Advice needed: I'm making stays from this Reconstructing History pattern: http://store.reconstructinghistory.com/rh711-1670s-1720s-stays.html. (http://store.reconstructinghistory.com/rh711-1670s-1720s-stays.html.) I find myself at a bit of a loss re: boning channel placement, and the pattern instructions are more concise on this point than I'd like. I know it's outside our period, but if anybody has any suggestions or resources to hand, I'd be super grateful.
The link didn't work for me, but I was able to navigate there from their home page. Did you see the slide show of the stays? It looks like you have some latitude, and the pictures (while small) do show off the boning pretty well. I would probably fully bone them (bones in every casing, all the way across, like this (http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL417/1033223/4707019/395086583.jpg), vs more sparsely arranged, like this (http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL417/1033223/4707019/260713176.jpg)), and from there it's kind of up to you. The gold damask ones appear to be boned diagonally, which I theoretically like; I like to imagine it gives a little more support to minimize slippage than straight up-and-down boning... although I honestly have no evidence to support (um) that! Like I said, it's just a feeling. ;) But the blue stays in the photos are boned vertically, and I honestly haven't noticed any issues with my corsets or kirtles with vertical-only boning.
Since the slide show photos are proprietary (ie, you can't isolate or zoom in on them), I would use your computer's Snip function to do a screen cap, and then save the photo & zoom in on it in your photo-editing software, so you can get a better idea of the boning placement. The picture of the back of the blue stays is particularly good.
Does that help?
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O10446/stays-and-busk-unknown/ (http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O10446/stays-and-busk-unknown/)
Here are the extant stays that pattern is based off of. There is a lot more detail in "Underwear Fashion In Deatil" put out by the V&A. I HIGHLY recommend the book. It deals with fashion from the 16th C on up and it's very, very useful.
That being said, nearly all the boning is vertical. It's very close together (see pictures) and is only horizontal across the top two inches of the stomacher/busk. The entire stays is boned, with each of the bones very close together.
Very helpful, ladies, thanks! I'm doing a lot of peering at the pics on the pattern order screen (all the while muttering and screwing up my forehead and trying to sketch things but failing because I can't draw), and I've done a ton of image searching, but I will def check out "Underwear Fashion in Detail."
I have occasionally run across images of modern reproductions with two channels of horizontal boning along the top of the bustline, sort of like a capital T, which I can't quite wrap my head around. Wouldn't that...I don't know, what would that do? I'd never even considered something like that.
However the pattern turns out, I will def be fully boning the stays. I'm actually making two, one for me and one for a friend as a sew-along/tutorial/"here let me show you what little I know of this craft," and I've already warned her that we'll be boning this thing until the end of time.
I think I'm just panicking a little because I'm unfamiliar with the pattern/period. But like I keep telling myself, it's for a Rococopunk group (I feel like pattern a little early to be strictly Rococo, but it's what I had to hand), and if it's not working out in the end, I can fix it with duct tape.
The two horizontal bars of boning in the front are stoppers. They help prevent the other bones in the busk area from pushing up and against the bias tape - and possibly breaking free. Instead, the lower bones push up against a piece of boning adding to the longevity of the stays. :D
Huh! I never thought of that. Obviously. :D Thanks!