Too late...

Isn't the purpose of the HSF to finish a garment every fortnight?

Well I seem to be last minute on everything in January. And I have to correct myself from my statement a month ago. I said, that things can only get better this year. Surprise!!! I was wrong :-(
BUT, February will be my lucky month and start to a grat year, right? 

Challenge #2 of the Historical Sew Fortnightly is "Innovation"

Since my stash is growing surprisingly fast I will focus on sewing using a lot of supplies from it. My Innovation shall be "the growing hem-line of the 1830s to 1850s" The fullness of the skirts in the romantic era required support to get a lovely bell shaped skirt. This support was given by a corded petticoat.
This is a quite simple skirt made of fabric and many many metres of cord. The cord helps the fabric to stand out and look even bigger. Combined with lots of petticoats a lady would achieve the desired big dress...
Corded Petticoats are not as voluminous as crinolines, but they served the same purpose and were used until steel band was introduced to victorian fashion. 


I will use unbleached muslin from my stash and 40 metres of cotton clothes line with a 0,5cm diameter.
There is no pattern. I am using a rectangular piece of fabric measuring 200x175cm. 200cm will be my hem and 175cm is the width of my fabric.



Thursday:
The bottom 8 rows of cording are sandwiched between the muslin. To make room between two layers of fabric I folded under about 10cm. The bottom cord will be my hem!

To sew as close to the cors as possible I have used my zipper foot. This way the rope will have no chance to move at all and be extra stiff between the faric!

 

 To keep the ends of my cord from going in all directions I winded yarn around the cut off edges.

More sandwiching...

 

 Now it happened that a TV show was running in the living room next door and was hearing along while sewing...
When I heard something exciting happen I sprinted next door so I wouldn't miss it. While doing so I somehow hooked my hand in the door frame and spend the rest of the night neither watching/hearing TV, nor sewing. I spend it in hospital...


Friday:
No sewing due to double-sized hand. Yes, I tried anyway but it hurt so bad I only managed 30 seconds.


Saturday:
HSF deadline...
I unwrapped the bandage and discovered a purple and blue swollen finger. I tried to continue on my petticoat and sewing on the machine went quite well, so I continued sewing in the cord.
But when I finished the row and had to cut the cord I had to find out that using scissors would not work. I could not press anything with my blue thumb :-(

Sunday:
Now I am late...
But I finished my petticoat!!! The rest of the cording went fast and less painful than yesterday.

 

The finished petticoat looks a bit like a barrel. Hmm....
To smooth the top I removed the top cord and pressed the tunnel to be a tuck. I used the rope to make another row of cording a bit downwards. I also added four rows of narrow cording at the bottom. This way the hem line is a bit higher and the "barrel" appeares to be shorter.
When worn there will be a hip roll underneath the petticoat to give a nice curvy shape.

 The finished garment

 

The Challenge facts:

The Challenge: #2 Innovations; Corded Petticoat as foundation of the expanding romantic era hem-line.
Fabric: 2 metres unbleached muslin
Pattern: None. A rectangular piece of fabric
Year: 1830s - 1850s
Notions: 40 metres cotton cord; 0,5cm diameter, 8 metres sisal cord; 0,2cm diameter
How historically accurate is it? Notions and "pattern" are OK, but it is entirely machine sewn. Since the sewing is the main part of this project and I cheated, I give myself 40%.
Hours to complete: 10 hours
First worn: Not worn yet. It is just finished...
Total cost: 16€ for the cording, the rest is from the stash

 The plain Corded Petticoat...                                           ...and in combination with a hip roll and two more
                                                                                       petticoats. This one is actually too wide for the
                                                                                       romantic era, but it was the only one in my closet...