Follow along as I draft a pattern for 18th century stays || Arc method || Patterns of Fashion 5
Channel: Timesmith Dress History
Date: 2022-07-24

Welcome back to my channel! 

A few years ago, I uploaded a video showing my journey through drafting my very first stays pattern using the ‘arc method’ as published in of "Patterns of Fashion 5: The content, cut, construction and context of bodies, stays, hoops and rumps c.1595-1795" by Janet Arnold, Jenny Tiramani, Luca Costigliolo, Sebastien Passot, Armelle Lucas and Johannes Pietsch (The School of Historical Dress, London, 2018).

That video was heavily edited and did not include any tips or explanations about how to go about drafting in this way. 

This new video series does!  It covers the entire process of drafting a stays pattern using the arc method for someone else (not me), based on measurements that I took on her a few months earlier.  I have learned a lot about patterning, building and wearing stays in the past few years and in this series, I attempt to share as much of my process as possible, short of filming myself teaching a step-by-step tutorial with real students.

Part 1: drawing the basic body block (setting out all the aspects of length and circumference determined by the body measurements); mapping the curves (arcs) for the placement of bust, waist and high hip within the stays; and drawing the top line (centre front neckline and armscye). 

Part 2: finishing the basic block; then drafting all the pattern pieces according to the shapes of this style of stays. It ends with FINAL REVEAL OF THE MASTER PATTERN.  Here is the link to Part 2: 
https://youtu.be/cbKI0jPWfsg

Part 3: taking that master pattern and converting into pattern pieces that can be used for cutting out the fabrics to build the mock-up or final stays. BONUS: Photos of the mock-up that was made from the pattern! A link to Part 3 will be added as soon as upload is available. Here is the link to Part 3: http://tinyurl.com/s8kje7dx

The pattern I am drafting in this series is the fully boned, strapless stays on pages 100-103 of “Patterns of Fashion 5”, dated to the 1760s.

Why “Patterns of Fashion 5” is the essential resource about 18th century stays:

As well as documenting materials used in surviving stays, the book contains important key excerpts from the writings and drawings of Diderot, Garsault, Reisser and Bernhardt (of whom the latter three were staymakers) and sheds new light on how stays were built and worn in the period. The arc drafting methodology has been developed by Luca Costigliolo, based on his study of those writings, his own experiments in staymaking practices, and subsequent in-person workshop teaching experiences, in his aim to devise and perfect this process to consistently produce patterns that work on a wide variety of human bodies of all shapes and sizes.

You can purchase “Patterns of Fashion 5” only from The School of Historical Dress on its website: https://shop.theschoolofhistoricaldress.org.uk/product/patterns-of-fashion-5-the-content-cut-construction-and-context-of-bodies-stays-hoops-and-rumps-c-1595-1795. It is not available from any other outlet e.g. Amazon or book stores.

Drafting stays patterns for other people with the arc method – exactly as you see in this video series -- is a service I now offer via on my website (https://www.timesmith.co.uk/custom-pattern-drafting/p/stays). 
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Here are the timestamps for "chapters", to jump straight to a particular segment of the video:

0:00:00 Intro
0:04:16 Setting out bust and waist lines
0:25:21 Deciding where to draw the arcs
0:32:51 Drawing the bust and waist arcs
0:36:45 How arcs impact placement of center front & center back lines
0:43:29 Considering lengths of front and back peaks
0:46:14 Checking proportions of topline based on chest and back measures
0:48:31 Finalising front peak length
0:49:42 Finalising back peak length
0:51:00 Drawing the high hip arc
0:56:16 Shaping the topline

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ABOUT TIMESMITH DRESS HISTORY: 

I am Rebecca Olds, an independent scholar in the field of Dress History, specialising in original practice reconstruction of extant garments of the eighteenth century.

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