Marseilles Under-petticoat

As promised, this is an update of the sew-a-thon prior to Macktown. I completed many, many things in a very short period of time, and just haven't put them up yet. So, here is the under-petticoat I made to try to help keep me warm and add some puff without the weight.

It was put together fairly quickly, and because of that has one or two areas with some cosmetic flaws that do not affect the functionality. It is shown to the left with over a false rump with an apron over it and to the right without apron.

Construction was fairly straightforward, much like a normal petticoat, but I documented it below if you're interested.

I used a loom quilted Marseilles (diaper cloth) from from 96 District Storehouse. It is very reasonably priced at $5 per yard and we have always had great service.

Since this was going to be an underpetticoat, I cut two 30'' lengths off of my yardage. I took the two pieces and sewed them together up the side seams.



Now, here I deviate a bit from a regular petticoat. Because I am only using this as an underpetticoat, I sewed one side all the way up to the top, and left an 8'' slit from the top open on the other side.Thus my petticoat ties on the side. This will alleviate the bulkiness of the petticoat overlapping at the sides and  of my ties being all in the front. My pocket will be worn between this petticoat and the one on top of it, so the side slit is only to put the petticoat on and will not function as a pocket slit.

Next, was to pleat the petticoat down to my waistband. As you can see below, I started by pinning the petticoat to my big ironing table at the center. I then used my lines to make pleats that mirror each other radiating from center. You can't see it in the pictures, but I actually used my chalk to mark where the waistband would start and stop so I would know how much to pleat down. I'm not a mathematical pleater on a good day. I like to use my intuitive sense of pleating to tell me when to overlap pleats or not,but I admit to usually sitting down and figuring out with my formula how big each pleat should be and how much to overlap so that they all look pretty and even . I just didn't have that much time this go-around, so I relied on my special powers instead.

After finishing one side of pleating (see right), I continued to pleat the other side using the same method. The only difference this time was since I was pleating the front, I left a three inch flat portion in the center before I started the pleats so that I don't get a poofy belly look. I like to look nice in period clothes, not preggers. =P

I measured a piece of twill tape  by wrapping around my waist the desired number of times, tying, and cutting ends. Taking what I wanted to be the right side of the twill tape, I put that on the right side of the petticoat, aligning it so that when I flipped the tape back it would reach to cover the raw edge and sewed it down.

I turned the tape back, ironed  flat and sewed another line holding the bottom edge of the tape to the petticoat, encasing the raw edges of the pleats within the tape.  Finished front waistband at right.

I wore the petticoat all weekend at Macktown, and the only thing I noticed was how much shorter it made my other petticoats. I anticipated it lifting my hem, but didn't think it would lift quite so much (about two inches.) I'll need to start making my petticoats longer because I felt a little French!