Middle Class: The Underpinnings

New theories on underthings: a corded petticoat (side view).

The corded petticoat from the back.

The cording spirals up the petticoat - here's a closeup of the start of the spiral.

Another new underthing - a corset stiffened with hemp cord!

The front of the corded corset

And the back....

That's great, but does hemp hold up when you wear it? Sure looks like it!

No buckling on the front, even under considerable strain. ;)

No buckling under the bust.

The back looks a little wobbly, but I think it will be ok under a gown.

The corset and corded petticoat, worn together.

The corset and petticoat, from the side.

The first thing I did was to make a corded petticoat, to see if it would support any reasonable weight of skirts. I was encouraged by a picture in Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd which showed a antebellum era hoop skirt stiffened with rags. The one that I made, above, has two reasonably unique features. First off, instead of using any proper boning or benting, I used cotton upholstery cord filling (3/8") in the channels to stiffen it. The cording in question is basically a round roll of batting, with a string mesh around it to keep it, well, round instead of all fluffy like batting wants to be. The second unusual thing is that there are, technically, only two channels for the cording on this petticoat. There is one that goes all the way round the bottom and is both the hem finishing and a casing for a row of cording, and another that spirals up almost the entire length of the petticoat. (And can I tell you just what a pain in the @(&^!! that was to thread cording through? Mere words can't describe the process, although I tried at the time by way of cussing up a blue streak. Sailors ain't got nothin' on seamstresses.) the idea of that came from two things. First off, I hate making lots of boning channels and having to do something graceful with the ends of whatever stiffening I use (which will always either come loose and poke through the casing or come loose and spread out and contrive to just not be a stiffened circle anymore), and also I noticed that one of the pictures in the Milanese Tailor's Handbook shows the start of a spiral on the bottom left of the gown here (you can see that the trim on the left is significantly closer to the bottom than the trim on the right, but all rows are parallel after that. So not only is there the start of a spiral on the left, but all subsequent rows must also run on a spiral to maintain an even distance from each other.) I have no idea whether or not the rows of trim on this underskirt are actually stiffened in any way (and my research in that direction is another bit of writing for another day!), but it seemed like a darn good idea for all sorts of reasons involving heavy physics that I'm only vaguely familiar with, mostly in terms of fuzzy memories from watching PBS physics shows late at night while eating pizza with my parents long after I should have been in bed.

Another experiment was a corded corset. Jen made one with thin hemp (the larger of the two sizes used in jewelry work, whatever that is) on an italien like for her current dress diary, and I got jealous and wanted one of my own. I'm also an obnoxious overachiever (for those of you who hadn't guessed), so I decided to make up an effigy corset with hemp cord as stiffening. Most of the corset is corded with two strands of hemp in a 1/8" channel. I took Jens advice and made the channels half the width of my presser foot, because it was easy and required no thought on my part. I like that in a project. ;) I started with a 200' roll of hemp and *ran*out* after doing the two fronts and the center of the back. So the sides of the back are stiffened with 4 strands of regular thin jute packing twine (does anyone actually use that stuff for packages anymore?), which worked admirable as well. I really like the look of all the amazingly tiny channels. I think it just looks more period than the larger channels that I make for my cable tie specials or that I have seen for spring steel. I had expected that the corset would work, but I had not expected it to give a line that is basically perfect. I think it did this just to confuse me. :) But there it is, stunningly amazingly close to perfect! I can touch my toes, to side stretches and do back bends while wearing it. It laced like a dream, it wears like a dream, and it never started sagging. So the two conclusions from this experiment are that a) hemp cord provides more than adequate support for literally a half penny a foot, and b) low rise jeans and a corset are definitely a fashion faux pas. *giggle* It's been a few days since I finished the corset, but I am still really amazed at the amount of support that just plain old hemp provides. I had not expected that the front line would stay straight in profile unless I added some cable ties or even steel.

So, there's the underthings, all together. I might make a nicer version of the corset; it depends on how much time I find myself having. It's been pointed out that the corded petticoat looks basically conical and kinda narrow. The bottom diameter is about 2.5' (probably just under that), making it round abouts a half foot less across the bottom than I normally make them. It's made from a reasonably period plan - two straight panels, and two gored side panels. Technically, the bottom is about 18 more inches round than the top. It doesn't look it, really.... It's an fairly insignificant difference. But I'm satisfied with the results, as a number of paintings showing the middle class about town show very narrow skirts. Also, I'm putting some amount of stiffening in both the underskirt and the overskirt, which will cause each layer to stick out a little more than that which proceeded. I'm very confident that it will give a good line. Now, here's the real question: do the hoops achieve the goal of allowing me to move easily in tight quarters? So far, it looks like they do. One of the joys of the cotton upholstery cord that I used for the benting is that it can be easily bent, but has absolutely no shape memory (ie, it doesn't stay bent). So I can grab a handful of the skirt, twist it, and get the skirt to more or less collapse against my legs. The only remaining question is, how well will it stand up to the weight of the finished gown? Right now, gentle reader, the answer is, 'buggered if I know'. One way or another, the answer will be posted here at a later date -- like, when the gown is finished.