Under Petticoat!


Huzzah! I finished my under petticoat. It started off as a white cotton skirt that my Aunt Cheryl used in the Bi-centennial years to put under her gown. She found it at a thrift store with the embroidered letters "MK" on the front. So after a few times of wearing the ill fitting garment I took it on to make it period correct.

 The problems:

• The Skirt was too long and it showed under my petticoats.
• It had a hole in the back where I stepped through with my heeled shoe. Also apart of it being too long.
• The waist was held together in the back by a string and some safety pins.
• The ugly gray lace trim on the very bottom is missing in some places and falling off in others.

The goals:

• Use some of the inches on the bottom to make a new period correct waistband.
• Fix the hole!
• Remove the awful lace trim that was falling off.
• Cut slits on the sides for access to pockets.
• Have period correct waistband on the back part and the front part, enough to tie bows.

 I first cut off the bottom 4 inches with the lace trim still attached. I hem stitched the bottom.
On the 4 inches of fabric with the trim still attached, I cut 2 inches to use as my waistband.
I measured around my waist and then cut the loop of fabric in half.
I put a pin where the center of each half was so I would know where to attach the pleated skirt.
I detached the old fraying waistband with the holes to hold it together and threw it away.
I was left with the now un-pleated skirt. Whoops! So I took white thread and gathered a bunch of the pleats together and ran a needle through them all. I did this every two inches until my skirt was once again pleated.
Not the best fix but one that my un-experienced self was able to accomplish.
I folded the edges twice on my waistband to finish the sides. I did this for both the front and back waistbands. It took forever to hand stitch them.
I then found the sides where the pocket slits needed to be and I cut them down about 8 inches.
I used what I had at the time, extra fabric to strengthen the sides of the slits.
I then whipped stitched each pleat to my new waistband.
I patched the hole in the back that my heel had created with some fabric I found in JoAnn's fabric remnants section.(The same fabric I used to create the English style Pinner cap I'll share later.)
 AND HUZZAH!
My under petticoat is finished!