HSF 9: Black & White - white Natural form petticoat

What it is: petticoat
Fabric: white cotton with lace and pin tuck lattice pattern, plus some plain white cotton for the back.
Pattern: Truly Victorian 170: Victorian Petticoats, View 2: 1877-1882
Year: Natural Form era, around about 1880
Notions: polyester thread and 1/2" cotton twill tape ties.
How historically accurate is it?  Close enough.
Hours to complete: 4-5
Total cost: No idea as it was completely from the stash.

When I got done with the black accessories to complete the 1920s outfit, I thought that perhaps I could squeeze in a white project to round the challenge out.  Costume College is coming up this summer and they're doing an under dressed breakfast full of wrappers and banyans that I'd kind of like to have a tea gown for.  I've had the TV432 1882 Tea Gown pattern for a couple of years now and it's about time I get around to making one up.  I've also had this funky lacey pin tuck cotton taking up space for several years.  I've always thought that I'd make up a bustle era underskirt with it to show it off, but no project ever really materialized to use it.

Fast forward to last month when All The Pretty Dresses showcased a petticoat with extra eyelet decoration down the lower half of the center front that was most likely intended to be seen under an open wrapper and I had my Aha! moment.  (side note, if you're not already following this blog, the author is cataloging extrant garments that come up on auction sites so that the informtion that they provide can be available long after the auction has ended.  SUCH a resource.)

Cotton eyelet petticoat, American Civil War Era on All The Pretty Dresses

I had just enough of the material to do the front panel and a ruffle at the hemline.  The last back panel has a plain cotton upper piece with a couple rows of piping, then the botton half was the last odd rectangular shape of the laced/tucked fabric, since the tuckes helped give it body and the lower back half is where I want the fluff to be.  There is an eight inch slit in the center back waist that closes with a drawstring.  The drawstring doesn't go through the entire waistband, instead being cut in two pieces and anchoring at the side seams.  This way, the front panel will stay flat and any gathering will happen in the back.  It ended up quite sheer in the front, which I didn't notice until I broke out the flash photography.  I might have wanted to flatline that front panel, in retrospect.  Instead, I think I'll just make up another plain white petticoat to go under it.

Now I just need to pick a fabric from the stash to use for the tea gown and I'll be ready to roll.  I'm a little hesitant, beause the blue and cream floral linen blend that I was eyeing for the project doesn't seem like it would pair well with a pure white petticoat.  Any thoughts on the matter?  Should I tea stain or lightly dye the petticoat to get an off-white/ivory color, pick a white-friendly fabric for the tea gown, or just say screw it and wear white and ivory together like the rebel that I am?

HSF #4: Under it All - Petticoat for an 18th Century Court Gown

Next milestone in the 18th century court gown project is the petticoat.  Now, at first glance, the dress looks like it might have an open skirt on top of a petticoat of the same red fabric, with a bit of additional fur trim.  However, if you look closely at the far right hand hem of the dress, there's a small bit of something off white -ishsticking out there at the end.

Hmm... might have to find me a stuffed spotted dog to go with the costume.

The lovely people over on the Grand Ladies website where I first spotted this dress have hypothesized that it's a pale bit of petticoat sticking out and that, consequently, the fur-trimmed panel in the front is simply intended to create the illusion of a second petticoat underneath.  Now, I'm all about keeping it simple, and it seems that having the skirt be all one piece will not only save fabric, but also be easier to maneuver in. There's no worrying that the heavy fur will flip parts of the skirt open and look unsightly.

So, a pale petticoat it is.  I decided to keep it simple with this one and use what I had on hand.  I had eight yards of un-dyed dupioni silk left over from a cosplay project that never materialized, so I opted to use that.  Bonus points in that if I ever stop wearing this costume, I'll have large pieces of silk that I can tear out and dye to fit whatever the new project needs.  It's what they would have done back then.

On to the math.  My panniers have a 160" circumference at the bottom hoop.  For simplicity's sake, I'm going to pretend that's in a perfect circle for the next bit.  Working under the assumption that each additional petticoat is going to add 2" out from the body has worked well for me thus far in life.  If you'll remember from your geometry classes, the circumference of a circle is equal to 2πr, where r is the radius of the circle and π is Pi, (approximately 3.14).  So my pretend-it's-a-circle panniers would be have a radius of 160/2π, which is roughly equal to 25.5 inches.  Assuming that the ivory petticoat is going to stand out two inches from that, the petticoat would have a radius of 25.5 + 2 = 27.5 inches.  The circumference of this would be 2(3.14)(27.5) = 172.7 inches.

The fabric I have is 45" wide.  Assuming 1/2" seams, that leaves me with 44" of usable width per panel.  If I had 4 panels, then that would give me a circumference of 176 inches.  That sounds close enough to me.  So, four panels it is.  Now, how long should I cut those four panels of fabric?  I came across a couple of great tutorials from La Couturière Parisienne (excellent break down of the length requirements over different sizes of foundations) and The Fashionable Past (superb step-by-step instructions for the pleating that deals with all that extra fabric).  While the final dress was going to be floor length, I wanted to make sure that the petticoat was a good 2" shorter than that.  Keeping in mind that I'd be in 1" heels, and that another inch was going to get eaten up in the hem,  I decided on 44" for the raw length.  I'm trying to be careful about keeping track of the math now, because this is acting as the trial run for the outer skirt.

I used machine stitching to assemble the panels and attach them to the waist band, then hand stitching to finish the hem, waist ties and the top of the side pleats.  The lengthwise seams were pressed open and the selvages left as is.  Openings were left on each side to access the pockets, and these seams were turned under twice and finished with a running back stitch.  The hem took about 3 hours of hand sewing to do, but it was a simple stitch and kind of meditative.  I figure that some people can spend 3 hours watching tv in a single night, so I don't consider that time wasted at all.

From the front.  You can still see a bit of hoop showing through, but the pleats stacking up on the ends should offer enough cushioning where I'll need it.  I'll wait and see how the fashion fabric drapes over it before I decide if I need to make another petticoat to go under this one.  It's hard to tell from this angle, but my friend crawled around on the floor and assured me that there's about a hand's width gap between the hem and the floor.

Side view.  While it't not quite as narrow a depth as historical references, neither am I.  So I'll call this good.

And THAT is how I plan to get through doors in this costume.  Will just have to make sure that the chemise is long enough to provide some modesty in the elevator.

Just the facts
What the items is: petticoat for an 18th century court gown
The Challenge: Under it All
Fabric: ~ 5 yards of un-dyed silk dupioni
Pattern: La Couturière Parisienne and The Fashionable Past
Year: 1770s
Notions: poly thread for the panel assembly, gold silk thread for the hem, un-dyed rayon ribbon for the waise binding and ties
How historically accurate is it? 9/10
Hours to complete: 6, about half of which was spent hand-sewing the hem
Total cost: $55 US

HSF #24 Redo, Part the First: Literature and a late 18th Century Linen Petticoat

From out Challenger: This one is super easy. Pick any previous challenge and re-do it (or do it for the first time).


There are a couple of challenges that I missed along the way, and I'm using this challenge as a catch up to get them done.  First up is #10, Literature, which was originally due May 20th.

Fabric: 3 yards of 54" wide 4.7 oz weight linen
Pattern: mostly followed Katherine's tutorial
Year: mid- to late- 18th century
Notions: polyester thread, cotton twill tape for ties
How historically accurate is it? 9/10
Hours to complete: 3
First worn: over a pair of jeans so I could run into my honey's office and say "Look what I did!"
Total cost: fabric runs about $8/yd, so that plus notions, plus dye and we're up to about $32.

From our Challenger: In this challenge make something inspired by literature: whether you recreate a garment or accessory mentioned in a book, poem or play, or dress your favourite historical literary character as you imagine them.


I was reading through a copy of Sally Wister's Journal (available here), which is the account of a young woman living in New England in 1777/78.  I was terribly amused at the line : She is much mortified to have Captain Dandridge find her wearing her greenish "skirt and dark short gown.  Provoking."

I kept trying to think of what the late 18th century equivalent of the sweat pants and ratty tee shirt must have been and was inspired to add something along those lines to my own wardrobe.  I had three yards of purple linen leftover from my 1870s Linen Walking Skirt that I decided to bend to my will.  I wanted to avoid having multiple items in my wardrobe being too obviously out of the same material, so I hemmed up the raw edge and tossed the material into the wash with a stupid dose of bleach.  The dye came our fairly well, leaving me with a light mustardy looking cloth that I then dyed with an amalgamation of Dharma's Fiber Reactive Dyes in Avocado, Blueberry and Dark Green.  This resulted in a lovely spruce color.

Could not replicate this color again if I tried, which is sad, as it was very pretty.

I made a bit of an error in the cutting and ended up having to repair a bit right there in the center front.  I'm not too worried, though, as it just adds a bit of authenticity to this being my "around the house" clothes. 

The fabric being 54" wide, I simply cut the 3 yards into two panels with 12" piece left over for another day. The selvedge was used as my side seams, which mean no seam finishing necessary.  Combine that with machine sewing throughout and the whole thing went together rather quickly.

My intent was to use this petticoat as a foundation under the quilted petticoat, to give it a bit more oomph, but I love the color so much, I may end up switching them around from time to time.   As such I left the hem on this a little long, so that I can wear it higher on the waist if it's an undergarment, or down low if it's meant to be seen.