Welcome to 2025. Oh, it's almost 2026? And a digression on fitting into old costumes

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a costumer who insists on blogging rather than posting short-format videos will never get any traction. Not that I ever had any pretensions of being an influencer (they didn't call them that back in my day, you know). Me, I still prefer reading to videos. So here we are!

 

I haven't sewn much over the past year-plus, and nothing worth putting up here. However! Recently I went on a costume trip to Colonial Williamsburg. I didn't have the get-up-and-go to make any new outfits, but I did have one necessary make: new stays.

Reader, I started historical costuming in 2006. It is 2025. Most of my stays and corsets are from the 2010s. I was able to wear some of them for over ten years, which is what happens when you only wear your costumes on an occasional weekend. I had foundation garments from the mid-18thc through the early 20thc, for almost every era I wanted to do. This was very nice to have!

Reader, I am now in my late 30s. Do the math. I am no longer quite the shape or size I was in my 20s or even first half of my 30s. This is totally fine, except that I now no longer fit in much of my fairly copious costume wardrobe (hello, this blog exists for a reason). This is less fine.

Some historical eras are actually pretty forgiving of weight fluctuation. The closer you get to the 20th century and/or the more tailored the style, the less forgiving your clothes are, generally speaking.

18th century clothes are fairly forgiving. There is a point at which the stays stop being forgiving though! I'd already reached that point last year, and sold off all of my stays that weren't worn to death. Great! They'll live on in someone else's costume closet. However, 18thc gowns with fitted bodices are not wearable without stays.

So this is why I didn't have any new outfits for Williamsburg; I was making some nice new stays! Which I will post shortly.

2026 will have to be the year of new foundations though, as the only corsets/stays that still fit are probably my short Regency stays, my 1880s Redthreaded corset, and my 1840s corset (sort of).

So, stay tuned for either a bunch of new corsets and stays, or another whole lot of no blog posts! Could be either.