underthings

CHEMISE OR SHIFT
The chemise was the essential undergarment to be worn under the corset and was the only garment which was actually washed - urrr! The sleeves can be made of another, more expensive fabric

To make this garment measure the length of your body and multiply by two, fold in half (the fold is the shoulder). Measure the length of your arms to just below the elbow from the shoulder and approximate a width, times by two. Find the centre point of the shoulder and cut a cross in material. Make a horizontal slit large enough for the head, then cut out arc shape.To get the correct sizing you will need to try it on with the dress,make the chanel for the drawstring.

It is simply a body and sleeves with two small squares folded in half to form a triangle. These are placed under the armpits with the point at the top. The two long triangles taken from the trimmmings of the body are sewn with the point at the top to widen the sides of the chemise. Sew the sleeves to the body then put in the two. Then put in the two long triangles cut from the body.these are cut from the body from the shoulder to the hem. Put the point uppermost and the wide part at the hem. I just used an old piece of cotton sheet here. This is a simple first garment to make.

POCKET HOOPS
The pocket hoops show here areaa lot harder as it took ages to figure out how it went together. I used wide, plastic boning strips to stiffen the legs.













REGENCY UNDERSKIRT in cotton with tab fastenings at shoulder. Very simple to make.

POCKETS
Pockets that tie around waist and are accessed through slit in dress, they
have slit running vertically in the fronts which are faced with bias tape

VICTORIAN DRAWS
Cotton fabric, buttons down front and has a shaped panel at the top to fit waist.

VICTORIAN TRAINED UNDERSKIRT
Red, cotton fabric. This underskirt has a waistband, button fastening to back and overlapping frills sewn to a base of the same material.

Long corset

The long corset I am making has 3 layers, 1 lining, 1 for stiffening in calico and an outer-casing of strong white linen.

THE PATTERN PIECES
The corset basically consists of 4 triangles at the bust (2 either side of the centre-front.) It has 2 hip-triangles (gussets.) After cutting out all the pieces three times (one top, one callico one lining) I made up the gussets by marking and turning the edges inside, trimming the callico by the amount of the turning so its smaller than the other two, then tacking this down, pressing, then sewing it to the slits cut out of the fabric, however after trying to sew the gusset on top of the outer shell it works better on the inside.it You then have the problem of the point which means you have to cut a v-shape out of the outer material to get a neat turning. I marked the positions with a blue,washable fabric pen. When sure it was correct I sewed the seam neatly in place.

BUSK
The 1800s busk would be wood and is 14in long and about the width of a ruler (not easy to bend forward.) The front seam has to fit the busk so this seam needs to be as wide as the busk plus the turning. All the seams are hand sewn from the outside. On the first attempt I tried to sew a box pleat to insert the busk as I had allowed enough material at the centre front but had problems getting it symetrical. In the end I had to make a strip of material and sew it on the outside to cover the centre seam which I don't think is strictly accurate still it did the job.

HAND CORDING
I used for the cord sizal garden string but cotton packing string also works.
The cording needs to be done before the corset pieces are sewn together or you will have problems with the side-seams. I tried these two methods:
A Sew the top fabric to the canvas
B Sew all the 3 pieces together at the same time.
If you do a running stitch with method a. you can then sew the 3rd layer on between the original running stitches.

I also tried sewing all the vertical seams of the corset together first and then adding the cording and then sewing them this didnt work well as the cords come to
the edge of each piece.

ADDING THE CORDS
Before sewing anything together work each piece separately. Draw the lines where the cording needs to be placed by transfering from the paper pattern. Mark the lines with a washable pen or tacking stitch. Secure the cord to the canvas by overstitching the cord to the fabric. Now pin the top fabric in place and tack the outside edges and with a few pins and a bit of practice you will be able to sew each side of the cord without it moving. Go back through the gaps of the running stitch to get a back-stitch.

CORSET EYELETS HAND-SEWN
You will need 5 metres of lacing for a long-corset as this saves time undoing a lot of lacing to get the stays on. You will need 2 sizes of knitting needles, a sharp pair of small nail scissors.
Sew two row of stitching one at the centre-back and add a cord and one next to it with another cord the other side. Make another line of stitching and a cord to go the other side of the lacing holes.
Mark the position of the holes.
Poke a small hole with the scissors.
Push through first the smallest needle, then the larger.
Trim off the warp and weft of the fabric by a few of threads.
Use a strong thick linen thread and sew around the hole. Open the hole up if necessary with the kbitting needle, pull the thread slightly as you sew.
NB over-sewing was used in this period instead of a button-hole stitch and I found it strong enough to do the job.

hats, bonnets and caps

These are a few hats/bonnets I have made.

Matching bonnet for 1830s dress

Cap for 1830s - no pattern made from cotton from an example in Stockport Hat museum

Hat for redingote














Tricorn hat, gold cord and feathers

1839 dress

MATERIALS
4 yards for skirt, I think about 6 or 7 yrd should do it.
Lace, calico, some braid for binding seams. fastening for back

FRONT BODICE These pieces were the most difficult as I had to cut it out 3 times and still don't think its quite right. This is caused by a)the cut-out darts that curve on one side it is best to leave the cutting out until you had got the sizing right. When enlarging the pattern it is hard to tell how to do so without altering the shape of the centre front v, These darts are much wider than modern ones, hense the need to trim the material to half an inch (too bulky to leave.) When finished trim all seams with braid to strengthen. Add a piece of boning encased in canvas and sew to centre-front seam. I think the darts carry on to taper off at the centre of the shoulder as it doen't fit right otherwise.

BACK BODICE consists of 2 curved side pieces and 2 centre-backs. These are easy to fit and sew and also require binding on seams.

SLEEVES Consist of 2 pieces. The top has 3 gathers, just above the elbow, held in place at the back with a rectangle of canvas sewn on with 3 rows of stitching, top,bottom and centre. This should be done before the sleeve is joined at the side or stitched in the arm-hole, or it's very tricky to handle there are two over-lapping layers of cotton lace stitched to two of the gathers on the sleeve. The sleeves alone took two hours each one! The bottom section is gathered to the top and flares out at the cuff.

COLLAR The collar is mounted on a piece of light-weight fabric with two darts at the under-bust in the bottom part. There is a left and right piece. Onto this piece of canvas is sewn strips of the dress fabric one and three-quarters wide folded in half lengthways max length 16ins. These are overlapped down this piece and then sewn into the centre-seam to join the two sides together and then into or on the shoulder seam. I also think the top is sewn to the back of the neckline and turned to the front.

LINING This is cut out at the same time as the top fabric an is sewn together so the raw edges are facing outside . This means that the bodice/top fabric will not move. The bodice/top fabric is attatched to the skirt by a strip of material or band cut to size and turened in top and bottom by half an inch after the bodice is attached to the skirt.

SKIRT Cut out this in cotton to match tne skirt. The top of the skirt is curves downwards because of the pointed front on the bodice.The hem-line is resting on the ankle. Sew the lining and the top section together. Attach the skirt by dividing into 4 and gathering each section separately. Unlendss you decide to pleat. Tack and sew onto the bodice through the 3 layers of fabric n.b trying to do this separately ends up with a too bulky waistline. On the right side sew braid to the seam to further strenghthen it. Try on the garment to measure the hem-line and sew it up.

BACK CLOSING Attach hooks and eyes to centre-back. It is difficult to get these strong enough or evenly spaced so it is best to make some hook and eye tape marking the distance equally between. Make the top ones half and inch down and the bottom the same distance. The hooks need to be a reasonably size or its fiddly to close.

The finished garment is quite heavy if the top fabric is not quite light-weight. The skirt/bodice pieces have to be attached very firmly or it will not stand up to much punishment. I still havn't got the bodice right because of the darts

1690s riding habit

Brocade Riding Jacket 1600s
Inspired by a painting
MATERIALS: pair of lined, brocade curtains. 10 buttons, iron on hemming tape. Hooks and eyes for skirt. Cushion cover, braid for collar. Cost £3.

THE JACKET
The jacket has a Narrow back which flares out at the bottom for pocket hoops. The fabric is brocade. There are two pocket flaps which can be accessed by a slit in the
coat. The jacket is lined. It has a stand-up collar which is decorated with braid.
The entire garment was hand-sewn. The matching skirt fastens at the back with
hooks and eyes and is otherwise left open for about 5 inches

Victoriana

VICTORIAN WALKING OUTFIT

Managed to get hold of a lot of black material with a slight sheen to it in a charity shop and bought some red lining to go with it - total cost £10. The skirt alone took up a lot of material as it has a 3 and a half yard hem! This with the lining makes it a pretty heavy item.

After upsizing the pattern to a length of 42 inches I cut out the pattern pieces which are:
One centre front piece cut on the fold from half a pattern
Two identical side pieces
Two identical back pieces.
n.b It seems to me that by altering the darts and size of pleats the size of the skirt could be altered by about an inch.
It would be an error here if you didn't cut the lining and top fabric EXACTLY THE SAME YOU CAN CUT THEM OUT TOGETHER. Cut all pieces the same way on the fabric so the stretch is at the sides you may be able to get some pieces out if you reverse them ie one top one bottom.

1. I started off by sewing all the top pieces together and then the lining pieces.
When I came to match them up though I had to cut them again as I hadn't made them IDENTICAL in size, allowing more for the seams on the top fabric than the lining. So I had to lay them on the pattern and trim to size. The main thing with this task is to get both seams the same so they match up when you put them together. I used a strip of paper half and inch wide to get a really accurate seam. The tacking was made more difficult because of the size and weight of the skirt so I had to lay the pieces flat on the table to tack them all together it also quite awkward to sew them because of this as well.

2. The next task is to place the lining inside the top layer with the seams together. Then tack the lining to the top fabric at the top.
Leave an opening 10in down the centre back seam. Next you need to do the plackets. Cut out one 4in wide the other 2in. Sew the larger onto the left-hand side and the the smaller on the other. This is the same as a trouser front before it has a zip inserted. Make sure you sew each piece to the same seam allowance as the centre back seam - i.e half an inch. Fold over the short piece to the back so you can only see the skirt material. Sew the other piece the same but leave it so it is all visable (this will overlap the short placket. Sew it down to the lining and neaten the bottom sewing both pieces together and folding over and sewing to the lining just below the centre seam.

Next sew the 2 darts evenly spaced by dividing the front piece of the skirt into 3 these dont need to be very big about half an inch or less in width. I sewed mine through the lining and top fabric though this may not be correct.

Add the pockets to the side-seams in lining fabric with 5in of top fabric sewn on the top part.

Make pleats in the back sections about 4in which will be about 1 and a half inches wide when folded over for a 29in waist. Check for size to your own waist measurements. Tack on and sew the waistband - this is your waist measurement plus the 2 in where the large placket is to be overlapped - I made the mistake of not allowing for this when cutting out the waistband. I tacked a piece of calico fabric to the inside of the waistband for extra strength one inch wide.

You can now fold the waistband over on the inside and over-sew it down mine I decided was 1 inch in width as 1 and a half looks too much. Neaten the two ends of the waistband and sew on two lots of hooks to hold it fast.

Now you need to sew up the hem. I dont quite know yet how far off the floor this is but I intend to do the lining and top fabric separately by hand (machine stitching would look unauthentic. Next Ill be onto the matching jacket.
I noticed that there is extra weight on the back because of the pleats and am not sure yet whether this will drag the material down.

VICTORIAN JACKET

As the large bolt of black fabric was enough for a matching jacket I started this project about 7 days ago and estimate it should take about 3 days more (20 hours total) Total cost £12

LEG-OF-MUTTON SLEEVES
The two-part sleeves are identical in design to those 100 years previous and closely resemble an actual leg of mutton in design (see 1700s jacket.) They are sewn together in pairs down each side and then gathered at the top n.b I started the gather 3 and a half inches in from the underarm seam, pure guesswork. What is different to modern design is that the lining of the sleeves is a different shape from the outer shell, the top of the lining pieces are not gathered but cut the same shape with a backwards c-shape curve at the top (back and fronts identical.
Research says that there can be a gathered frill sewn to the top on the inside of the outer sleeve to hold out the large puff-sleeve. Initially I thought the different lining was actually an alternative pattern so had to cut-down the "puff" part out of the one I'd made an error with.
Sleeves in the Victorian era varied in width at the top as fashion went up to massive proportions and then went smaller again.

SHOULDERS are still not at the top as in most modern bodice patterns but are not cut at such a sharp angle down the back as the 1700s. Thinking in the modern way I put them at the top of my tailor's dummy.s shoulders causing me to think the uppermost seam of the sleeve was making the puff top sag with the waight of its gathered top. This seam was actually about one and a half inches down the back.

The BACK is in one piece now and is no longer narrow as 1700s were and it has side-seams which are fitted to the figure. This time I allowed for the thickness of the undergarments and not exactly to my 34in bust measurement.

COLLAR The collar is cut as part of the front jacket but although the pattern had this part drawn on I thought I should cut it off so I then cut a large banana shape in black and then lining, sewed it together with an interfacing of calico turned it rightside out and then sandwiched it between the lining and top fabric. This worked but was obviously technically wrong and a lot harder to do.

HAND FINISHING
A lot of work is contained in the hand finishing, securing the lining to the top part at the sides, sleeves and shoulders and adding a braid to finish. At this point I realised that the lining being red I would have difficulty not letting these stitches show on the back facing. The cuffs and bottom of jacket need also to be hand-finished and the hem of the jacket also. Luckily there are no buttons or hooks and eyes as the jacket doesnt fasten shut.

BUSTLE DRESS
Dress parts 14 in all: 2 narrow backs, 2 fronts, 2 pieces for side, 2 further pieces . (2x2), 1 placket to be pleated top and bottom and buttoned to the fronts,
4 skirtto meet at back (2x2). Apron front. 4 sleeves, 4 fitted undersleeves, 2 wider oversleeves gathered at tops.

The pattern needs to be half an inch wider on each piece and an inch to the length to fit a size 10.

PLASTRON
The centre piece is called the PLASTRON and this is by far the hardest piece and needs a detailed description.
It is best done in an alternate fabric in this case a pink, synthetic, Japanese silk. DO NOT cut the zig-zags at the top at this stage. After trying various ways of doing the tucks (8 at top and 8 bottom.) The best way I found was to pin the marked pattern (the lines are 2in apart) and tack the lines to the fabric by folding over each tuck. Too many pins ruin the fabric and a washable marker pen will too. Use long tacking stitches. You then need another sloping line for the placement of the tucks one side of the horizontal one. Pin and tack these in place. 2in down the pleats at the top, and 10in up at the bottom. The top piece as an inverted V the bottom comes to a point. Make up the Plastron-facing with a centre seam to join the two sides and tack the plastron to it with the raw edges
innermost. As the sides of this need to have the button holes strenghten the plastron with a strip on canvas as the edges and turn them in by 1in. Sew a line 1in in vertically.

THE BODICE
1. Sew the shoulder seams
2. Sew together the 4 shaped side/back pieces and sew them to the back/front. Note there is a small flat piece on the body start sewing just below this as it is part of the armhole.
3. Sew the centre back.
4. Sew the darts uncut at this stage you may need to alter them
when you fit the bodice.
5. Sew the sleeves, the outer one has puffed sleeves the inside on is a curved
shape. these will be put inside each other with the Witedged facing each other.
6. Cut out a piece of canvas half and inch smaller than the collar at sides and top. With the collar facing sewn to the top fabric sew the top and bottom fabrics leaving the bottom open.
this in not finished

SLEEVES
These ar the same method as for walking outfit, gather the top and make the lining, fit the lining inside the outer piece, attach to armholes together or attach outer shell first then insert lining with wrong sides facing, turn in half an inch and oversew in place. Make up the cuff with an outer layer, a lining and an interfacing. Attach to cuff so that the outer fabric is facing upwards from the cuff. Overlap the points where indicated. Neaten lining on the inside.

APRON FRONT
This is one piece, the middle part is almost identical to the centre front piece you have already assembled on the skirt. The outside edges are pleated to face towards the waist. Mark the positions with long tacking stitches.
indicated by broken and solid lines. Details of attaching - either to the
waist or horizontally
HOW IT OPENS
The dress opens at one of the seams of the front panels. Leave open the front panel/ lining and the apron front slits and sew one side into the side-seam of the centre front. Tack the front panel, the lining and the apron together at the opening, neaten this seam for eyelet fastenings. In order to put the dress on open the buttons and eyelets.
seams to the horizontal line about 10ins and turn inwards to neaten

SKIRT OF DRESS
Sew all the pieces together (centre front, 4 side panels, 2 backs. Leave open at centre front to vertical tack mark ? inches. Use the easy method of tacking 2 outer and two linings together then open out like a book. You will still have to
turn in two of the seams by hand. Or make up the outer and lining separately and put in right sides together. Tack the centre back pleats.
Measure the hem and neaten - If you have used the
simple method just turn both edges to the inside.
Attach the bodice to the skirt from centre front of plastron. Leave the opening
of skirt. Attach the back bodice so that the pleat is held in place.

woollen jacket 1700s hand-sewn

MATERIALS
A second-hand coat cost £4. Brown 100 per cent wood aquasputum
striped material from a cushion cover
Lining peach cotton mix

The first attempt was so hard to cut out as I omitted to cut out a lining at the
same time as the top fabric. It was quite a struggle to cut it out of the material, despite the original coat being a size 16 not a 10 which I am and much longer than I needed. Part of this came from the flare of the bottom and the large front. The sleeves I could re-model from the originals.

The finished coat after adding the cord detail in dark-brown shoe-laces down the front. The lining of the collar and cuffs is a striped silky material