18th Century Underpinnings

I started my adventure in sewing historic fashions almost a year ago. I sewed a shift and under petticoat early on and then got stuck on the stays, an essential garment for getting the proper silhouette. I finally let myself sew the boning channels of my first set of stays by machine and now I finally have my underpinnings done. Under the cut you'll find details about my process for making each of the different layers for my 18th century undergarments.

The Shift:

 This was the first 18th century garment I made. I used the excellent instructions and research provided by Sharon Burnston. Since this was my first project, I did do some things wrong and would like to make a new shift at some point with all that I've learned but since it also will hardly be seen, I'm getting other things done first. I made the neckline a little too large so have threaded a thin drawstring through it to pull it in a bit. That's one of many small things I'll do differently when I make a second one.

The Under-petticoat:

My second project, I followed the instructions from The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking to make a basic under-petticoat from cotton matelasse. This was pretty quick and easy to put together. I am considering shortening it slightly just to make sure it doesn't show beneath any of my future outfits. 

The Stays:

After looking at a few different stays patterns, I settled on the front and back lacing stays from Larkin and Smith. These would allow for more ease of dressing with the front laces and more adjustment for weight gain and loss. This is an excellent pattern with very detailed instructions that I would highly recommend to anyone. However, even though it is a good pattern, it required a lot of alterations before it fit me properly. I made three mock ups before the fit was satisfactory:

As you can see, the pattern was far too short for my extremely long torso straight out of the envelop. I added nearly three inches to the length without any other changes, but this resulted in the fit around the bust being too tight. I added a bit of width on the front panels under the arms and this left me with a good fit. I got a lot of feedback from the wonderful 18th century swing groups on Facebook to help get my stays where I wanted them to be! Doing a mock-up (or two...or three!) is essential when making stays. They require so much hard work, so don't waste your hard work on something that won't fit you right!

After figuring out my pattern, I started sewing a set of stays completely by hand. I got the stomacher done and then let it sit for a long time. I finally decided that if I were to get a set of stays done in any sort of timely manner that I should allow myself to sew the boning channels by machine. Once I did this the stays started coming together relatively quickly, though there was still a lot of difficult hand work. I started sewing the binding on with a regular needle, not really paying attention to the instructions to use a glover's needle if using leather. Use a glover's needle. I got one part way through the process and it makes a HUGE difference in how easy it is to sew on the leather binding.

These stays are made from a cotton blend damask lined with linen with coutil for the middle layers. Coutil is not a HA material for stays, but I personally prefer it for corsetry and no one is going to see it anyway! They have 1/4 inch artificial whale bone for the boning, are bound with white goat leather, and have cotton cording for the laces. 

The Bum Pad:

For my first dress I made a bum pad based on the one from Simplicity 8162. I made it from a medium weight natural linen and sewed it by hand rather than following the pattern instructions. I will also make a false rump and pocket hoops in the future, but those are not necessary for the first dress I have in mind.

The Pockets:

I love the look of embroidered pockets and would love to embroider my own eventually, but I wanted to get to making my dress sooner rather than later. While looking for vintage linens to make a pretty apron, I noticed that many table runners I was seeing had U shaped designs on either end that seemed perfect for making pockets. I purchased a vintage hand embroidered table runner on etsy and drafted a pocket pattern to fit around the embroidery based on the dimensions of the one in Patterns of Fashion I. I'll have a tutorial for making your own pocket out of vintage linens soon!

The Petticoat:

I made a simple petticoat from white linen to fit over the bum pad. I followed the instructions from Koshka the Cat for making sure it fit properly over my padding. These instructions make it easy to have an even hemline over any type of padding or structural undergarment.