All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

Experiments in ca. 1800 petticoat making

A part of my Jane-Austen sewing-a-thon* I decided it was finally time I made a proper set of Regency petticoats, and stopped just using my 1910s petticoats, pulled up to the underbust and pinned in place! The first dress that needed a petticoat was the ca. 1800 Madame Recamier gown. It’s sheer, so it definitely needs a petticoat. It’s also flat fronted, so the petticoat can’t have any front gathers, or it won’t sit smoothly over it. The Madame Recamier gown is based on the ca 1800 bib-front dress in Janet Arnold, and the skirt panels are rectangles – no angles at all. I went looking for extant examples, period mentions, and period images, and quickly ran into a problem. There aren’t many of any of those. There is this 1799 caricature, which mostly shows drawers worn without petticoats, though the woman having her stockings pinned up appears to be holding up a pink petticoat with no bodice, and the woman at the far right appears to be wearing a blue un-bodiced petticoat. Neither tells …

1917 combinations and petti-slips thedreamstress.com

Combination-a-thon, or how I came to have more wearable combinations than anyone else alive in 2017…

Published by The Dreamstress

When I was planning my wardrobe for the Fortnight in 1916 I knew I needed lots of combinations to wear under corsets: enough to have a reasonable week’s wearing before I did laundry. I was using Wearing History’s fantastic 1917 combination pattern. Mid-1910s combinations are serious fabric hogs, so I rummaged around in my stack of vintage sheets, and unearthed half-a-dozen of the thinnest and most seamed. On my first round of cutting I cut out three, carefully folded them all in one parcel, and set them aside for sewing. (who can guess where this is going?) The next night I cut out another 4, which would give me 8 in total (I already had a completed one): near the upper end of what my research suggested was a normal amount of first-layer undergarments for a middle class woman to have in any single season. A few days later I sat down to sew all the combinations. My first three? Nowhere to be found! Determined searching and re-organising failed to unearth them, so I persevered …

Scroop Skirt slip tutorial thedreamstress.com

Tutorial: How to make a skirt slip from the Scroop Wonder Unders Dress Slip (the super-easy way)

Published by The Dreamstress

The Scroop Wonder Unders Knickers, Singlet Camisole & Slip pattern doesn’t come with a skirt slip piece, but it’s super easy to make a skirt slip from the pattern. Here’s the quick under-1-hour way to make a skirt slip from the pattern. Next week I’ll show you the fancy 2-hour lace edged, side slit version. Fabric & Pattern Size You’ll want to use the same type of fabric you use for the Scroop Singlet Camisole or Dress Slip. If you want to wear your skirt slip as an under-layer, you’ll need to pick a slippery, non-static stretch fabric, such as a lingerie tricot knit, or a stretch satin. Start with the Scroop Wonder Unders Singlet Camisole & Dress Slip pattern pieces: If you’re using a fabric with the same stretch as called for in the rest of the Scroop Wonder Unders pattern (30%-50% stretch in one directions (two-way stretch), or 25%-45% stretch in both directions (four-way stretch)) you can use the pattern in exactly the same size as you’d use it for the dress slip. …