Monday, August 30, 2021

Planning a Month of Making Victorian Undies


I've struggled through two new dress projects since the fire (in case you didn't know, my apartment building burned down in March), and let me tell you, it was not fun trying to fit those things without the proper undergarments. Thankfully, one was fairly "free" as far as sizing, being a loose-fitting shirtwaist and a skirt, but the other could definitely have benefited from having the right sort of stays to fit the bodice over.

So, since I have no costume events on the horizon, but a boat load of projects that I want to make, I decided to dedicate the entire month of September to restocking my poor undies wardrobe. I'm not exaggerating when I say I need everything - I had all my skirt supports, petticoats, corsets, stays, chemises, drawers, everything, in the apartment, and they all went up in smoke.

The Plan - 

I'm going to focus only on Victorian-era stuff at the moment. In the future, I'll need to make new 18th Century and Elizabethan stuff, but that isn't as pressing at the moment. And the list of things I need for 19th century stuff is monumental -

Corded petticoat w/ two petticoats to go over it
Crinoline w/two petticoats to go over it
Crinolette w/two petticoats (one ruffled and one plain)
Lobstertail bustle w/two petticoats (a rufflebutt and a plain)
Low hoops for natural form
A well-structured natural form petticoat w/detachable balayeuse
1890s black taffeta petticoat
1890s aqua petticoat
Daytime chemises
Evening chemises
Mid-late Victorian drawers
1830s-40s drawers
1830s-40s stays
1850s corset
Early 1870s corset
Long-line 1870s-80s corset for natural form
1890s corset
1910s corset
Corset covers for each of above
1905 ruffled corset cover
Modesty petticoat for under skirt supports
1830s/40s bustle
1830s sleeve supports
1830s pockets

It is a mighty list. And I'm not planning to just make simple stuff, because of course I'm not. I have different embroidery and flossing schemes for each corset. I want to add tucks and lace to each petticoat. Maybe I'll embroider the chemises and add inset lace to the drawers. The 1890s aqua petticoat is a copy of an extant that is just covered in embellishments. Everything will just be more.

So yeah, not making this easy on myself. 

To make things as logical as possible, I decided it made the most sense to go in chronological order. 

In the next few weeks, I should be posting an entry for each time period that I work on, detailing all the goodies that I've made, as well as resources for patterns and such.

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