Sewing an 1850’s Victorian corded petticoat for living history
See how I made my own corded petticoat to wear for historical interpreting to get the perfect 1850s silhouette.
I live near a living history museum that interprets the year 1855. Growing up I loved to visit this museum and learn about local history and different crafts. Looking back, I think that is where my fascination with making things began.
About a year ago I signed up to volunteer as a historical interpreter. This means dressing in period clothing, learning about the history of the site, and helping to share that experience with the public. I had only just started to get involved when I had to put my volunteering on hold due to an assortment of life things. Now that life is starting to get back to normal I am excited to get back to volunteering.
Being part of any historical interpretation endeavor requires you to dress the part. The living history museum I volunteer with has some historical clothes available but they encourage people to build their own historical wardrobe over time.
Why a corded petticoat?
Since I am a crafty sort of person I plan on making as much of my outfit as possible. Because petticoats are in short supply at the museum (and the final product won’t be seen), a corded petticoat seemed like the best place to start.
Petticoats are an important part of the foundation of outer garments and help give the proper silhouette for Early Victorian fashion. Corded petticoats are just one variety of petticoats that could be worn.
Corded petticoats get their name from the yards and yards of cotton cord sewn into them. They are the precursor to the hoop skirts that would start to come into fashion a little later in the 19th century. Starching the petticoat after it is sewn gives it a lot of structure, and helps it hold up all the other skirt layers. You might be surprised how much strength you can get just from some cotton and starch!
Materials needed
The supplies to sew this corded skirt are simple: cotton fabric, cotton cord, thread, and a button or two. I did most of the sewing by machine, but you could sew a similar petticoat by hand with only a few basic stitches. You would need to sew a lot of those stitches.
To help me design and make my corded petticoat I used the book The Dressmaker’s Guide: 1840-1865 by Elizabeth Stewart Clark. It was incredibly helpful and I look forward to using it to help build my historical interpreting wardrobe.
Fabric pieces
To make a corded petticoat, you need to create three basic fabric pieces: the outer layer of the skirt, the inner layer of the skirt, and the waistband.
Both layers of the skirt will need to be between 80 and 100 inches wide, which is the normal circumference of a corded petticoat according to The Dressmaker’s Guide. Lucky for me, I found a nice white cotton fabric that was 90 inches wide. It was even on sale!
For narrower fabric, you can use two panels for each layer of the skirt instead of one.
The outer layer of the skirt will need to reach from your waist to where you want the skirt to end plus a couple of inches for seam allowance and to accommodate lost length when you add in the cording.
The inner layer of the skirt needs to cover the area you want to add your cording. I stopped about two-thirds of the way up my petticoat, so I cut the inner layer about a third shorter than the outer layer.
The waistband I made for this skirt was just a long rectangle.
I decided to have a 1.5 inch wide waistband, so the width of the rectangle would need to be two times the final width plus an inch for seam allowance ((1.5 x 2) + 1). This ended up being 4 inches.
To determine the length of the rectangle I measured my waist with my corset on. Then I added 2 inches to give room to adjust the closure if necessary, plus another inch for seam allowance. If you are making your own corded petticoat, use your own measurements to find the right waistband length.
Sewing the skirt pieces
To get the basic skirt together I sewed each skirt piece together at the selvages to form two tubes. Then I nestled one skirt tube into the other with the wrong sides facing out and sewed them together at one end of the tube. Then I flipped the two skirt pieces around on that seam line to create the pocket to add the cording and finish the bottom hem.
If the fabric you are using doesn’t have selvages to work with, you could French seam the tubes together before joining them at the bottom edge. This way you don’t have any raw edges.
Adding cording
After getting the two main pieces of the skirt body together it was time to add the cording. At the recommendation of The Dressmaker’s Guide I bought a large cone of plain white cotton yarn. This meant I was 100% sure I wouldn’t run out.
It ended up being trickier than I thought it would be to sew in the cording. The idea is simple enough, start at the bottom and sew the cording in a spiral between the two layers using a zipper foot to get as close as possible to the yarn.
A zipper foot is a special sewing machine foot that lets you sew right next to something. This makes it the perfect tool for sewing a corded petticoat by machine I would not want to try sewing a corded petticoat without one.
As I started to sew in the cords I found it challenging to stay next to the yarn without sewing over it. Even though it wasn’t easy I managed to get nine rows of cording at the bottom. It wasn’t the prettiest sewing I’ve ever done, but was at least functional.
One year later
And that is how my corded petticoat stayed for almost a year. Life has a way of throwing things at you and I was just not able to get back at it. A couple of weeks ago I finally got my corded petticoat out of sewing project time out and got back at it!
Let this be a reminder that it is never too late to finish a project!
Sewing Cording continued
There is a lot of variation in how densely petticoats can be corded. Some are densely covered, while others have a more sparse layout. I knew I didn’t want to do too much cording on my petticoat. For one, it is not easy to sew in all of the cords. Additionally, the cording adds a lot of weight to the skirt, and I didn’t want to be dragging around a super heavy petticoat.
I sewed a seam about five inches above the top of the bottom cording section. I didn’t measure it exactly but kept the bottom of the petticoat as far right on the machine as I could without bunching up the fabric. This kept the seam more or less level. Then it was just a simple matter of sewing in more rows of cording in a spiral with the zipper foot to keep the cotton yarn in place.
It’s never that easy…
Except things are never as easy as they sound. After completing three rows of cording I looked back and saw the stitching was a mess! The rows were uneven, the cord wasn’t always in the right spot, and there was twisting and puckering.
Even though I didn’t want to, I knew I needed to rip back the seams and try again. After getting all the seams removed and the petticoat ironed again I started my second attempt.
This time, instead of relying on the zipper foot to keep things straight I took the time to carefully align and pin the first row of cord before taking it to my sewing machine and sewing it in. When I got to the end of each pinned section I stopped and pin the next section to make sure I didn’t get off track again.
The results from this method were so much better than the first try. I used the same method to put two more sections of cording on the petticoat, each five inches apart.
I used fairly sparse cording. If you look at extant garments some early Victorian petticoats have a lot more rows of cording worked into them. I was trying to find a balance of having enough support without adding too much extra weight.
With all the cording sewn in, I folded down the top edge of the shorter fabric and top stitched it down to close in the raw edges and keep the inner layer laying flat against the outer layer of the petticoat.
Seam ripper, we meet again
Once I had finished adding all of the cording all I had left to do was add a waistband and a closure.
Before I could add a waistband I first needed to rip out yet another seam.
When I joined the sides of the fabric to create the skirt I sewed the entire side together, forgetting to leave a gap where the skirt would open to be able to put it on. So I ripped back this seam until I hit the top of the inner petticoat layer. That what just the right amount to let the waist open enough to get over my hips (or shoulders) to put on the petticoat.
Prepping the waistband
I like to prep my waistbands before attaching them to the top of the skirts. It’s easier to iron and sew one small piece of fabric than an entire skirt.
I ironed down half an inch of seam allowance on each long side of the waistband, then folded the waistband in half long way (or hotdog way for my other millennials) with the seam allowances on the outside. Then I sewed the short ends together with half an inch of seam allowance and trimmed the corners.
Gathering the skirts
To make 90 inches of fabric fit into a not 90 inch waistband you will need to gather the fabric down to match the width of the waistband you want to fit.
Gathering can be done either by hand or by machine. Up to this point, I have only gathered by hand, but I decided to give machine gathering a try. It was way easier than I thought it would be.
First, set your machine to the longest stitch length you have. Then, without securing the ends, sew a row of stitches at the top of the fabric where you want the gathers.
At this point, it would be best practice to sew a second line of gathering stitches just below the first to give you more security and keep the gathers very even. I did not follow this advice and did not suffer any consequences and therefore learned nothing. Follow my example at your own risk.
Just before you start to gather up the top edge of the skirt, mark the center front. Then you can gently pull on the top thread and start to gather down the fabric. Be careful not to pull too hard on the thread or it will break and you will need to start again.
Adding the waistband
Work the gathers until they are even and fit into the space of the waistband. Pin the center front of the skirts to the center front of the waistband making sure the raw edge of each piece is lined up and the right sides are together. Then even out the gathers into the waistband and sew the gathers into the waistband with a half-inch seam allowance. Using a lot of pins to hold everything together is very helpful at this point.
With the waistband attached on one side, you can fold over the rest of the waistband and whip-stitch it into place on the inside of the petticoat.
Closures
To finish off the petticoat there needs to be a way for the waistband to close together. I decided to use a button closure because they are simple and I have a large selection of buttons to choose from.
I found a simple white button to use for this petticoat. It isn’t period, since it is clearly plastic, but the petticoat waistband won’t be showing under additional petticoats and skirts, so I’m not too worried.
At this point I have a small confession to make…
I have never used a sewing machine to make a buttonhole, I only know how to sew them by hand.
This turns out to be perfect for this petticoat since the first buttonhole machine wasn’t invented until 1862. We can pretend I did this to be more historically accurate, not because I am terrified of making a machine buttonhole.
Alternate waistband
If you wanted an even more adjustable waistband, you could make a drawstring waistband with a tie closure. You would just need to sew the top edge over to create a channel to pull a cord through. This would be very useful if you wanted to make a petticoat that could fit several different size people. Since this petticoat was made specifically for me and I didn’t want to have to adjust the gathering all the time, I used a standard waistband. It depends on what you want out of your petticoat.
The final result
With the buttonhole and button sewn, my petticoat was finished. For the first time sewing a corded petticoat, I am very happy with the results.
It is still surprising to me how much volume you get just by adding something as flimsy as cotton yarn! I haven’t even starched this petticoat yet (more on that in my next post) and already it stands well away from my body. I can’t wait to wear this the next time I am volunteering at the living history museum.
If you want to see more sewing adventures, click here.
Have you ever been to a living history museum? Tell me about your experience in the comments below!
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