HSM #1 – Foundations

I’ve really got to finish posting about my 1890s evening bodice and 1930s dress, but here we have a super quick detour for the Historical Sew Monthly #1 – Foundations.

I took this rather literally – a foundation garment, which I took to mean some kind of undergarment. This is a petticoat intended to be worn under a silk gown and petticoat. A single petticoat would not hide the boning lines on the paniers, so this helps to hide those.

For some reason I got the urge to use yellow. A saturated mustard-ish yellow was definitely an in color in the 18th century, as seen here, or here, or here. I can’t document it for a petticoat, but hey, it was on sale.

The Challenge: Foundations

Fabric: 2 yards yellow linen from http://www.fabrics-store.com/. This is the 5.3 oz in mustard.

Pattern: No pattern, just the tutorial on Koshka the Cat’s website

Year: Can be used pretty generally from 1750 – 1790

Notions: ~2 yards of cotton tape

How historically accurate is it? This is one of those things that seems accurate at first glance, but when you get up close is iffy. The real petticoat would have been hand sewn in linen thread, not (mostly) machine sewn with polyester thread. It probably would have used linen or wool tape, not cotton. I can’t actually document whether you can get this shade of yellow from natural dyes, or whether yellow was a favored color for petticoats. I give it around a 60%.

Hours to complete: Around 4, this was a quick project. Pulling a thread to cut the linen in half and hand sewing the waist tape took the longest.

First worn: Not yet worn. If all goes well, this will be part of a sacque gown to be worn mid April.

Total cost: $26.04 for linen (of which $8 was shipping. I sincerely wish there was a good fabric store near me…), plus a negligible amount for the cotton tape.