Undergarment – Fashion Through Herstory

Qvilted Purple Petticoat

Published on December 25, 2016December 26, 2016 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

Once my Elizabeth I dress was finished, it was time to get some good photos of the outfit.

The night before the photoshoot I pulled out all the things needed (stockings, shoes, hairpins, and so on) when I noticed my green quilted petticoat was no where to be found.
After some searching I suddenly realized – It (amongst lots of other stuff) was currently on loan to Ekenäs castle as part of an exhibition.

Crap!

And I didn’t own anything to get even close to the bounciness it provided to my skirts.
And the Elizabethan gown REALLY needed some serious bounce…

Dubble crap!

So what’s a girl to do?

Make another one of course!

Thankfully they are not that hard to make, and since I actually had planned to make a second one a while back, so the needed material was already waiting in my “to make” pile.

A pre-quilted bedspread bought cheep at a big dollar store.
bild

The facts:

What: A Quilted petticoat aprox 1500-1900
used in the past for warmt and skirt support (to get the fashionable shape)

Pattern: None – It’s basically a rectangle pleated to a waistband.

Fabric & Notions: One pre-quilted Bedspread, thread, 0.3m cotton scraps, hooks and eyes.

Time & Costs: About 3 hours and 100 sek (12 Usd)

Final thoughts: This is such a nice and fast piece to make, and even though it’s not as sturdy as my green petticoat I really like the shape it gives. Plus it will aslo work as a skirt worn with a 18th century jacket or Anglaise.

A 1700s Corset UFO

Published on December 10, 2013December 10, 2013 by fashionthrougherstory3 Comments

And so it’s time to present the last (of my old, prevously compleated) HSF entrys. The Challenge nr 2: UFO – Un Finished Object.

As a novice in costuming I didn’t had many UFOs laying around. But I did however have a costuming piece, not yet started but, promised to my sister.

A 1700s corset.

I’ve already made her one in the previuos year, but it was noting but a mess. Lets take a look at my very first atempt at historic corset making.

I used a pattern from Jill Salens book “Corsets”.

The fabric is a lovely cotton print (which I still love, by the way).

I even made her a design sketch.

Then I started to sew.

And this is what I came up with.

Ok, its not that bad for a first try- if you ignore the gromets.

It acctualy look pretty decent…

Until you realises how extremly smal it is.It wouldn’t even fit my size 36 dressform.

My sister is not particular big, and even after some serious skwezing the darn thing still didn’t fit her.

We did get some pretty picture though.

And the minute we where done photograping, the whole thing whent straight into a box in the basement.

The pocket hoops are made from Waughs pattern and still works perfectly.

***

Now back to the UFO.

After I’ve promised my sister to make her an other corset, that would actualy fit her.

We trashed the old pattern, starting from skratch, and drew her a new one using Waugs “Corset and Crinolines” – 1790s corset pattern, and modified to fit my sister. I also took away the front lacing, and added tabs at the waist.

So I made a toile, fitted it and started on the corset itself. Since me and my sister lives in oposite sides of the country I didn’t have the chans to try it on her until it was finished.

Looking much better.

But it is still to smal!

This time I fixed it by ripping it open and inserting some godgets at the back seams.

The finished corset.

Just the facts:

Challenge: nr 2 – UFO

What: A 1740-1780s corset

Pattern: Jill Salen “Corsets – 1780s corset” re-worked.

Fabric: 0,5 m of cotton print and 1m of white cotton lawn.

Notions: gromets, thread, lacing cord, cable ties and purple bias tape.

How Historical Accurate: Not really. The decorative printed corsets didn’t exist until 200 years later, and the sewing and construction are all modern. It does however give her the desired body shape. So maybe 2/10.

Time: 25 hours.

Cost: 200 Sek

First worn: At the photoshoot in february 2013.

16th century Corset & Shirt

Published on November 26, 2013December 8, 2013 by fashionthrougherstoryLeave a comment

For the HSF Challenge 3: Under It All, back in february, I decided to start the foundation on my planed 1550s dress (which I still haven’t gotten around to make).

So I decided to make a corset similar to theese two.

Using the corset pattern from “The Tudor Tailor”. I printed the pattern and made some changes to match my mesurments.

Then I cut the fabric, interlined it, and stiched the corset compleatly on the machine. I inserted the bonning, set the gromets and sewed on the bias-tape.

Unfortanly I didn’t think of documenting the steps while sewing (this was before my bloging days) so there are no construction photos.

But there are finished ones.

One thing I didn’t accounted for was the amount of fabric the bonning would “eat”. While inserting the bonning the corset shrunk quite a bit, and I ended up needing to do some piecing to make it fit properly.

When the corset was finished I decided to also make a shirt to wear underneath.

I used a lovely cotton voile, and sewed the shirt compleatly by hand (and still didn’t take any construction photos).

Finished Shirt and Corset.

Just the facts:

Challenge: Nr 3 Under it All

What: A 1550s Corset and Shirt

Pattern: Shirt – Janet Arnold “Patterns of Fashion 4 – c.1600-1610 smock. Corset – “The Tudor tailor” Dorothean bodies.

Fabric: Shirt – 2 m of checkered cotton voile. Corset – 0,5 m of leftover golden/yellow curtan-fabric, 1 m brown cotton for lining and interlining.

Notions: Shirt – Thread. Corset – Thread, Bias-tape, gromets, boning and lacing cord.

How Historical Accurate: Shirt – Completly hand sewn, but the cotton tread and fabric is not correct for the period. Corset – Not realy. The achived shape is just about right, but all the sewing and material is modern.

Time: Shirt – about 8 hours. Corset – 3 Days of work.

Cost: Shirt – 150Sek (16Usd). Corset – 300 Sek (40Usd).

First worn: Only at photoshoots so far.