Foundations Revealed

Some underwear is easy to date by the cut or the decoration, other items are almost timeless. 

This month I share with you a knitted silk undervest with a crocheted yoke that could date anywhere from 1880 to 1910. The eBay seller I purchased it from described it as a "vintage tank top", but ladies in the Victorian and Edwardian age would have recognized it as a vest or an undervest.

Sunny concludes her exhaustive study of six Belle Époque petticoats by comparing the remaining construction details and techniques to the instructions in various Belle Époque sewing manuals.

The result is enlightening (and freeing) if you get hung up on trying to make all the details “right”. You’ll be able to see just how varied the methods were for basic things (like constructing a ruffle or inserting a placket) and be able to relax and sew your petticoat with confidence.

Follow along as Jema takes her antique Charles Bayer corset, and the pattern she made from it in last month's instalment, and recreates it for herself.

Jema shows us the complete details on how one professional corsetmaker would make this one layer corset, step by step. Furthermore, she includes some techniques you may not have tried before, such as a lapped seam for one layer corsets that neatly encases all raw edges on both sides.

Last month we covered drafting the pattern for this unusual corset design. This month I take you, step by step, through the construction, including how to sew some very tricky seams! (Suitable for beginners.)

I used the drab coutil that I wrote about last month for the corset fabric, so if you were curious about how it would work made into a corset, read on.

In the last two months I talked about the different decorative techniques used to trim Belle Époque petticoats (here and here); now I will discuss the different factors that combine to create the shape of the skirt, and the petticoats that support it. Patterns of the six petticoats are included this month.

There are many factors that affect the shape of the skirt, and I will be discussing all of these in this article, particularly as they relate to the six 1890-1910 petticoats described here. Next month I will be talking about the basic sewing techniques (plackets, seam finishes, etc.) that were used in these six petticoats.

To continue from last month’s article, I will be talking about the decorative techniques in the six 1890-1910 petticoats described here.

Last month I talked about tucks and lace insertion.

This month I’ll be talking about embroidered insertion, lace edging and embroidery. Next month I’ll talk about the construction of the six petticoats.

After the October issue, in which the article Pattern Challenge- Thomson Glove-fitting Corset about Patent 611,116 issued to T.S. Gilbert was published, David in the UK wrote to me asking:

"Are you certain that this patent is for a Thomson Glove-fitting Corset?

This led me to look more closely at the patent and realize that he was right! So I did a little (ok, a lot) more research into T.S Gilbert, the owner of patent 611,116.

I'll share what I found about him, along with my method of patterning this corset, and next month I'll show you the finished piece.

If you're familiar with our sister site, you'll know all about Sunny's extraordinary articles in which she studies antique garments in minute detail with hundreds of detailed photographs. Here she looks at six late Victorian and Edwardian petticoats, studying the methods used to produce the beautiful embellishments so that we can either recreate our own historically accurate underthings to accompany our corsets - or take them somewhere more avant garde...

Jema Hewitt shares with us pictures and the pattern of a beautiful Victorian corset from her personal collection.

Made by the Charles Bayer (CB) corset company around 1899-1900, it has five main pattern pieces, with one bust shaped godet and two hip godets on each side. It is a very sophisticated and elegant piece of pattern cutting.

Jema shares the pattern, detail pictures and a little history, working out when the corset might have been made, and then takes us step-by-step through constructing a new corset from this pattern, including a new seam technique just for corsetry that negotiates curves perfectly and encases all the raw edges neatly.