All posts tagged: 1660s

A quick quilted petticoat for Ninon

I think the undergarments for Ninon’s dress are just fated to not be historically accurate. It’s a complete contrast to the dress, which is nitpickingly so. The problem is that there just isn’t enough research and evidence and extent 17th century undergarments, and I’m not willing to put a huge amount of effort into a garment that might not work. So I’m doing quick and dirty prototype undergarments to go with Ninon’s dress, and later, when I’ve worked out all the details, I’ll make proper historically plausible versions of them. For now though, quick and dirty will have to do. So for my quick and dirty skirt supports I made a quilted petticoat. We have lots of examples of quilted 18th century petticoats, and there are quite a few mentions of quilted petticoats in 17th century writings, so the idea is sound even if we don’t know exactly how they were constructed. For my petticoat I used a few metres of yellow polished cotton that I picked up cheap at an op shop (not that …

A simple shift for Ninon

Published by The Dreamstress

In order to give myself a break from the endless eyelets, I whipped up a shift to go under Ninon’s dress. Unlike the rest of the dress, I can’t claim historical accuracy with the shift. I couldn’t find enough resources on 17th century undergarments to feel that I could draft a pattern and construct a shift that would be accurate so I figured why bother with all the handsewing and expensive linen and other nitpicky details that go with accuracy? So my shift is cotton. (*gasp*) And almost entirely machine sewn. (*double gasp*) So, no, it’s not accurate, but I did try my best to do the proper research. My pattern is a mash of the two 17th c shift/chemise patterns I could find: the 1660s (but very old-fashioned for that date, so more like 1600) Catherine of Braganza shift in Patterns of Fashion 4, and a ca. 1700 shift depicted in Willet and Cunnington’s ‘The History of Underclothes’; as well as the standard 18th century shift pattern. I used the full sleeves and small …

Ninon’s dress: the back fastenings

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m working on the eyelet holes for the back of Ninon’s bodice and it is soooo boring, and quite hard work. Pushing the threads of a tightly woven duchesse silk satin and three layers of linen far enough apart to make a decent lacing hole takes a lot of effort. I considered a couple of options for how to construct the back and the back lacings, some of which might have been easier to do. My first idea was that I could make a hidden placket by wrapping the lining of the bodice from the back of the bodice over to the front, and then put the eyelet holes through that. Then I could fold back my satin fabric, and sew it over the eyelet holes in a placket to hide the lacing from the outside. This is basically what Katherine did with her 1660s bodice. I was tempted to do this because it would be easy, and (if it worked), would look very neat. But it doesn’t always work. And, more importantly, it’s not …