Not to be a naysaying jerk or anything, but actually ready-made quilting is authentic, per se; that doesn't mean the stuff we can get now is the same thing. But professional quilters in Europe did petticoat panels that were sold, including exported to America. So no need to feel like you're cheating with the ready-made.
The trouble with trying to fit a quilted petticoat under a 1770s gown is of course that the gown is open from waist to hem, so you can't do what they did when quilted petticoats came back into fashion amongst the Victorians and sew a quilted lower half to a plain upper piece. But in period the quilting might have started at the knee, so you could take the stuffing out of the top part, thus less bulk. They also appear to have been less gathered and more shaped than standard petticoats -- so not a ginormous dart but a slightly more A-line cut than your usual 1770s petticoat. I mean, I'm sure you thought of all this already; I'm just in one of those compulsive-helpfulness moods. Too little sleep. Right now what's on my dummy (I still don't actually HAVE a dummy but what's all over my workroom) is income taxes. But then I have a yummy yellow-and-red shot taffeta to make a crispy petticoat from. Lauren ----- Original Message ----- From: "Suzi Clarke" <s...@suziclarke.co.uk> To: "Historical Costume" <h-cost...@indra.com> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 11:55:46 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: Re: [h-cost] What's your dressmaker's dummy wearing? 1770's stays, pocket hoops made of striped ticking, calico petticoat, and yards or ready made quilted silk that I am trying to wrastle into a quilted petticoat, without it adding 6" to the waist measurement. The only way it makes sense is to take a ginormous dart from waist to hem - not authentic, but then neither is ready made quilting! Suzi _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
