I had a petticoat and combinations for the period already, but since this was an event planned for outdoors, in the Philadelphia area, in August...I wanted to keep everything as lightweight as possible. The aforementioned petticoat and combies were made to wear outdoors in February, so they were a little bit on the warmer side...
I made my chemise and drawers from linen, because I've been costuming long enough now that I've found firsthand how much better linen wears than cotton. Like, it really is worth the higher cost of the linen fabric if you plan to keep wearing your costume bits intermittently for a decade (which is the kind of wear mine get). I'm still perfectly happy to make petticoats from cotton, but body linens? Linen. (And yes, this is one instance where I completely disregard what they did in the period - at some point during the 19thc there's a switch to mostly cotton for chemises &tc...but I don't care. Linen for me, thank you.)
It's trimmed with VERY cheap cotton lace. Kind of ugly, but it works well enough. And I got enough of it to trim the chemise and drawers for about $10. I'm happy to pay for nice lace when it's visible...but this isn't visible. I wouldn't even bother trimming it, except that if you go by period adverts it must have been illegal to have untrimmed underwear, LOL. (It's ALL TRIMMED or embellished or has insertion or...all of the above.)
I did use the 1901 drawers patterns from Voice of Fashion, and actually scaled them up properly, with the little rulers and everything. It's like connect-the-dots...it's fun! Ish. They're entertainingly dumpy sans trim:
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Sad pants. |
Well, the hem lace is cheapo; the insertion is English from an ebay lot. Cheap in price but much less so in quality!
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Yes, split drawers. The split's less obvious when I wear them, but Mabel and I are built a little bit differently in that regard. |
After the corset comes the corset cover and petticoat. This manner of dressing is not the be-all-and-end-all, by the way. This is just how I chose to do it for this outfit! You'll also see combinations and princess petticoats as well as waist petticoats, chemises, drawers, and corset covers - it's all according to individual preference.
My corset cover is...a nightgown from Amazon. Yes, really. If you're not too picky about it all being nicely finished in a period-correct way, you can find a pretty nice selection of Edwardian-ish underwear pieces in the grandma nightgown section!
I made sure to find one that had buttons in the front so I wouldn't even have to put those in - just cut it off at the waist, fit it a little more closely at the side seams, take a hunk out of the CB because it was still too roomy, and gather it in a little more at the waist. Being nightgowns, they tend to be generous with the fit. If I wanted it for a chemise though, it would have been perfect as-is.
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Bonus: I never would have had the patience to do a million actual pintucks on a corset cover. |
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Fit around the neck and shoulders isn't perfect but...it's a corset cover. I am fine with this. |
Ebay to the rescue! Did you know that you can find a turn-of-the-century petticoat with very little trouble on there? The right combination of shape (straighter 'teens ones seem to be more common), size, and price can be a little trickier, but I got mine for $30, with shipping.
An aside: your mileage may vary as to whether you want to wear an antique. This particular petticoat is in worn but sturdy shape - I wasn't afraid I'd tear it with a day of normal wear, but it isn't in such pristine shape that I feel guilty about desecrating it, as it's got a few small holes, darns, and rust spots (that mostly came out after a soak in an Orvus bath). It's certainly not museum-collection quality, and it's got no provenance to make it interesting to anybody in a more local museum-type setting. So...I guess I'd rather it get some more wear as a petticoat than be cut up into somebody's craft project?
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Besides, I couldn't buy the lace alone for the price of the whole thing, if I were recreating it with new supplies! |
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It does not fasten on Mabel. Mabel is a pudge. |
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These are the worst of the holes in the petticoat. I'll darn them (badly) before I wear it again, but they didn't compromise the structural integrity or anything. |
This is the hem of the petticoat, underneath the flounce: the corners of two gores are pieced in, and there is a 4" piece of mismatched lace, I assume because the maker ran out of the first lace 4" from the end! A woman after my own heart. Sewing sister from 120 years before this time, I salute you!
(For every apparently perfect museum piece, there is a petticoat with a piece of different lace in the hem. Another reminder to stop beating ourselves up when our clothes aren't 100% perfect...theirs weren't, either.)
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