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![]() This page contains my research for mid-18th century clothing. I am focusing on middle-upper class 'undress'- meaning not a full ball gown, but what a lady would wear during a normal day. All of my research comes from books and online sources, and I'll list my sources where I can. My information is only as accurate as my sources ;) Latest Update on: 02/01/09 OVERVIEW: To create the proper silhouette, proper undergarments are required. A lady would wear: A shift, stays, panniers, under petticoat (maybe several), under fancier petticoat, and the gown itself. Research for each is in that order. If you have information, sources, or a costume you've made, please feel free to contact me! SHIFT: Shift Instructions This is my sketch of the design I am doing. I am currently working on the draft of the corset. I will be doing a pale yellow outer petticoat, and probably some shade of green gown. Click to see the full-sized image. [12/19/08] I've officially started this project, starting with the corset. I've used Norah Waugh's "Corsets and Crinolines" for a pattern for a front-and-back lace pattern. I won't be posting the pattern from the book since it's copyrighted, but I will be showing my pattern pieces and how I made it. The pattern in the book is 1/16th scale, and when I blew it up, it was my size (I'm tiny, 24" waist) I just had to lower the neckline. It would have to be sized up for anyone larger than me. So far I have made a canvas mock-up, it is stitched with boning channels and awaiting boning to make sure the pattern is the right size and proportion before I start cutting out my final. I ordered boning from CorsetMaking.com. Good place; shipping was expensive, but I ordered a gross (144) of 17" with the intent to cut it to size, and it's probably heavy. I think this is where I ordered my coutill from originally... I am using leftover Coutill from when I made my regency corset. The lining in these is usually a light linen, but I am just going to use a plain cotton. The outer layer will probably be a blue silk taffeta, and I am going to hand stitch the boning channels in a thread one shade darker than the top layer. Here is a progress picture of my corset mock-up. I am wearing this with my regency chemise, and it only has about 10 pieces of boning I happened to have in it. The straps are not attached because there is no boning yet so I couldn't finish the ends. Note, the edges of all these should be pinked or fray-checked if you are going to work on it by hand.
I've also finished the under layer petticoat. It's very important to have at least one petticoat underneat your visible petticoat. I have seen many costumers with gorgeous gowns wear them right over their panniers or hoop skirts, and you can see the hoop steel right through the dress! I finished my pockethoops with the petticoat, and the pockethoops were so easy it only took a day's worth of work to complete. I'll be adding a complete tutorial for those in time. At first I had on my chemise (this is still my regency chemise) and corset and tied the pockethoops and petticoat on top, but the angle seemed a bit extreme, so I tried putting on my hoops and petticoat, and THEN the corset, and it seemed to look a lot better. I just have to work on getting them aligned right so I can access the pockets. As of right now, I have my final corset body together (light blue silk!) and have the boning channels on half of the righthand side done. |