C18th Petticoat

The next thing I have made, although it isn't yet complete, is the petticoat. I managed to some some 'champagne' coloured silk in a sale at £5 p/m so I was pretty chuffed and bought 4m as I wanted to make a flounce.

As I wanted a flounce, it had to be 3 times the length of the petticoat hem which would be 3m - so 9m was needed for a flounce. I cut out 2 x 4m lengths about 8" wide and another metre the same width from the left over silk. I then cut out 2 x 1.5m panels for the actual petticoat and then a strip for the waistband.

I sewed up the side seams on the petticoat leaving a 10" gap (starting from an inch from the waist) for pocket access and neatend the seams. Then I started on the flounce. I sewed the 3 strips of silk together and neatened the seams before marking every inch along the length on both sides (it may be easier to do it a metre at a time). I got out the pinking shears and cut triangles at the inch markings before pleating and pinning it.

Once the flounce was completely pleated and pinned I ironed both sides several times to make sure they were pressed well. After this I sewed the pleats down along one length at about 1.5" from the edge and ironed it all again. I then pinned the flounce to the petticoat - the bottom edge of the flounce actually meets at the bottom edge of the petticoat.

After this I decided to attach the waistband. First I had to pleat up the petticoat - as the petticoat is made from 2 panels, the waist measurement was halved to get the final length for each panel (does that make sense?!), the pleats worked out to be about 1/2". The CB has an inverted box pleat and the CF has about a 2" box pleat. I then attached the wasitband pressed it and sewed on a couple of eyelets to fasten it (NB. the petticoat has a side fastening where the pocket slit is).

When this was done, I tried it all on with my stays and petal pad to check the length. The petticoat was a little high at the back, as expected and so the flounce was lowered a bit. This is as far as I have got at the moment, but all I have to do now is sew on the flounce and then it's complete!