PART 2: Follow along as I draft a pattern for 18th century stays || #ArcMethod #PatternsofFashion5
Channel: Timesmith Dress History
Date: 2022-08-07

Welcome to Part 2 of my 3-part series showing how I draft patterns for 18th century stays. 

I use the ‘arc method’ published in "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).

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

In Part 1 of this series, I covered 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). You can find that video here:  https://youtu.be/0gAV3aIZSpE

In this video (Part 2), you can follow along as I finish the basic block; then draft all the pattern pieces according to the shapes of this style of stays. This video ends with FINAL REVEAL OF THE MASTER PATTERN!

In Part 3, I will show you how I take that master pattern and convert 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.

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 another outlets e.g. Amazon or book stores.

Drafting stays patterns for other people using the arc method – exactly as you see in this video series -- is a service I offer over on my website: https://www.timesmith.co.uk/custom-pattern-drafting/p/stays 

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To navigate to specific sections in this video, simply click on the segments in the progress bar of the video, above. Here is a list of the timestamps for these "chapters":

00:00:00 Intro 
00:02:40 deciding where to draw final arc to map length of skirts
00:10:07 drawing the final arc – bottom of skirts
00:16:10 drawing seam A
00:20:24 drawing seam C between the back and side back panels
00:23:33 approach to drawing seam B
00:24:14 Part 1 cliffhanger solved! Correction to width of the back
00:26:21 re-apportioning the back and re-drawing seam C
00:27:35 …now we can draw seam B – except we end up re-assessing armscye and re-drawing seam C (again!)
00:39:54 approach to drawing darts
00:41:54 plotting how much each dart needs to deviate from straight lines drawn through seam lines
00:45:50 drawing the front peak
00:56:46 drawing the front peak
01:07:28 final check of the pattern
01:08:47 final reveal of completed master pattern
01:08:55 what’s still to come in part 3?

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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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