I love underwear

This afternoon I needed some pictures for some new items in my Etsy shop, and fortunately, my husband had a free day so I ask him to make some pictures of me in my 'historical' underwear. And these pic's turned out better than I thought they would! All thanks to our new camera. Much better than my smartphone or old cheap secondhand camera.

Anyway's I was just really happy with it. So happy that I now lloooovee underwear. I hope I will make you happy to.




So...maybe you want to know a bit more about it. This whole outfit exist out of three parts: a chemise, a corset (stays) and a tulle skirt.

The chemise (underdress) I made out of thin cotton added with a bit of lace at the top. I made this chemise simply because I just wanted to make a chemise with lace that would look cute and simple. Turns out it now looks a bit like a victorian chemise, but it has the shape of a chemise out of renaissance times.

The corset is 18th century. I made it out of a free pattern I still have on my pinterest board. You can find many other patterns of historical clothing there as well. I made this corset out of linen, thick linen that I bought secondhand at marktplaats.nl, a a dutch website where people can sell each other all there secondhand stuff. So it was very cheap, but I really like the fabric.

And then we have a tulle skirt, which is put on with ribbons, same way as I did with the quilted petticoat, where this is explained. I really like my tulle skirt. It is not really historically accurate, but as a petticoat it give a great shape and volume to skirts and dress which you can put above this 'underwear'.





Anyways, I am planning to use all this for a next outfit, that goes with the blue quilted petticoat, a lovely 18th century pink jacket and a lovely hat with ribbons that is yet to be made!

18th century quilted petticoat

Last week, I have been busy with making a 18th century quilted petticoat! It was quite a lot of work (it took me about 20h!) but I do think the result is very nice and I am really happy with it.
I was inspired by some historical petticoats I saw on Pinterest, as well as one that is integrated with a robe d' Anglais in Janet Arnold's 'Patterns of fashion'. I did not see many people on the internet making something like this, only the historical ones. I have some experience with quilting, but not very much, so I made the simpler version of the ones from the 18th century.


So, I will show you some of the real 'historical' quilted petticoats.

Aren't they pretty!? Especially the grey one has a very nice pattern I think (and lovely with the corset and chemise).

I made my petticoat out of taffeta and the inside of the petticoat, the filling, is made out of fleece. I had some 'never used and doing nothing' fleece blankets just waiting for me the be used, lying in the attic. So it exists out of three layers of fabric - taffeta, fleece, taffeta.

Here is the pattern I used:

I know that the pattern is not very neat, especially the curves could be better - but when you put the pattern on the fabric, it will be easier, because the fabric will be ten times as big. Important is that the lines of the curves at the lower part of the skirt have 1 cm in between.

To quilt this pattern on the fabric, I had drawn it the back of the skirt, then follow these lines with the sewing machine - and the pattern appears at the front. I first wanted to draw the pattern on the fabric with tailors chalk, as it should, but, since the fabric was so smooth, the chalk did not stick properly. So, to fix this problem, I worked it out with a normal ballpoint pen. It took me some time and brain activity before it was finished, but at the end I had a very nice result at the front of the fabric.


The petticoat exist out of two pieces, both 125 x 100 cm (=length of the skirt) which are bind together at the top. The band on the top of both pieces is 50 cm.
Then the two pieces are sewn together on both sides like this:

So, I made pleads in the top of each piece, put a band on top of it, and at the ends, I have sewn ribbons, each 50 cm long. Than, after some some finishing touches such as hemming and putting a label inside - it is time to wear and try it out!

To wear this petticoat, I just need to put the first ribbon about my middle and than the second around my back and 'voila!' I wear a lovely, quilted, warm, shiny, happy, petticoat!

Some pictures:

- on the mannequin

on me - I am wearing a tulle petticoat (although not very historical correct) to give the blue quilted petticoat more volume

okay, I guess I could not choose between the smartphone and the canon.