An 1820 - 30 era doll corset

I must apologize to all my Museum readers, as it does seem I have been rather preoccupied as of late, with dollys! Above tho, I think you will understand, and see the current outcome of the toil my fingers have endured these past few days! I have finished Grete's stays, or corset, and am really, very proud of them!

I made these entirely by hand, antique linen lining, antique c1860 polished cotton for the outer fabric....I embroidered them with a simple primitive flower motif, accented ever so slightly with little wee teensy 2mm antique m.o.p. sequins. The front and back is corded, with hand stitched eyelets at the back & shoulder strap closings. There is a busk pocket center front, with a real wooden busk within

Grete is very excited to have a decorated set of stays.....so many of her friends corsets would have been made like this, but stitched in matching threads. I once saw an original human sized corset, c1820, with this contrasting blue stitching, and always loved it so much....I just HAD to make Grete's with blue stitching.

I designed this corset after several I have seen in person....kind of a heinz-57 of all the different things I liked about each one......one thing I would like to note, if any of you should decide to make your own, is that when I first fit these pieces on Grete as lining and separate outer fabric, they both overlapped at center back....here you can see a good example of how things 'shrink' as you stitch them up, and especially when you cord something.

So many of you have emailed me and posted here that you would be interested in seeing how I made Grete's chemise~ so I will be putting that on the blog when I get a chance, perhaps tomorrow! I also have a wonderful post planned on 18th century writing~ so hope you'll check back!