Hello everyone, time to talk about some more of my 1890s Poison Ivy Cosplay, this time it’s the chemise and bloomers!
Now these I actually did out of order, following the rules about working from the inside out I started work on my chemise at the beginning, then added some more details later on, while the bloomers I made in a rush because I was annoyed about how long it was taking to make the sleeves for the shirtwaist and I wanted to feel like I was capable of finishing something.
I really recommend that, by the way. When you are doing a big project with lots of parts that will take forever, build in some smaller pieces that you can have fun with, and that will get your “I finished it!” dopamine going.
But let’s go back to the beginning.
I had first planned on doing a chemise with a gathered neck and no shaping for the shoulders. However I quickly realised that was not going to work, there was way, way too much gathered fabric around the neck and it would never fit under a corset and all the other layers of a Victorian outfit. Unfortunately, I figured this out after completing the chemise, so that first attempt had to be sacrificed to make the second. I did manage to save the original hem though, and a bit of the side seams, so at least I didn’t have to do all of that again.
To remake the collar and arm areas I used a tank top as a vague pattern piece, then added several inches to the width of the chest and the length of the straps. It wasn’t going to be AS gathered, but I still wanted that bit of adjustability for the future. This way if I ever want to do an off the shoulder look I can just loosen it and push the straps down. Very historically accurate and efficient.
I then sewed the shoulders and the side seams with French Seams so that they would be tidied away and wouldn’t fray. Then I used some of the offcuts from the first attempt at making a chemise to bind the arms and the neck, they weren’t quite at a 45 degree angle, but they weren’t too far off and I hated the idea of wasting all that fabric. I did forget to cover the ends of the binding properly, so I had to go back afterwards and sew little patches over the joins to keep it neat.
I put a pair of eyelets into the binding around the neckline with an awl, and used some thin crochet/embroidery cotton to sew it up, they ended up looking pretty good even if I do say myself. After that it was a pretty simple if tedious job to thread a green ribbon through the new draw string channel, I used a tapestry needle and tied the ribbon at the eye so that it wouldn’t come loose as I was running it through.
And that was pretty much it for a month or so. I made the rest of the costume and a night or two before I was due to leave for Glasgow I had some free time, and some left over embroidery thread from the hat and mask, so I pulled out the chemise again. I embroidered some little ivy leaves at the neckline and hem, in a sort of scattered fashion, which helped tie it into the costume more. If I end up with more off-cut bits of green embroidery thread, I think I will add to it again. It will be nice to have something that grows and continues from the project.
OK, moving on to the bloomers! I made these over the course of two days, entirely hand sewn. I will probably make about a hundred more because they are super comfy and make me look as cute as heck.
I decided for these I would go outside my usual colour scheme and instead pick from the Harley Quinn colours of red, white and black. In case you don’t know, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are girlfriends in a lot of modern DC media and I love that for them and for us readers.
I dove back into the massive stash of quilting fabric that my Aunt Nicky gave me when she was having a clear out. I found three fabric quarters that I thought would be perfect. They are all similar shades of red and white, though different patterns, so it gave a chaotic but not ugly contrast.
I cut one of the fat quarters in half length ways (hot dog bun not burger bun) and that gave me enough length to comfortably wrap around my hips with enough room left over for the gathers required of bloomers. Then I sewed one of the other fabric quarters to each of these halves. I used the Mantua Maker’s seam here because I find that the quickest way to finish a seam when I am hand sewing. This meant that the selvedges of both pieces of fabric were lined up at the sides while there were unfinished cuts at the top and bottom.
I took care of the bottom hem pretty quickly, turning it over twice and sewing down. I then pushed some elastic through this new drawstring channel on both pieces and sewed up the selvedge to selvedge seams to give two separate bloomer legs.
At this point, my project looked absolutely ridiculous, and I loved it. I had two detached bloomer legs, and if I waved them around a bit and giggled, no one was there to see. I was getting a wee bit worried about the length, however. I wanted them to go from waist to knee and they were a smidgen short for that, in the future I think using four fat quarters would work better. But I knew that I had some extra wide cotton tape that would work fine as a waistband and channel for the elastic, so I was confident that while it wouldn’t suddenly get a whole bunch longer, I would be able to preserve what length there already was and not have to sacrifice any for the waistband.
So I sewed the legs together, which I am probably going to have to go back over because it turns out that walking around puts a lot of pressure on that seam, and it needs a bit of TLC, and tried them on for the first time. As I predicted, they were a bit short, but as long as I let them sit at my hips rather than my waist, it works ok. Then I got out my extra wide cotton tape and finished off the waistband, sticking some more elastic in there once it was done,
And with that I had some extremely cute bloomers that I am absolutely delighted by. I am already looking through the fabric hoard to see whether I can make some more. I’ve never really been a shorts person, but I could see myself becoming a patchwork bloomers wearer with startling frequency.
But that is it for this week. Things have been a bit complicated here recently because there has been some serious DIY needed at my parents’ house. It’s not left me with much energy for crafting or writing, but I think we are past the worst of it now.
Next week I will be writing about the corset cover and shirtwaist, I think, including a little meander on how I got the most beautiful and most annoying buttons ever!
Stay safe,
K
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