Over the fall and winter, I hardly did any sewing. I totally lacked any inspiration to sew. (There was also the factor of lack of time.) But recently I made a wild decision to embark into the long process of making an 1870s inspired ballgown along with all of the proper underpinnings. And of course I had to start with making the underpinnings.

The Pattern

The first item I got to work on was the chemise. Since I haven’t made a chemise before, I decided to purchase a pattern for it instead of drafting my own. I used Bella Mae’s 1870s Christine chemise pattern.

I started by printing out the pattern and taping the pages together before cutting the pattern pieces out. Honestly, I’ve always been a little wary of having to tape a pattern together because I’ve always heard that it’s complicated. However, I found it extremely straight-forward and easy to accomplish. Bella Mae provided excellent instructions for assembling the pattern.

The Yoke

Next, I ironed my fabric (white cotton muslin) and cut the pattern pieces out. Since I was adding some insertion lace, I had to do a little tweaking with that. But the pattern came with excellent instructions on how to add insertion lace, so that was quite easy to do as well. (Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough insertion lace to add as much as I originally wanted to, so I was only able to add it around the neckline.)

Adding Insertion Lace

Before adding the insertion lace, I sewed all of the shoulder and side seams together so that I could add the lace in one continuous piece. Next I hand felled those seams. Then I was finally able to add the insertion lace. This was actually my first time using insertion lace on a project (spoiler: there are a lot of firsts on this project), and I am so happy with how it turned out.

After adding the lace, I had to finish off the seams and decided to hand fell these seams as well. It took a LONG time to do it by hand, but honestly, I really love hand sewing so it was fun to do.

Lace Trim

For the lace trim on the yoke, I first tried some old eyelet lace that I had in my stash, but I wasn’t happy with how it looked. The color was off, and the lace wasn’t as wide as I wanted. So I unpicked the stitches and started over with some new lace.

My second lace option was some lovely eyelet lace that I had just purchased online from Hobby Lobby. (Here’s the link.) I was planning to use it on the petticoat and liked the idea of matching lace on the undergarments. After pinned it onto the neckline, I loved it. I ended up doing a scallop shape with the lace. (I was basically just trying to make it as close to Bella Mae’s original as I could. XD) I applied the lace to the armholes as well, then set to work sewing it all on and finishing all of those seams. It took quite some time as can be imagined.

The Chemise Skirt

Next, I got the work on the skirt part of the chemise. The skirt consists of two pieces that are sewn together at the sides, box-pleated into the yoke at the top, and contain ten pintucks along the bottom. First I sewed the two pieces together and felled the side seams with the help of my sewing machine. (I don’t like hand sewing THAT much.) I also did a rolled hem on the machine.

Pintucks

Then I tackled the pintucks. Unlike almost everything else on this project, this was actually not the first time I’ve done pintucks. However, I was utilizing a new technique on these pintucks which definitely improved the finished product.

Ten pintucks. Wow! (Seriously, that’s a lot of pintucks!) It took me a while to get them all done, but I was able to do all of them. First, I marked and pinned the pintucks, before machine sewing them. Instead of backstitching at the beginning and end like I’ve done on previous pintucks, this time I simply left a good length of extra thread and tied the ends together to secure the stitch. It ended up much less messy than my previous pintuck attempts.

Box Pleating

With the pintucks completed, I next had to gather the top of the chemise skirt into the yoke. Since the pattern called for tiny box pleats, that’s what I decided to use. To simplify the pleating process, however, I used the fork pleating method. (Here is a fork-pleating tutorial by Bella Mae.) And since I didn’t have any tiny forks, I ended up using a plastic fork with two of the prongs snapped off. It worked well for me. Having pinned the pleats in place, I sewed it right on to the yoke then set to work hand-felling the seam.

Conclusion

And with all of that done, the chemise was completed! I estimated that it took me about 15-20 hours of work. I didn’t keep good track of time when I was working, so that is just a very rough guess. Also it was my first time doing some techniques and such, so I was a bit slow. I expect the next chemise won’t take as long. 😉

All in all, I’m really happy with how it turned out. I may upsize it a bit next time, just to give a bit more ease of movement. (The armholes are on the smallish side for me, and I feel like a fuller skirt would be fun too.)

Have you ever attempted a historical sewing project? Do you prefer using patterns or drafting your own pattern? Any guess what color the ballgown will be?

P.S. You can also follow me at my other blog, Kenmore Pines 1, here.
To learn more about this blog check out my blog launch post here.

Also, I have provided links to products that I used for this project. These are not affiliate links! I am simply sharing what I used to make the chemise.