1830s Unmentionables

1830sRegency1840s

Sep 29

**chemise before facing yoke was sewn on**

The first garment that needed to be made was the chemise. I made my chemise out of linen that was purchased at Journal’s Fabrics (2) in the LA Fabric District. For my pattern I used Black Snail’s 1830s Underwear Pattern (3).

The first step was to cut the pattern. A deviance I made from the pattern is that I omitted the button/buttonholes on the front yoke and just cut the pieces on the fold. Then the front was gathered and sewn to match the front yoke. The back was then attached to the back yoke in a similar manner. The front and back yokes were then attached at the shoulders. After the front and back were sewn, I attached the underarm gusset to the side seam then sewed the side seam. Then I sewed the sleeves, attached the bottom of them to the gussets and the top of them to the sleeve heads, which was formed when I attached the front and back yokes at the shoulder. The next step was to attach a facing (basically just another front and back yoke to the front and back yoke) to finish the neckline with a 1.5” seam allowance because I was planning to make a rather low necked gown and felt the yoke as is would peak through the gown. The facing as well as the sleeves were then finished using whip stiches Now came the fun part of decoration. I added a lace trim I bought at the Bargain Basement at Costume College to the bottom of the chemise as some from Lacking (4) to the top.

The second garament that needed to be made was the corset, which I was going to feature on my YouTube channel, but I ended up sewing it so fast I didn’t have time to pick up my camera. The pattern is Redthreaded’s 1830s Corset (9) and the fashion fabric is a kona cotton in the color “honey” (10) the strength fabric is a cotton coutil (11). The busk is an exculsive from Redthreaded (120, the boning is 7mm syntheic whalebone (13), the waist tape is a petersham ribbon (14), and the lacing cord a simple cotton white one (15).

**pictures of the yoke (opening in center back)**

The third garment that needed to be made, it the support structure for the 1830s, the corded petticoat. I used cotton sheeting (5) and cut and sewed till I had a rectangle that was 80 inches long and 63 inches wide. I then turned the hem under ½ inch then up 25 inches and ironed that down. The cord, a simple white cording (6), was sewn in between that 25-inch lip and the rest of the fabric. I sewed 10 rows of cord then marked an inch up then sewed 8 rows and repeated the process, a strip of cording then a break until I had the following pattern. One strip of 10 rows, two strips of 8 rows, 3 strips of 6 rows, and finally 4 strips of 4 rows. After the cording was sewn, which took 16 hours btw, I evened out the top of the petticoat (because the cording shrunk the petticoat length and decided to gather it to a yoke rather than a waistband to avoid bulk at the waist. To create the yoke, I simply used my basic circle skirt pattern and traced it creating a yoke of 4 inches wide. I then gathered the corded part of the petticoat to the yoke. The yoke was finished off with bias tape which acted a tie that closed at the side. (close up at end of the blog post)

The fourth undergarment was a plain petticoat to go over the corded petticoat. I cut a two pieces of cotton sheeting (5) 40” and the full width of my fabric. After sewing the two pieces together, leaving one seam with an opening of 8 inches, to act a placket, I added my tucks. I measured 1.5 inch up from the hem then a 1 inch up from that line, then matched the two lines together ironed that sewed at by marked lines, creating a ½ inch wide tuck. I then repeated that process three times for a total of four tucks. I then pinned a strip of 6 inch cotton lace I got in at Trim 2000 (7) in the LA Fabric District and sergered the edge together, which finished the hem. I then gathered the top of the petticoat to a piece of tape which also acted as a waistband. This petticoat closes at the side seam.

**sleeve supported before being filled**

The fifth and last undergarment needed was the sleeve supports. I cut out two of each piece, the outer and inner piece. I also cut four 10 inch tapes, the purpose of which is to secure the sleeve supports to the dress/corset. The tapes, two for each piece were then pinned to the outer piece. The outer piece was gathered to fit the inner piece, which was then turned out. Before I stuffed the piece, using Polyfill (8), I sewed at the mark, where the gathering began to stop the stuffing from creeping into the arm band part of the sleeve support. The sleeve supports were then stuffed, and the stuffed part closed off with another row of stitching. The arm bands where then sewed together.