gallery

notes

fabric & notions:
4oz linen

mini diary :

April 20 2005

Since I've been very good about using fabric and supplies out of the stash for my Striped l'Anglaise outfit, I decided to treat myself with nice fabric for my outer petticoat. I needed to buy fabric anyway (having nothing in said stash) and I'm justifying the expense of linen with the thought that a petticoat is a basic staple I can use with multiple outfits. Right? Of course right!:>

So I got my new samples from Fabrics-Store.com yesterday and I'm having a very hard time deciding. It's between either the brown or the red. The red is practically a perfect match with the stripe, I'm just not sure I want to go I want to go matchy-matchy. The brown is lovely and the most practical color ever for me. It won't show dirt and will go with any color I'd ever want to wear. The red will just go with most things. :> *sigh* They each create such a totally different but equally pretty look. Ah, decisions, decisions!!

April 21
I decided on the brown linen for the petticoat and ordered that tonight. I really liked both my choices but in the end it came down to the fact that I really wanted the brown more. I'm just a brown-type girl I guess. :>

I ordered 3yds. With my height, that should give me a front and back panel, 54" wide each, and a little extra. If I think I can get away with less fullness I may cut a bit off, combine it with the extra and add a ruffle. A nice, wide, box pleated ruffle. :>

I can't wait until it arrives!

May 2
My brown linen arrived today  and it's so pretty! Next on the list is my plain cotton petticoat, so I don't make my mistakes on the lovely linen. I'm hoping to get to that tomorrpw but we will see...

May 3
I worked just a bit on the plain cotton petticoat tonight. Not exciting at all.

I'm using 2 panels (front & back) of 45" fabric, so I straightened the grain, sewed the panels together and pleated the top. Hopefully I've pleated it to the right size. I've misplaced my "in-stays" figures so I used a measurement based on my gown. I'm using ties at the sides so a little small would be good. *crosses fingers*

I've also misplaced my supply of cotton twill tape (for the waistband and ties). I was thinking I had some left over from the bum roll but I can't seem to locate it, so maybe not. I was planning a trip into G Streets tomorrow anyway so I'll just get some while I'm there.

May 9

I have a petticoat – yay! Well, actually it's not that exciting but anything crossed off my list excites me these days. :> I also finished up the bum roll. Here are a few pics of the cotton petticoat and bum roll in all their glory.

For the petticoat I used two panels cotton fabric (45"x46") and 2yds 1" cotton twill tape. The front is one panel and back another. The pocket slits are 7.5" long and unfinished, being on the salvage of the panels. The skirts are pleated in fairly large pleats, then gathered to the exact width required. The hem is 4.5" deep and allows for the bum roll in the back. I stitched my initials into the front inside of the waistband so I can easily tell which way to put it on. *wink* The petticoat actually turned out a little long somehow, so I think I'll take a tuck in it.

All in all an easy project, and one I can now simply copy for the rest. (Yeah, all the specific measurements are here in case I loose the paper the are also scribbled on... feel free to ignore. :>) The one difference I will make for the linen petticoat is make a flatter front. It means the pocket slits won't be on the salvage but oh well.

The 90" (or more precisely 88") skirt circumference seems adequate, so I will cut down the 54" width of the linen and use the extra pieces make a nice wide ruffle at the bottom of that petticoat as well. I love those 18th century box-pleated ruffles! Okay… enough of a break, on to the linen petticoat!

May 9

Looks like it is a good thing I'll be spending most of tomorrow in Richmond… I need a break from the sewing thing. I just tried on my linen petticoat, so Mom could mark the hem, and I'm not happy. I must note that Narcissa is a bit smaller in the waist than I am at the moment. Yep.

1. The super flat front doesn't look good. Maybe if I was flat in front… but as it is, I need a bit more fullness there.

2. I've made the front section too small. Because of the way I've cut, sewn and attached the ties, there is no place to get extra fullness from without pulling the pocket slits to the front. Problem is they are already barely on the sides as it is.

3. This petticoat is going to be worn with a jacket on the 21st. I totally forgot about that fact when I was measuring, calculating and snipping. Drat. Obviously the too small issue is really a problem, since those slits are going to show.

*grinds teeth* So I can either just live with the slits where they are and take out some of the pleats in front to give me even gathers (and ultimately more fabric) in the very front or I can take both waistbands out and start again by cutting new slits. I'm thinking I'll be able to simply whip the old slits together and hide them in the back fullness. I am very tempted to do the whole waistband redo, more work but a result I'll be happier with. Of course Mom might kill me since she already pinned the hem. The linen was not being friendly either, so she was being really lovely to help me. *sigh*

Good news is the brown is very pretty with the dress. The color combination shouldn't work but it does… I really like it. Well, I'll have a few hours to escape, ponder and reflect on the issue tomorrow. I was starting to resent the hours taken away from my sewing time but now I'm glad. I love how these things work out...

May 10

I redid the front waistband, seeing if I could make that work. No such luck. There just isn't enough fabric.

So on to plan "b", which is to basically start from scratch and recut the slits. I got as far as taking out all my previous stitching and sewing up the old slits.

Above is a pic of the original slits sewn up. Not bad, aye? I should have gotten further but I ended up making an emergency grocery store run for Mom and then got sucked into a movie B brought home from the library (bad B!). At least I have a blank slate for tomorrow.

May 11

And in a cute kitty moment… I left the linen petticoat for a few minutes break and found this scene before me when I returned. Honestly, how cute is my baby stringbean?!!! *grin* Boots was there too, you can just see her under the ironing board. :>

May 12

The linen petticoat is sort of finished. The ruffle is not working for me so I'm trying to decide if I even want to bother. I don't have enough fabric to make proper box pleats all the way around so I'm stuck with really spaced pleats. I could use knife pleats or simply gather the ruffle but I'm thinking I may just skip the whole thing. Despite the time I took to hand sew the hems last night I'm feeling very unmotivated about the whole thing right now. It certainly doesn't need the ruffle.

So besides the ruffle, it's done. Of course, when I tried it on this morning to mark the hem I found it was actually too big this time around. *rolls eyes* Too big I can work with though – that is why safety pins were invented, you know! :>

May 14

Finally finished – yay! The first pic is sans ruffle. After much prodding from the sister I went ahead and added the gathered ruffle after all. It does look nice but what a pain! I'd like to add a band of matching grosgrain ribbon, to cover my stitches but I don't see that happening today, especially since I don't have any narrow brown grosgrain ribbon on hand.

The petticoat is now nicely washed, softened and hanging up to air dry. Once it's dried a bit I'll iron it for tomorrow.

May 15
I wore my petticoats today with my Striped l'Anglaise outfit. Pics in the gallery!

June 22

I fixed my petticoat last night. I had originally made the top of the ruffle about 1" high but I found that a combination of the heavy linen and nasty Virginia humidity caused it to droop and look distinctly blah. So I closed the gap a bit, making the top more like 5/8" tall.

I also covered the machine stitching with 3/8" black grosgrain ribbon. Sewing on the ribbon by hand was a heck of a lot easier than sewing the whole ruffle on by hand. :> I wish I could have found a matching brown ribbon instead of black but no such luck. If I ever do find some I can always replace it. Tacking on ribbon is nice mindless work that I don't mind doing again...