Historical Fortnightly: 18th Century Petticoat

The second challenge for the Historical Fornightly is the Centennial challenge.  Meaning, making a garment that could be from the 1913s, 1813s, 1713s, etc.  This produced a bit of an obstacle for me because not only am I just beginning to build up a historical wardrobe, but I'm also primarily pulling from the 18th century for this year.  Why is that a challenge?  The early 1700s are a bit of a blank from a research perspective.  It's hard to find anything on what kind of clothing was worn during that time.

I ended up starting a facebook thread on this topic on the Historical Fortnightly page, and got a lot of amazing feedback.  In particular, there were two garments that came up for the early 1700s.  The first was the Mantua, and the second was the Robe Battante (or Volante).


A particularly beautiful Robe Battante.

When researching these two garments I found that the Robe Battante came more around the 1720s, and eventually morphed into the Saque Back Gown that's so popular in the late 18th c.  The Mantua was definitely the one for the 1710s.  What was amazing to me, though, was when I was looking at extant examples of this gown, I found that the style dramatically started to change from 1700-1710.  There's huge differences between one from say 1703 and one from 1708.  This gown eventually morphed into the Robe L'anglaise.


The Mantua.  This is an extant example I found that's the closest to 1713 I could find.  It's dated somewhere around 1710.

All of this certainly has a point as to why I chose to make what I did.  In narrowing down my choices I knew there was no way I could make a Mantua right off the bat.  The biggest reason being my own sewing skill level, and second being I don't have the proper undergarments.  Stays are a bit of an imperative with correctly draping and making that particular gown.

I decided that for right now the focus needs to be on the undergarments, and once I have a good foundation of them I can start adding in some of the outer garments of the different stages of fashion.  Enter in, "operation under petticoat."



The back of the gown.  Note how the skirt and the bustle/train look like two separate pieces.  The skirt hangs down straight while the bustle/train is propped up in the back.  It's not the same piece as is the case with Victorian fashion.

In my research I discovered a basic underpetticoat would meet my needs for this gown.  In the pictures it looks like any kind of bustle going on is in the potruding, back portion with the train vs. the main skirt so there wouldn't be a need to drape a petticoat over a bustle like in the Victorian Era.  I discovered that pocket slits were definitely occuring by this time, and similar to later 18th c. skirts and petticoats there were variations in whether or not the skirt was pleated with a straight piece in front or pleated all around. 



Aside from the lighting making this look like a completely different color.  This is a close up of the bustle of the same dress.

After contemplating all of this I decided that following a basic 18th c. petticoat pattern would fit my needs nicely not only for the Centenial challenge, but would also fill in a very important need with future historical reproductions.

The top stitching of the cotton twill tape.  I used a backstitch for this portion of the petticoat.

The underside of my backstitches.

Hand stitched hem.  I did a basic whip stitch, and only grabbed one thread of linen so that it would be as invisible as possible from the wrong side.

I did similar stitching for the pockets' seams.

I made my petticoat from this tutorial.  The only thing I didn't know how to do by hand was a blanket stitch (sorry, no pictures), and so I used this video off of Youtube to figure it out.  The whole thing went together very easily.  It's entirely hand sewn.  I didn't use any kind of pattern.  With cutting the big fabric rectangles I snipped where I wanted to cut, and then pulled out one of woven threads of linen to give me a straight line to follow with cutting it all the way across.  I eyeballed my pleats using a ruler to get my first one inch pleat, and then made all of the other pleats from there.  They all came out relatively even.



Finished petticoat!  I love how it looks and feels.  It looks beautiful with my chemise.  Again, sorry for the non-extant t-shirt underneath.  Like when I made my chemise, I wasn't quite comfortable showing that much skin.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

The Challenge: Bi/Tri/Quadri/Quin/Sex/Septi/Octo/Nona/Centennial

Fabric: 2 yds. of heavier weight linen that was about 60" wide.

Pattern: None.  Just two big rectangles of fabric sewn together.  Some slight measuring for the pleats and marking the pocket slits, and a basic eye-balling of the hem and seam allowances.  The beauty of linen is I can just press it with my fingers.  No need for pre-ironing my hems!

Year: 1713

Notions: Linen thread, cotton twill tape.

How historically accurate is it?: I’d say 9/10. It’s completely hand sewn in period-correct stitches with the linen being accurate, but depending on what part of the world I'm in the cotton twill tape might not be accurate.  Cotton was being used in the states, but it wasn't until almost the mid-18th century that the cotton bans lifted in Europe.

Hours to complete: Somewhere around 10-15.  I haven't been very good about guaging how long the hand sewing takes, and I was in the midst of studying for a major exam that I just passed today!  Yay!

First worn: Day of being finished, and then again for photos.  January 16, 2013.

Total cost: I used the linen thread from my last project, the cotton tape was $2.50 for 10 yds. so it should get me through a couple projects, and the linen was a total of about $20.  So $22.50.

Pocket slits!  I can't wait to have actual pockets!