Petticoats

When I first began working on this project, it was still winter, so my first petticoat is actually a sage green wool. However, it waits in storage for cold weather, and the petticoat I debuted was one of navy blue linen. It's back to cold weather again now, and I'm working on completing a gown at last (more on this elsewhere), so I pulled this petticoat back out. It hasn't been a full year, and already I've learned a few things that I need to change. I did make lovely, precise pleats, but they didn't reduce the amount of fabric down to actually fit my waist properly, leaving odd bunching at the sides. I also have discovered the necessity of a rump, and will be putting a new hem in this petticoat accordingly (also more on false rumps elsewhere). 

As a note, what we think of as a petticoat today is more akin to a slip than the petticoat of the 18th century. The petticoat was the exterior garment that a woman wore over her shift, stays, and underpetticoat, covering her lower half like what we would refer to today as a skirt. In the painting below, the women are wearing short jackets and gowns with their petticoats and crisp white aprons. You can see the colorful petticoats on the two women at left, as well as the flash of blue petticoat between the central figure's gown and apron.

Free Women of Color with Their Children and Servants in a Landscape (c. 1770-1796)

A petticoat is a fairly simple garment to make. Two one yard pieces of fabric sewn together at the sides (leaving openings to access the pockets!), and pleated to fit around the waist. Sew front and back to their respective waist ties, hem to the desired length, and voila! Petticoat. I used the pleating diagrams from American Duchess' Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking to create my petticoat. They use photographs, rather than drawings, which make for a much clearer visual for beginners to 18th century dressmaking skills. 

Pleats pinned in place

Sewing pleats to waistband. I did press the crease out, but I find that leaving it at the top makes for a quick and easy way to find center.

One of my assistants hard at work.

By the time I began to make real progress on my gown, the cooler weather was over. I decided to move forward on a summer working woman's ensemble, which meant trading wool for linen. I knew I wanted dark blue for my petticoat, and it took about a month of searching before I was able to get the perfect blue linen at (where else) Needle & Thread. I don't have any progress photos of it, but it was the same process as my woolen petticoat. 

I have since pulled my wool petticoat back out from storage, and found that I did a rather incomplete job of pleating it. I focused on the evenness of the pleats and ensuring they weren't too bulky, rather than pleating it down to fit my waist. It needed taken in a good six inches. With a little more experience under my belt, it took very little time to remove the waist tapes, re-pleat, and sew newer and nicer waist tapes on. I even did it all by hand again! The next step is properly hemming it to accommodate my false rump, a piece of the puzzle I did not have in place last fall when I first began.

Pinned and ready for replacement of waist ties.