ON DRESSING THE PART
On Making a Petticoat:
by Barbara Delorey
Your petticoat will be made of two, three or four fabric
panels, depending on the width of your fabric. The total
circumference should be three to four yards at the hem. The
panels are straight, not tapered. Each panel should be about
4" longer than your waist to floor measurement.
- Seam the panels together.
- Make a narrow hem at the bottom.
- Make sure that center front is the center of one of the
panels, measure up from the hem the length you want your
petticoat to be at that point (hem to waist), mark with
pin. Add 1/2" and make a tapered cut from center
front to about a foot along the top edge of the fabric.
If you wish your petticoat to train slightly at the back,
make no further cuts. If you prefer to have it clear the
ground, repeat the procedure according to the center back
measurement (hem to waist). Note that the sides will be
longer than front (and back).
- Match center front and center back and mark the location
of side slits. If they fall on a seam, simply open the
seam 9". If not on a seam, slit the fabric down
9". Hem the slits.
- Measure your waist, divide by 2 and this will be the
measurement that you will pleat the front half to, and
then the back half. Make a box pleat center front, then
pleat toward center back from there. Center back will
have an inverted pleat. The pleats are narrow on top and
wider underneath. Bind the top with ribbon or tape that
extends 12 to 15 inches on each end; the back will be
tied to the front at the sides when worn.
Now, there is another way of doing this, it too was used,
though you do not achieve the look of the pleated and shaped
p'coat above.
- Seam the panels together.
- Make a narrow hem at the bottom.
- Make a casing at the top and insert a drawstring.
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