Civil War Underpinnings

Ah, the ubiquitous Civil War Dress. This era was the first era of interest for me way back when I was about 14. My very first dress I made for this era I'm not particularly proud of… It was made out of a purple, shiny, stretchy, synthetic fabric of some sort. It closed up the front with, wait for it, velcro. My hoop skirt was probably the most humorous part of the outfit. My dad had some old bandsaw blades that he lent to me to use as my hoops. I covered the still rather sharp edges with masking tape and attached the two hoops to a makeshift skirt made out of an old sheet. I wore this dress as a Halloween costume. As I was walking, one of the hoops came unattached so I had to carry it. 

I made the rest of the  underpinnings afterwards. I still use the petticoats and the chemise. The corset is a bit small, but I can still wear it.

I purchased this lovely cage crinoline. Disregard the petticoats on the floor...

Here's the crinoline with my two petticoats over the top

The chemise. It's really quite comfortable, although I think I might have put it on my dress form backwards...

And the corset…This was the first corset I had ever made. I used a simplicity pattern. I didn't make a mockup, so it was much too big at first, thanks to the added ease that commercial patterns include. "Never fear!" thought 14 year old me, "I'll just take it in using additional seams!" So that's what I did. It still gives the shape I wanted. I will admit that at the time I still had a highly romanticized view of corsets. I was convinced that I needed to make my waist as small as I could. And at the time I could probably lace myself down to about 22 inches using this corset. But as I have matured, I know now that corsets, at least during this particular time period, weren't used for tight lacing. They were used for a slight reduction in waist and support for the bust. This being said, I had to add bust gussets to this corset to make it even remotely comfortable to wear nowadays. The hips are too small now, too. But if I lace it only just snug, it's not too bad. 

Just goes to show how I have improved as a seamstress. Look at this corset and look at my most recent corset and it's hard to tell that they were made by the same person. I might even make a new corset for this era now that I know how to fit them properly.