The Underskirt

Thursday 30th May

YaY!! I'm finally up to the underskirt!!

While I can make the skirt up to the waistband, without a properly fitting corset (since I've lost a little more weight) I cannot sew the skirt to the waistband, and with my current stress levels (bah life getting in the way!!!) I really can't be bothered with the stress of trying to figure out how to tweak the corset to get a proper waist reduction from it, just yet. Would like a bit of a break thank you life! =P

The pattern!

TV261-R 1885 Four-Gour Underskirt

The pattern is a little confusing when looking on the back for yardage, but I decided for that EXTRA large bustle butt to go with the bouffant option. I bought the yardage for the bouffant and ruffle; well at least I tried to.....but I got the end of the roll! There was 3.6 meters left, which is 3.94 yards. I needed 4 1/4 yards (3.8mtr) according to the pattern :s

I know most sewing patterns tell you to buy about 20cm more fabric than you need to allow for shrinkage in the wash (at least thats the reason I can assume for it lol) So I'm really hoping this cotton doesn't shrink too much and that this pattern does tell you to buy that extra.

If not I guess I'll be going without those ruffles!! (The bouffant only pattern asks for 4yards fabric) I did want to decorate the skirt hem, however if I don't have enough self fabric I guess I'll have to go searching for a black that matches! Finding matching blacks are notoriously difficuly however, so maybe change the fabric type and go for a linen/silk/taffeta/ect decoration on the hem? The change in the weave would account for the change in dye colour. 

The pattern is very easy to trace and cut out ^^ As the name suggests it's only four panels and a waistband lol. I flat lined the skirt as its a period technique. I wasn't going to do this....but thinking about it I decided it really would be best to flatline it if I'm going to trim the hem and if I'm wanting the skirt to last a little longer. I'm really glad I made this choice!!! Because in cutting out the fashion fabric I discovered just how much of a loose weave it was and how much it was going to twist and stretch out of shape =[ As it was trying to get the fashion fabric to sit perfectly flat over the broadcloth lining was close to a nightmare! I ironed both serperatly and then tried to lay the flimsier fashion fabric over the lining and pin, smoothing out as I went. This went ok....but I thought I'm going to iron them together as well, just to make sure it's perfectly flat. And I'm glad I did, because parts of the fashion fabric weren't as flat on the lining as I thought, and other parts stretched =[ The big back panel, which I can assure you was cut on the grain, still managed to stretch on the grain to be around an inch longer than the lining. Blast.

Another thing I did was to lengthen the centre back hem by about 10cm and shaped it to the original side seams of panel. This way I hopefully won't have the same bustle length issues I did with the petticoat. 

I added a layer of netting, as suggested by the pattern, to the bouffant area, stopping where the bouffant stops and shaped to the hem, on the inside of the flatlining before flatlining. This should give the bouffant some extra volume =D I zigzagged the bottom of the netting, so it didn't get caught on the petticoat or anything else. I was going to sew this by hand, until I realised no one will see it, and if it's maching stitched it has a better chance of not catching. It also keeps the netting in place, prevents it from rising up into the bouffant. 

The shaping of the netting to the lining

Showing the zigzags to stop the netting getting caught.