HSM 2018 #2: The Amazing Garsault Stays

My Garsault stays, worn over a working class shift and an
under-petticoat from a 1990s Ikea fabric based on an 18th
century print (sadly not in the authentic red/black colorway).

There are four amazing things about these stays:

• They fit me.
• They're done.
• I think it's a clever cut.
• The cut comes from a well-known book of the period—but has gone unnoticed in the costuming world anyway!

There are also some not at all amazing aspects, mostly because I've been cutting corners:

Continental stays 2: The Garsault stays pattern

M. de Garsault, Art du Tailleur
(1769), plate 12 (detail).
Source: gallica.bnf.fr / BnF.

The stays in Garsault's 1769 "Art du Tailleur" are of a very different cut compared to Diderot's 1771 pattern. Garsault's cut has a more comfortable fit in the lower back, and can be adjusted to improve bust support.

Garsault doesn't depict individual pattern pieces, but we can use his illustrations and written information to alter another pattern into his cut.

Continental stays 1: Diderot à la Waugh

Waugh's pattern in
Corsets and Crinolines, page 40.

Norah Waugh's classic book Corsets and Crinolines (1954, reprinted 1987) includes her "Pattern of stays from Diderot's L'Encyclopédie".

Comparing Diderot's plates to Waugh's pattern, I found that she'd not just resized it for real bodies, but also taken some liberties in redesigning the stays. Here, I'll describe some changes she made, and how they can be reversed for a more period accurate cut.