White Linen Petticoat

Back in January, I cut out a white linen petticoat. I’ve needed another white petticoat for a while; the two I have already are made for bustle style skirts and far too long in the back to wear with my more “everyday” walking skirts. And the black one I have is not always quite what you want.

And yes, that does say everything about how out in the weeds my style has gotten in the last couple of years. Sorry not sorry.

The base pattern was the Scroop Fantail Skirt. I didn’t have nearly as much linen as I thought (put a pin in that) so I wound up having to piece a little bit, but it wouldn’t really show under the final ruffle I wanted, right?

I was pretty sure I had another piece of the same linen, Pure Linen Envy featherlight white, but when I went looking for it, it was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere I could think of, and found any number of other white fabrics I had forgotten about… but no featherlight linen.

Luckily for me, one of my fellow Victorian stitchers came to my rescue, and sold me three metres of the stuff she had purchased at some point in the past. I got busy building my ruffle. I used up a solid 2m of the fabric. I thought I had calculated enough height of the ruffle to end up at 10”, but I did not allow sufficient hem turn up on both edges, I guess, as it wound up more like 8”. Still tolerable, but not as luxe as I had hoped for. It still took forever. At least the upside of it being ruffled is it makes it hard to see the unevenness of the pintucks.

Other than the ruffle, I made a couple of other minor changes: I added some darts at the sides of the waistline, since I find the waist-to-hip ratio in my Fantail skirt isn’t quite big enough. This kind of a dart is a period feature, as seen in my 1900s skirt, too, so it’s legit (for whatever that’s worth). Instead of the lovely pleats at the back I went for a gathered drawstring, which I really like for petticoats.

I used a topstitched bias facing to finish the waist instead of a full waistband. This is exactly how I finished my black petticoat, and I find it works well. I finally finished it in May, about four months ago, and it instantly became one of the single most worn items in my (admittedly unusual) wardrobe. However, since it’s underneath, I don’t get many pictures of it.

So, all else being equal, I am over the moon with it. I wouldn’t mind adding a wee bit of lace if I can find one I like with the linen (somehow adding cotton eyelet lace to a linen didn’t seem right, and I don’t have any cluny lace that seemed suitable. And next time I do a ruffle like this, I’ll definitely add a couple more inches of height (starting with a 14” strip instead of a 12”, I guess). Which I could definitely do because literally days after finishing the ruffle part I found my great big chunk of featherlight white linen. D’oh!

But all in all it is a great success, and has quickly become a workhorse in my wardrobe, even if it isn’t the most visible bit.

Though really, I’d be happy to wear it as an outer layer, too, if it weren’t so transparent.

So yes, I guess my petticoat needs a petticoat.