1830s Skirt

My 1830s skirt is done. The fabric is soooo beautiful! It has little cords woven in to make the windowpane look, which have a way of coming out and becoming cat temptations when they do. The little squares are exactly 1/2" so that's helpful for cutting.

I bought some Kona cotton in a color called "Spice" for the lining, and flat lined the skirt panels using my serger. Not HA but it finishes the seams nicely and is easy. I cut the lining to the full width of my fabric (45") and then used the serger to match up the fabric panels, which are wider at 60". It has 3 45" panels with the front having a slight scoop in the center. The back two are just rectangles. It's going to be attached to the bodice, so I bound the upper edge with twill tape.

The extant image I'm copying looked like it had wide knife pleats in the back and box pleats in the front, and only 4-5 pleats per quarter skirt. It took a while to get it figured out, and then I realized I cut my twill tape 1" too short so had to take out all the pins and start over, but I figured it out. I couldn't get the box pleats to work out in the front with how much fabric I had to take in, so I just went with knife pleats all the way around.

It was definitely way too long, as this skirt is supposed to sit at ankle length. I find TV skirts tend to be long, and it did hurt to cut about 6" off the bottom. I'll save those ends to do the belt though. 

I also decided to add a hem facing using cotton organdy leftover from the corded petticoat. I cut the facing at 5" wide and sewed to the bottom edge, turned inside, and hemmed into place by hand. It took several hours to hand hem 135" of skirt!

Fiona for some reason is OBSESSED with this fabric and immediately crawled under the skirt when I put it on Petunia. Then when I put it on the ironing board for safekeeping, this is where I found her!

Here's a peek at the inside. I am super pleased how well the lining matches, even though it won't be seen. Look at that lovely blind hemming too! Hemming to a lining is easier though, because I don't have to worry about stitches showing on the right side. It's a huge skirt and it feels so floofy when worn!

1830s Undies!

I finally finished my stays and corded petticoat! I used the Historical Sewing corded petticoat workbook and did the facing method. The cotton organza I ordered was 59" wide so I went with 1.5 panels. It came out a bit shorter than I wanted due to the cording (workbook doesn't say to allow for this), but I'm happy with it. I also followed the American Duchess video tutorial and went with 10/32" cording for the bottom four rows, then 5/32" cording for the rest. It took several days to do because it is tedious as hell! And one of the rare sewing things where my long nails are actually useful, to push the cording in place. I wasn't super careful keeping my facing aligned to the outer petticoat at the seams and it shifted a bit, but I can live with it. Underwear after all!

These first 8 rows took me 1.5 hours to sew ... and you definitely want to make sure to keep a full bobbin before starting a group!

I was waiting to try the stays on me until I was done with the petticoat. Petunia has so far been very reliable with fitting things but I always hold my breath when I'm putting something on. Excuse the derpy look on my face, and this chemise will likely not be the final one. I also realized I had caught my front drawstring in my binding stitching so had to unpick and fix that, so one boob is gathered less than the other. They need a good iron as well.

Shocking how much the petticoat stands out even before starching! They recommend you dip the whole thing in starch and let it dry to keep it nice and full, and hopefully that will even out the dipping you can see on the left front.

Then I did the bodice mock-up. I had Benjie remeasure my back width and I'm glad I did, because I think it came out perfect. The darts in the front aren't pinned up yet but there's plenty of room for them, and I'll fit those on my body. Usually TV patterns are short on me but this one will be good, I think. Now I just have to figure out that crossover bodice front I want to do ... but I have some thoughts on how to execute it.