An Under-hoop petticoat for Taylor P.

You can have the most beautiful costuming in the world, but if the right underthings are not... well, under it, the effect is less than ideal.

An under-hoop petticoat is one of the most basic pieces of 19th century under clothing.  Worn for modesty, and in winter months, warmth, petticoats help fill out the correct shape of the clothing, as well as keep the dust and dirt off of the lady wearing them.

I made Taylor P.'s today, using a twin size dust ruffle/bed skirt with an eyelet fabric ruffle.  Here is the monster before I got it under control:

I laid the thing out flat in the floor and cut it in half lengthways, then cut the end ruffle off:

Now it's much more manageable!

The next steps were unfathomably easy:

Sew down the raw edge of the short side, sew the short sides together about 3/4 of the way up, to make a back seam, sew down the raw edge of the long side and fold and sew again to make a casing, knot a length of satin ribbon and thread it through to make it drawstring, and it's done!

Sewing down raw edges.

Finished product! :)

The whole thing took me the better part of 20 minutes (ish).  Now it's off to make supper for the children, and then back to work on more of Taylor's things later tonight!