A Super Simple 18th Century Underpetticoat Hand Sewing Tutorial

Hi everyone, welcome back to VBirchwood. Today I'm going to be showing you a tutorial for how to make an 18th century under petticoat. This under petticoat is perfect for a transitional spring, autumn type of wear, as well as to keep you warmer during the winter time. It's an essential part of an 18th century style or history-bounding wardrobe, in my opinion, because it really does help to keep you much more comfortable during the colder months. It's also a very simple project to make. Now with filming and everything, it took me about six hours to hand sew this entire garment. And that means if you use a machine or you're just, you know, not filming, then you'll likely be able to get it done even quicker. Even if you choose to hand sew this garment, I believe it probably should only take you, I would say, about five hours. But of course that does heavily depend on how fast of a hand sewer you are. Now in this video, I won't be showing you how to do any of the stitches that I used, but all of the stitches I use in this tutorial, you can find in my seven essential hand sewing stitches video, which I'll link up in the cards. If you're new to hand sewing, you might be wondering which stitches we're going to be using in this video. All of the ones that we're going to be using, you can find in the aforementioned video, but we'll be using the basting stitch, the back stitch, the whip stitch, the felt stitch, and finally the mantua maker seam, which is optional and should be used only if you've cut off your selvedges. Personally, I only used one meter of fabric here, but I do recommend two or even three meters, depending on how big your waist is. I'm fairly small and short, so personally I only needed to use one meter of fabric, but what I also did was I used basically the front part of the meter for the front panel and then the back folded under part of the one meter for the back panel. The more proper thing to do would have been to use an entire meter for the front panel condensed with pleats and then use the second meter for the entire back panel. This will just give you a fuller and a warmer under petticoat, but for my own needs and for what I just had available with my own fabric that was left over from another project, I decided just to use the one meter. Considering that it is possible to get away with using just one meter of wool flannel if your waist is somewhere under 27 inches, that's a pretty great deal because that means that there's very little materials required in order to make this garment. On top of that too, I would say I needed around three meters of cotton twill tape and basically you just want enough so that you can wrap it around your waist and then tie it easily without having too short of ends left over. I would absolutely love to see your creations. So be sure to tag me and Instagram if you do end up making this under petticoat because I would love to see what you all create. Here's the petticoat we're going to be making. Now it's not quite finished because I haven't yet attached the band at the top, but you'll more or less see that it's fully pleated and it's identical on both sides. So here are the materials you are going to need in order to make this flannel under petticoat. Got scissors, a ruler, embroidery scissors, silk twist, needles, pins, cotton twill tape, a thimble, chalk, beeswax, and of course, you've got your wool for the flannel under petticoat. I'm using a 100% wool flannel here and it's just perfect because it's very comfortable and also pleasant on the skin. The very first thing that you're going to want to do is to take your waist measurement. In this case, I'm just wrapping the tape measure around my natural waist, which is the smallest part of your body. Next, once you have your waist measurement, take a measurement from your waist going down to the point where you want your petticoat to end. This is usually between the knee and the bottom of the calf and I chose the halfway point so that the petticoat is short enough. That way it won't get in the way with any longer skirts. You'll want to write down these measurements. So here I'm just writing down the waist is 26 inches and then the waist to middle of the calf as 29 inches. And finally, we're just going to add one inch at the end for the hem allowance of the bottom of the petticoat. Fold your fabric in half, selvedge to selvedge, there's two layers here in the selvedges are folded up together. And we're going to be measuring on the straight of the grain going parallel to the selvedge, the measurement that we took from our waist to the middle of our calf. So here I just chose 29 inches and we'll be adding the hem allowance later. Here I'm adding just an extra inch for the hem allowance so that we can account for that. And I'm going in and cutting with my fabric scissors straight across perpendicular to the selvedges. You can draw a straight line across if it helps you, but in this case, I just did it by eye. Peel away your extra fabric. Here I'm just marking the wrong side of my fabric that way I'll be able to differentiate the two. With right sides together, fold over one half of your hem allowance and pin. In this case, my hem allowance was one inch total. So I'm folding over one half inch. Be sure to do this all the way across the entire length of the hem of the fabric. Now I'm just preparing my thread so that we can get to basting. Now this is a really important step to keep everything even. Run your thread through some beeswax conditioner in order to make it a bit stronger. I'm going in now and I'm basting the entire half inch of the folded hem allowance down. Here I'm just continuing to baste down the half inch folded over hem allowance. Be sure to pull your fabric straight that way no gathering occurs at your hem. Once you finish basting, fold over the second half of your hem allowance so it creates a tube that hides the raw edge. Now a total of one inch will be folded under using a double fold. Pin this down to secure it for sewing. Foul stitch the hem allowance down using small neat stitches to keep the entire hem neat and secure. Here's the finished hem and it should look something like this. Next, you're gonna measure the opening of your side seam. And in order to do so, measure about 10 inches down from the top of the fabric where the waistband will be parallel to the selvedge. Fold your fabric's selvedges together and neatly align them. Now pin all the way down the edge below that 10 inch marker that you just made. If you've cut off your selvedges for whatever reason, then you're going to want to use a Mantua Makers seam at this step, which you can find in my seven essential sewing stitches video, which I've linked down in the description. Now I'm just measuring the seam allowance for the side seam. And I decided to go with the standard 5 1⁄8 inch. Finally, use a backstitch to secure the entire side seam, starting at where that 10 inch marker line is that you drew and going down to the hem. If you have two side seams, then your second side seam will be sewn up all the way to the waistband top. Next, fold back the seam allowances of the side slit opening just above the backstitch side seam you made. Pin these in place and get ready to sew them down. Be sure to pin down both sides, stopping at that 10 inch marker point. Using a backstitch, sew down the seam allowances of the slit opening. Make sure, however, that the top of the backstitch is on the right side of the fabric because it's going to look the best from the outside. Once that's done, take your fabric and turn it right side out. Neatly line up the edges and fold the entire petticoat in half. Use some chalk to mark the halfway point. Since I chose to only use one meter of fabric for this under petticoat, I folded it in half and marked the halfway point, which will divide the front of the petticoat from the back of the petticoat. Next, I folded that halfway point again in half and I marked the quarter point, which is going to be the center point for my pleats. Lay your fabric out flat and place a pin at the point that divides the front of the petticoat from the back of the petticoat. If you used two meters of fabric for this, then likely your halfway point will be another seam. Now mark also the point which is going to be the center of your pleats. Here I'm just measuring the width of the fabric so that way I can determine how much fabric I'm going to need to condense. Next, measure four inches with the two-inch mark being the center of your very first pleat. Draw a line on both sides of that center marker two inches away from that point. These are going to be the sides of your first initial box pleat. Draw a point that is about four to five inches deep from the very edge of the top of your fabric. Now fold over your fabric so that the very first line on the perimeter of the box pleat gets folded under. And remember that all of this is occurring on the front side or the right side of the fabric. You get to decide how far folded over you want these to go. I decided just to go with about one half of an inch underneath and I'm just placing a pin here. Be sure to frequently straighten everything out to make sure that the pleats are even and place a second pin on the further down deeper marker as well. This is done just to keep everything neat and tidy. Create an even repeat of the same process just on the opposite side. Just take your measurements so that you can figure out approximately how many pleats you might need. Now pleating wasn't an exact science so just make a mark at every inch or two. This way you'll have a general guide for where you need to pleat. But at the end of the day, your pleats do not have to be perfect. Historically, pleats were not perfect and yours don't have to be either. Fold the edges of the pleats towards the box pleat in the center and pin. The very first pleat is going to meet the edge of the box pleat like you can see here in the video and continue to fold the pleats over matching one mark to the next going along. You get to decide how large or small you want your pleats to be. Keep working these pleats along the entire quarter of the fabric. Be sure to place a pin lower down as well so it's going to be two pins per pleat and this just helps to keep everything neat and even. Measure as you go along to see how many more pleats you're going to need. Instead of measuring, you can also hold the fabric up to your own waistline and just see whether or not it might fit. Since this is one quarter of the first half of the skirt, it's going to be one quarter the measurement of your waist. Repeat the exact same process onto the other quarter of the front panel of your petticoat. Remember to keep adjusting your pleats as you go along, that way they'll be as neat against one another as possible. After the front panel has been pinned, put it up against your waist and see if you're happy with the measurement. If you're happy with the way your pleats turned out, secure them with a backstitch, being sure to go through the fabric of all layers of the pleats, but be sure to avoid the back panel of the skirt. This backstitch should be about one quarter to one half inch away from the edge of the fabric. Continue it across both quarters of the front panel of the skirt. Finally, hide all of your knots at the wrong side of the fabric. So your front panel should end up looking something like this. Once you're happy with that, flip the skirt over and get ready to do the exact same process onto the back panel. Your under petticoat should look something like this on the front and on the back. The final step is for us to attach our cotton tape. Here I'm using a very thin cotton twill tape. This one is about one to one and a half centimeters in width, but you might want to opt for something like a two centimeter twill tape. Determine the length of twill tape you'll need by placing it against the edge of the entire petticoat and making sure that there is enough excess on both ends to be able to securely tie the petticoat closed. Pin the twill tape at the edge of the petticoat on the very front side of the fabric. Using small whip stitches, secure the twill tape to the edge of the petticoat on the right side of the fabric or the front panel that will be facing outwards. Once that's done, go to the inside of the petticoat or the wrong side and flipping the edge of the twill tape over the top of the edge of the fabric, just secure the other side of the twill tape down using again small whip stitches. Be sure to cover the entire edge of the fabric including the right and the wrong side. The final step is to secure the two ends of the twill tape that have been folded over with a quick whip stitch. You can choose to do the entire length of the ties like I did here for a neater finish, but if not, you can just do the place that is closest to the edge where the two meet. Once you get to the very end of the twill tape, be sure to flip the edge over and then again in half and secure that tight with a whip stitch. Basically, you just wanna make sure that you hem the very end of your twill tape, the part that you cut off of the spool because otherwise it might fray. Your twill tape ends should look something like this when they're all sewn up and repeat the exact same process on the other side. Here you have your finished under petticoat. It's super warm and the perfect undergarment for a colder autumnal, spring or winter day. And it's a wonderful addition to your wardrobe in particular if you love to wear 18th century inspired or historically accurate garments. I tried to keep everything in this tutorial super clear and concise, but in case you're still confused on a part, just leave me a comment down below and I will be sure to try and do my best to answer any questions you might have. As always, please do subscribe if you'd like to see more content on historical sewing or historical dress in general. I have a lot of new exciting content coming up and it's going to span a large variety of aspects of the historical fashion community. So definitely be sure to subscribe so you can look out for those. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you all in the next video. I'm just testing, testing, testing, testing, testing. ♪♪♪