2 November 2010

Pretty in Peach Petticoat

So a long time back I promised some pictures and have not yet posted them, my bad. Here are some pics of the petticoat I finished a few weeks ago. It is to go under my Butterick dress (still at a standstill) and is made from Simplicity 5006.

The peachy side...

The tiers are tulle in champagne and peach colours (a very subtle difference in shades, somehow adds luminence) and the yoke is made from the same fabrics as the dress, a peach crepe and apricot crepe-back satin, and is reversible in wearing (an adjustment to the pattern). I can't recall why I decided to use the crepe face of the satin, in hindsight I should have used the satin side for a lower friction surface.   It's not yet hemmed because I want to cut it to the right length for the dress.

In reverse ... apricot
 As you can see, I serged the seams of the tulle, I really wanted a quick and easy method, and I don't mind the lines, it is an undergarment after all!  It is supposed to be 4 panels per tier but I doubled up the fabric to cut it as 2 per tier, again to save effort.  Which I'm glad I did as the gathering was a mega pain. At around 8 yards of fabric gathering threads were just going to snap and cause tears, it couldn't be ruffled on the machine, more misery, and so I took my trusty cutting board, a box of 200 large-head pins and sat dividing the tulle lengths, folding and pinning which resulted in hundreds of neat, uniform, miniscule pleats which were very satisfying to the eye!

I finished off the seam between the peach tulle and crepe with some lovely handstitched trim I had in stash, haven't decided what to use on the other side, maybe some pale lace?


The waist band is elasticated with 28mm wide elastic and I stitched in the ditch at the side seams to help prevent it flipping and twisting in the channel.  TBH, I really dislike the elasticated waistband and if I use this pattern again I will switch it for a flat waistband which will look much smoother under a dress.  I may yet just undo the top of this one, dart and reband it, lets see how much it annoys me! 

Another thing I noticed when I tried on the finished garment was that the seam between yoke and tulle sits right across my "seat", a tad uncomfortable, especially when sitting!  Answer for this skirt is a cami-slip, which I intended to wear under the dress anyway. In future - extend yoke and add lining layer to petticoat. That said, I now have quite a choice of vintage petticoats patterns to try out, I have lemon tulle at the ready!

5 comments:

  1. What a great petticoat! I know all about the the riding up of the petticoat thing, most uncomfortable! When do you think the butterick dress will be finished? Ive got this pattern and can't wait to make it up. I'd love to see your completed.
    Kat

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  2. It's lovely, I can't wait to see the finished dress that it goes with!

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  3. Thank you ladies, you've given me the kick up the seat that I needed to get going again and get this dress finished so I can put it together with its partner. I have spent most of today with the fabrics in my hand thinking "Line or underline? Line or underline?", its this kind of procrastination that makes the process stall but I am now over that hurdle, bodice basted except for the back facing which I appear to have forgotten to cut...

    Kat, its so cool that you have the same vintage pattern! I hope that work won't interfere and I should be able to get it more or less made in the next week. The major issue at the moment is the sleeves, which I don't like (for some reason in the muslin there wasn't enough movement in them), I intend to redraft them so it may be photographed as a sleeveless dress until I have enough time to do that. Watch this space!

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  4. I've been trying to decide whether to use tulle or netting to make a petticoat.
    How hard is the fabric to work with?

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  5. Hi!

    It's surprisingly easy, it cuts well, doesn't fray and sewing it is a doddle. The big problem is that you can't mark it with chalk or notches as these are lost in the open texture so you have to use coloured thread tailor tacks. Buts it cheap to buy and worth trying!

    Its not terribly scratchy but you might want to consider lining it. I'm going to make cotton petticoats next time. I also use tulle to make ruffles on the lining of full skirts. Will post an example in the coming weeks, work permitting!

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