Friday, November 14, 2014

Strapped Regency Petticoat... a mini tutorial

Many years ago my friend Katherine showed me how to make this petticoat. I asked her if she would mind me posting a mini tutorial on it's construction, and she happily agreed.

Katherine is quite small... I call her 2/3rds scale, so this is her pattern but made to be me sized. I'm a typical American size 10, and am 5 ft 3in tall. That being said, my underbust is 36 inches and my petticoats length is 42 inches.



To make this petticoat you will need:
2 yards of linen (I used 50 inch wide)
4 sets of hooks and eyes
your measurements.... underbust and skirt length ( measure from your underbust, down your side to your ankle bone>>> you don't want this petticoat to be seen under your skirt or to be to the ground.)

If you want to put pin tucks at the hem of your petticoat add 1 inch per pintuck.... make your pintucks 1/2 an inch wide. I put 2 pin tucks at the bottom of my petticoat so I added 2 inches making the total length of my skirt panel 45 inches.... please remember to also add 1 inch for seam allowances at the top and bottom of the skirt. So for example if I wanted my petticoat not to have any pintucks I would cut my skirt panels at 43 inches.


Note about cutting Linen:
to find true grain in linen, find a thread at the salvage edge and pull... the thread may break, that's o.k. find it again, and pull until you have removed the thread from salvage to salvage. You will now have a straight line that runs along your material from salvage to salvage. Cut along that line. You will be using this method to cut all the pieces for this petticoat. You will be cutting 5 pieces.

#1 & # 2 skirt pieces. (bolt width x skirt length.... remember to add for both seam allowance and if your adding pin tucks)
#3 waistband (3 inches x underbust length + 3 inches... my under bust is 36 so I cut my waistband at 39 inches)
#4 & #5 shoulder straps (3 inches x bolt width... I suggest you cut one bolt width in half, so that the shoulder strap is considerably longer than you will need. That way you can simply attach the shoulder strap in back, put the petticoat on and mark the correct length for yourself. However my straps are 21inches if that helps in anyway.)


Construction:

Mark your Waistband

Pin your waistband on at your underbust. You want to have the ends so that the pin is secured so that the backside edge is 1/2 an inch from the pin (seam allowance) and on the front side is 2 1/2 inches from the pin (seam allowance plus placket closure). Turn the waistband so that the closure is toward your RIGHT side back. You dont want it at center back, but you want it to be about a handwidth or so from your armpit. Now with a water soluable pen, mark were you think logically your side seam would be if you were wearing modern clothes. This doesn't have to be perfect... it's simply the place that YOU think would be the bestplace to start your skirt gathers. Next mark center front.... that's right there in the center between your boobs.

ok... now take off the waistband.
Pin the ends together just as it was on your body
make a mark at 2 1/2inches on the waistbands placket side... this should be right where your pin is.
fold at your center front mark.
match up the sides and pin through both layers of fabric at the mark you made for the begining of your skirt gathers. Make a mark at that pin on the fabrics other side.
fold the fabric all the way to the other edge... where the fabric naturally folds is your center back. Mark your center back as well. now take a quick measurement from center front to your skirt gathers starting point. Write that down.

Mark your skirt panels
Make a quick decision what panel is front and what is back.
both panels you need to mark center. The front however you also need to mark the begining of your skirt gathers.... make sure you mark that on both LEFT sand RIGHT sides of the fabric.

Construct your skirt....
right sides together, on the wearers LEFT sew all the way down the length of the side seam. On the wearers RIGHT leave 7-12 inches open at the top. You can if you choose roll the salvage edges and have a proper placket.

hem the skirt and put in pin tucks .... I'm not going to include that.... there are lots of tutorials out there for pin tucks.

Run 2 rows of gathering stitches, 1/4 of an inch and 1/2 an inch from the raw top edge. Your going to do this in two places.... one on the front skirt panel RIGHT SIDE  from the placket edge your "start skirt gathering here" mark, and another on the front skirt panel LEFT SIDE  from the "start skirt gathering here" mark to the back panel through the center back all the way to the back placket edge.

Attach waistband to skirt

decide what side is going to be the inside edge of your waistband.  On that edge sew a stay stitch 1/2 inch from the raw edge. Fold the waistband in half horizontally and using a 1/2 inch seam allowance close up the waistbands side edges.

With the waisbands outside side to right side of skirt, match up all marks (front edge of placket, start skirt gathering, center front, start skirt gathering, center back, back edge of placket) pull gathering threads to match waistband length.

Sew waistband to skirt, stroke your gathers to keep them pretty. Fold the waistband along the stay stitching, and pin that edge to the skirts interior. you and eitherhand stitch the inside edge or stitch in the ditch.

Attach 4 sets of hooks and eyes at the closing placket.



Shoulder straps

fold the shoulder straps horizontally right sides together. Using a 1/2 inch seam allowance, turn the tubes right sides out and press. Sew the shoulder straps 2 1/2 inches on either side of the center back mark.

Put the petticoat on and find where to place the shoulder straps in front. You will want them towards the sides. Sew the shoulder straps in place and your petticoat is ready to wear.