the chest was not wide enough (originally both gussets fell to the outside of the nipple/bust point, and they're supposed to straddle it), and also adding about an inch and a half to the height, because of the muffins-on-a-platter effect. (I find most patterns for large-cup women add horizontal inches, but forget that they are covering a 3-D globe, and that the vertical dimension also needs inches: cantalopes are not just wider than grapefruits or tomatoes, they are "deeper", too).

I made up my second mock-up--and had to reduce the inches at the center front because the lacing holes overlapped this time, instead of butting, or leaving any gap. Oops! I also put in a drawstring false chemise front about 2 inches taller the top edge of the stays, to keep down the "waterfall effect" that sometimes happens (that vertical dimension again), and because I was in a hurry, put on a petticoat skirt so I didn't need a chemise at all.

The resulting stays work pretty well, but if I make them again, and I think I will make the bust gusset longer, and taper it in again a little at the top, to add to the containment properties. Not all of us are Regency sylphs.

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that was really helpful. I might very well go for the bodiced petticoat version.

[fiofiorina.livejournal.com]

Well - I bought the pattern for the "Empire-Picknick" Girls. The original S&S Pattern, not Simplicity. Fact is - Size 6 was elephant sized - I am a 6 - and there was no way they'd fit me. (I handed them down to a friend having 90C)
Then next try out - Nehelenia Patterns. Works for anything bigger then 85 - under: No Way. And mind the straps. Both, NP & S&S need to be adjusted.
I ended by recommending NP to the EP-Girls, and my stays are the basic Diderot-Pattern for 18th century stays, shortened, and then marked where I wanted gussets. Therefore - don't surrender if it doesn't work :-)

[green-martha.livejournal.com]

Thansk for the encouragement ! It really helps to know it's not just me being confused by the pattern, but the pattenr having issues, too.