Things I learned at Costume College Part 1

So one of the classes that I took at Costume College was 18th Century Petticoats and Aprons.  Now I've made a few petticoats (corded and otherwise) but even with all my reading and looking at photos of extant garments, I knew I was missing something.  To be HA (which I'm not normally super concerned with) you use natural fiber fabric in linen, wool, silk, or even cotton and you hand stitch it.  I usually end up machine stitching at least parts of my garments (and I did with this one.)  The hems are ferreted (sp?).  Below is my best definition of "ferreting".

"To ferret the hem" was new terminology to me.  I looked it up on Google and all the old sewing books I had to no avail - even Wikipedia couldn't help. Ferreting is a technique when you sew linen tape or bias tape to the right side of the fabric with about an 1/8 of an inch seam.  Then you wrap the tape to the underside of the fabric - leaving just a hint showing at the hem and sew it down.  In the 18th Century this would protect the hem from wear....

 Here is my first attempt.

I used button hole stitches along the bottom of the side slits.

Look at the white peeping out!  That's the tape!  It protects the hem and helps it stand out a bit!

18th C petticoats are tied on in two halves.  This one is short enough to be a petticoat.

Quilted petticoat aka HSF #9

A couple of years ago I started purchasing fabric for a Georgian/Colonial American dress.  Then while at Walmart (I know, but they have very inexpensive mirrors in the fall) I saw this quilt in the store.  I picked up a King size and put it away to be sewn another day.  I thought it would be perfect for the flora and fauna challenge.  I love the colors and it seemed an easy project.

After doing some internet research, I found that most quilted petticoats are between 90" and 100" if worn without supports and can get up to 120" if worn over hoops.  Since most of my opportunities to wear costumes are in the Bay Area (a 45 minute drive at a minimum), I decided to make a 100" petticoat so that I could wear it under several eras worth of skirts and STILL fit in a car.

I made it in the 18th century skirt method where you build from the hem up and have two halves that tie around your waist.  This allowed me to keep the scallops as the skirt hem.  Taking my handy waist to floor measurement chart, I measured the quilt 45 inches up from the scallops to mark my cutting line.  Then was the more trying/time consuming part - although not NEARLY as time consuming as quilting it myself.  I took out the batting where I would be putting the seam (one - Center Back) and the waist tape (two inches all the way around)  I took out stitches and batting in sections and ended up varying the depth so that around the waist I didn't pull out partial designs.

I apologize, but I don't have a corset for this era yet.

With bustle/bum pad

Without bustle/bum pad

Front

The Challenge: Flora & Fauna

Fabric: Quilted bedspread

Pattern: none

Year: 18th century

Notions:thread, patience and 1" twill tape

How historically accurate is it? Its a modern quilt with a machined quilting design, but its 95% natural fibers and hand stitched.

Hours to complete:4 hours or so.  Most of which was pulling out batting around the seams.

First worn: For photo

Total cost: $20-$40

Alice in Wonderland's petticoat

One of the things Victoria needed to complete her Alice costume properly was a hooped petticoat.  Last year we were able to get by with a square dance petticoat with a muslin petticoat over it.  It worked for shape but Victoria had a tendency to get hot. One of the things I wanted to do was make her a hooped petticoat.  Now unfortunately for costume folks,  girls hooped petticoats are seldom sold and if they are they are quite expensive.  Muslin isn't expensive at all and the hoop wire was about $30 with shipping and I used 1/2 inch bias for the channels.  If you think this is a little much for a little girls dress, I'd like to remind you that girls dresses had the same circumference as the adult dresses.  The Alice costume is 120 inches.  There are four bones measureing 55, 75, 86 and 90.  We really just played with the sizes a bit until we got the silhouette we wanted.  The skirt is just under 18 inches long  and has a drawstring waist.

 

We will add a petticoat over it to smooth the lines but I'm really happy with the shape!

Dicken's Fair Costume Approved!

My Dicken's Fair costume has been approved.  Yippee!   

So the long and the short of making it.

The Skirt.
The skirt is actually 7 panels (gored) using the skirt pattern from Butterick 6196.  The regular pattern only uses 5 panels, but I added two when I bustled the skirt a few years ago.  I re-hemmed it so that it sits a few inches off the floor.  I just pleated the into a waist band and added a placket.  I made the skirt large enough to wear with or without a corset.

The Bodice.
The bodice is made using the lining pattern from TV456.  I used the upper sleeve pattern to make a pattern for the sleeve.  I did the math for the cuff as I wanted to be able to slip my hand through the cuff and not have to fasten it.

The Shawl.
Hand crocheted from about 5 skeins of gray lambswool blend.  Its big enough and basic enough to be used for several centuries of costumes.

The Tucker.
That would be the white blouse part in the close-up.  I went shopping at the thrift store for a blouse that closed around me neck and had pretty embroidery.  It cost about $4 at the thrift shop.

The Underthings.
The corset I've talked blogged about before here.
I also wore the corded petticoat and the cartridge pleated petticoat.

The Bonnet needs to be embellished but I'm very excited!

cartridge pleating

Otherwise known as the method that uses up massive amounts of fabric (thus helping the weaving industry), cartridge pleating is kind of fun on the hand sewing scale.  Fun because once you figure out your pattern of pleats, you can just go to town.

I made the skirt out of 20 yards of india cotton.  I followed the instructions on this website. http://www.reconstructinghistory.com/blog/how-to-cartridge-pleating

I really liked the formula for figuring out how many yards of fabric you needed.

There are others with similar information, I just liked how this one was laid out for me.

It *only* took a couple of evenings to do once the fabric had been washed and pressed.  Some variations of instructions recommend adding a layer of felt or thicker fabric at the top hem (where you are making the pleat).  The idea is to sandwich it between the fold of the skirt fabric so that you have a thicker and stiffer bit right at the hips.  I think I'll try that with the Italian dress I'm making.  I'm guessing (an educated guess) that it will make me use less fabric which is awesome as I only have 10 yards to begin with...

 So one of the websites called cartridge pleating instant hips.  Here is the skirt on Mrs.Weasley.  I can't wait to see it on me in a corset...

The lovely partlet btw, is a find from the costumer's sale.

As you can see it hangs just below my corded petticoat, so I won't have to worry about short skirts!  I'm also hoping to use this combination under my Victorian work dress...  We'll have to see what the costume lords at Dicken's say...

Corded Petticoat

So in all my excitement, I decided that I wanted to make a corded petticoat.  I would like to have my skirts stand out a bit in Victorian work clothes and my understanding after some research is that this should do the trick.  I've decided to follow the Recipe for a Corded Petticoat (author Drea Leed copyright 1997-2010) and Lisa's tips for a corded petticoat.  After all - why blast my own road through the wilderness when someone has gone through all the trouble of paving one for me?

My Kitten - Mal

I am planning on making alterations to the instructions.  My hope is to have a skirt where the cording starts 1/3 of the way down (just below hip level) at approximately 2 or so inches apart.  At around knee level I want to have the cords get closer and at about calf level I want them to be closest.

I am using 45" wide white pre-washed muslin and 1/4 inch cording.

I've started constructing my skirt by sewing up both sides of the skirt leaving approximately 8 inches at the top loose for the gap.  As I'm working I'm merging the two instructions and will make appropriate notes below.

1. I do not think it advisable to make the skirt with "shaped pieces".  The rectangles seem to work well because it is easy to put in the cording.  Shaped pieces just seem harder to me. (shrug - it just how I feel)
2. The two panels seem to make a skirt that is just under 90 inches in circumference.  Lisa wanted hers to be larger and added a panel.
3. After the first few rows are in (at 1.5" apart) I feel that I would like to have started adding the cording from the top.
4. Because I tend to fluctuate in size some and (more importantly) want some leway in how tight I lace I plan on either adding ties or adding lacing holes to the side.
5. I have determined that (from the bottom up):  The first 10 inches should be 1.5 inches - from 10 to 16 should be 2 inches and from 16 to 24 should be 2.5 or 3?
6. Important details (especially for those who don't sew A LOT)
1. The waistband of your skirt needs to be the same size that you corset down to or slightly smaller.
2. You will divide the corseted waist measurement in half - half will be the front waist band half will be the back.



Drying in the sun.

3. DO NOT forget to add ties at the waist.  I used muslin for the waist band and ribbons for the ties.  And for gods sake please make sure they are long enough to tie around your waist.
7. For length, I had my daughter measure my waist to floor on the front side and back.  I subtracted how high I want the hem to sit and then cut the excess from the waist. I created a waist band out of the excess fabric.
8. When it was time to add the larger cording to the bottom hem, I realized that since I'm not using the same size cording as the recipe that I "should" have left more room at the bottom hem.  My easy fix (recommended by a costumer friend) is to encase the larger cording in the same fabric and just add it to the bottom.  I'm thinking of using a french seam to add it on to keep in practice.

Sources:
 Leed, Drea. Recipe for a Corded Petticoat ©2010 Dayton, OH: Author. Retrieved July 27 2011 from the World Wide Web: http://www.elizabethancostume.net/cordpett.html