I need help to plan a long term project...

'I know nothing' .. but I Googled Quilted Petticoat and then Quilted Petticoat Patterns, and there seemed to be some good starting places - pictures, descriptions, and I met a couple of hand-drawn sketches.

A good costume museum might be able to help.

Sally at the Seaside~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~uk

Kate XXXXXX wrote:

I had a wonderful one, Kate. Don't know where it is now, probably making wedding plans or a grand ball somewhere. That beauty has supported some gorgeous gowns. It has had to go on without me. =) Random thoughts: Unless you're planning it for someone extremely thin, you'll want to begin the fullness well below the waistline. Will probably want to make the waistband adjustable with a drawstring or something more clever so it can be shared. And, thinking along those lines - you'll want to put in a deep tuck so it can be lengthened without a lot of trouble. Then, the fun begins. One more thought. You may want to make the petticoat's hem edge very much like a quilt's binding because that's where the most wear will occur. Thank you for sharing your project with us; we'll enjoy the journey. Polly

"Kate XXXXXX" I have the ambition to make an 18th C style quilted petticoat, and am

This is an interesting site (with other links at the bottom):

And here is someone who made one:

I did that and got overwhealmed! I'm hoping someone has a tried and tested pattern they liked... :)

I'd forgotten about Smoke & Fire - thanks for the reminder. :)

Googling got me in a mess - too much to cope with, no idea where to start! Fibro-fog = Kate is bear of very little brain this week.

Good ideas... Mostly it'll be 'for me' - so adjustable 28"-30" waist by the time I get to it. Got a little excess to shed here, but there's plenty of time.

Good thought! I shall see what the V&A ones are finished with as well... I shall enjoy doing this when I get to it. I'm thinking maybe a slow project for slack moments over the winter. I may even hand quilt it, if the paws hold out.

Brill! Ta muchly. Eye candy to feast on! :)

I presume you found the Snowshill Collection when you Googled? If not, that's where I would start. I don't know what era their things are, though. . In message , Kate XXXXXX writes

My favorite century.

The local library is short on fashion texts, thus I usually must search online. For period specific I almost always start at the Costumer's Manifesto.

Here is their page on 18th century costume:

The page is miles long and all links or specifics.

There is a seperate page for corsets and undergarments, but that page leans heavily to corsets, and much less to other sorts of underthings.

Obviously a lot of pages are going to focus on the silhouette, and it certainly did change over the course of that century! Are you looking for something that would go with the gown that could go to court without you and nobody would notice you were missing, something along the empire lines, or something in between? Really there were a lot of radical changes in style during that century. It ranged from nearly geometrical silhouettes defying the laws of physics and supported by a gross ton of metal, to light and breezy.

Here are directions for making a saque from the early part of the century, it contains petticoat directions.:

For quilting patterns, my best suggestion is to wade through the various fashion and textile museums, both online and in print. From what I recall having seen, most of the quilting on petticoats tended to the extremely utilitarian. As I recollect honeycomb patterns, either channel style or simple, were often used in quilted clothing then. I could be mixing my centuries though.

NightMist

Another I'd forgotten about... I must see if they have produced a pattern...

I have patterns for all sorts of 18th C gowns and other garments, but not of the quilting pattern for a petticoat. I was thinking of something along these lines:

Some of the Snowshill Collection at least is 1770 onwards. A fantastic resource if you can find it is a book called 'Patterns of Fashion 1 c.1660-1860 Englishwomen's dresses and their construction', it is by Janet Arnold. Costumes from various collections, including Snowshill are broken down and although you need to be a decent seamstress before you start, they are pretty good. If you're not quite so bothered about getting it absolutely historically accurate but want the right shape etc, a great book is 'Patterns for theatrical costumes' by Katherine Stand Holkeboer. This covers everything from ancient Egypt up to 1915. Again, basic pattern shapes and little in the way of instructions, but very useful.

When I was costuming regularly I preferred the latter of these two as the patterns were easier to alter and adapt. They also make a good starting point if you're wanting to draft your own pattern. Hope this helps.

In message , Patti writes

Ahh, so it's not so much the garment pattern you're interested in, but the quilting pattern. In which case Patterns for theatrical costumes would be better as it gives examples of decorative patterns for each era. You'd have to work it up from there, but....

I have both these books - had them for years - and I can get a historically accurate pattern for a basic petticoat no problem. The bit I want is the already drafted quilting pattern to put ON the petticoat!

I like Janet Arnold better... My personal preference is for the more accurate historical method rather than the theatrical, for re-enactment type clothing.

I've seen loads of pictures of the type of thing I want, but I can't find either a graph or a full sized pattern for the quilting, and right now I just don't want to do that bit of the work...

Yes, that's the bit I'm trying to avoid! Hands are really not up to it, and I plan to quilt this by machine if possible. I was thinking if I DID end up doing it by hand, I'd try a silk batting: might be easier to sew through...

How about tracing what parts of the patterns you can see in the pictures; try 'joining them up into a coherent whole, then take the result to a copy shop for enlargement to whatever size you need. That way it would be authentic.

In message , Kate XXXXXX writes

snipped

This is exactly what I want to avoid doing if possible. Hands not up to it right now.