As a part of my continuing education and refining my skill set, I’m doing a 12-week embroidery and embellishment course via the Embroidery & Embellishment with Denise Hendrick group on the blessed and most holy FaceBook. [Why yes, that was a tad bit of snark about Facebook on my part.] It’s a closed group so you have to request permission to join it.
The project is to create a sampler so I’ve decided to “kill to two birds with one stone” and make my sampler in the final form of an 18th-century stomacher. I’m adapting the pattern that Lauren at American Duchess used for her stomacher.
Today is prepping my fabric and trace the design onto the fabric. I scored a deal on pearl cotton at Hobby Lobby: 105 skeins for $16.99 less 30% off, which works out to 11 cents per skein. I am happy with that. It almost makes up for the cost of the yarn to make the 13th Doctor’s rainbow scarf…but that’s another blog post in the making.
When you start a new project, you always want to start with a review of the foundational pieces: corset, petticoats, and chemises, and then you ask yourself the following questions:
What do I need?
Do I have something from a different era that will suffice or are the shaped so radically different that I need to make a standalone piece?
Do I really, really need to make another [fill in the blank].
In this particular case, since I’m going to be working my way through the entire book, the answer is in the form of a question, “What is the first project?” In this case, it’s easy-peasy: it’s the first project in the book: “Basic Under-Petticoat.”
Step 1: Find myself some heavy linen.
I have some 7 oz. Spruce green, heavy-weight linen. I’ve been planning on making some Outlander cosplay entirely out of linen, and this seems like a good place to start. I have bleached linen, but it’s only 5.3 oz. Linen and thus, not heavy enough for this project.
Step 2: Measure from my natural waist to lower calf.
I got 33 inches.
Step 3: Cut two pieces 33 inches long by the width of the fabric.
Check; trim fabric width down to 50 inches from 60 inches, for a finished skirt width of about 98 inches, check.
I’m using the mantua maker’s seam on the raw edges of one of the side seams and the other I’ve used the selvage.
Step 5: err …take pictures while sewing
Initial stitching — my hand sewing skills are a bit rusty.
I’ve played a little bit with the color temperature of my iPhone photo in a vain attempt in try and get something closer to the actual fabric. Alas, it’s a fail. And yes, since this is an exercise in using what I’ve got on hand, the thread is a bit too green for the fabric.
You’ve probably noticed that the edges of the fabric are offset. This was purposefully done. I used the mantua maker’s seam to finish the cut edge side seam. The seam finish is very similar to a traditional flat feld seam. The book explains it better than I can. I will add that requires a lot of pins to neatly hold the fabric in place while you’re sewing. I like the look of the finished seam as it is very small and very flat. I plan on using it for my chemises and smocks moving forward as it should make the armscye gussets less bulky and thus, much more comfortable.
Tacking down the selvage to form the side opening. My stitching is looking a bit better.
I switched to a black silk thread on my other side seam. It’s a little easier to use a single strand, and not doubled. I tried doubled thread, but it kept twisting up on itself and annoying me.
Stitching the double-turned 1/2 inch-ish hem. I eyeballed it and then pinned it to death, stabbing myself a few times in the process.
Adding bias tape to serve as the waistband with lots and lots of straight pins to hold it and the pleats underneath in place.
The book calls for 3/4 to 1 ” wide linen or cotton tape for the waistband. As I did not have any, only some 1/2 ” wide twill tape left over from my last Trunk Club, and I already had other plans for it, so I used the linen bias tape I made for the 18th-century cloak class I took at Costume College 2016. [It’s the same fabric that I’m going to be using for my English gown. This way if the skirts slip, it won’t be quite as noticeable.]
Finishing the waistband, and using lots and lots of pins to keep the fabric in place while stitching.
Whipstitching the ties closed with a zillion little stitches.
Step 6: Model finished project.
Petticoat as modeled by “the chick.”
As I totally stuck at selfies of any kind and my husband was out running errands to prepare of a business trip, I popped my new finished onto my dress form that we nicknamed “the chick” many moons ago. It’s currently padded out to fit my BFF, so it’s smaller than my measurements, hence the droopy waistband. That extra green fabric that hanging below is a cotton blanket that is being used to pad the chick out and impatient me didn’t bother to pin up out of the way.
Step 7: Conclusion and nitpicks.
Somewhere in my bio, I believe that it states that my mother taught me how to sew as an attempt to teach me patience, and probably what the results of perseverance will bring forth when you chose to apply yourself. When it comes to sewing, I am a speedy girl. It’s one of the reasons why I own a 1/2 horse-power industrial straight machine. I just want to “getter done.” What I am going to suggest to everyone, regardless of the years of sewing under their belt, is slow down and take the time to read the instructions before launching off into the deep end. I completely glazed over the instructions for cutting the fabric and it wasn’t making any sense until I went back and reread the cutting instructions.
All and all, this is a very easy and straightforward project. The instructions are well written, and for the visual group, the photos are worth a thousand words. Once you’ve mastered this project, you’re ready to tackle the next project: the English Gown Petticoat.
There are days when I question my sanity, and then I remember that I’m running a fever and everything makes sense. I started coming down with a cold when I made this earth-shattering decision: I decided that I was going to make everything in the newly published “The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking” book. Some of it will be done all by hand, some it will be mostly done by machine and other concessions along the way, but all of it will be for me.
The book is nicely presented with color photos and illustrations. The text is easily understood. My only initial complaint is the book does not contain shifts, chemises (if you’re French), or stays (corsets). I’ve watched the YouTube videos and heard about the time constraints and that some things had to be cut, and would be covered elsewhere like the AD blog, but how about a book on underpinnings, and just underpinnings?
For the purpose of continuity and ease for searching, the blog posts, this series is going to be referred to as ADBP with the project name. I’ll be using the Twitter hashtag #HandsewingInsanityProject
