HSM challenge 3 - a 17th century hip roll

 This is how to get big hips, and it's all lies. HSM challenge 3 was "comfort at home"

Make something to wear around the (historical) home or that would be generally only seen within the household (informal at-home wear, nightwear, undergarments).

I figured a hip roll, that would only be seen with the household could fit. Now when I started thinking about early 17th century I first didn't think about doing underwear, for a more simple look suitable for a farmer or some poor townspeople you don't really need them. But the more I thought about I wanted to make a proper hip roll to just get that typical silhouette.

Matthew Gnagy, the Modern Maker, has an instruction video on how to make the hip roll, and since I have his Modern Maker volume 2 with the pattern I decided to make one. The hip roll video is part of a series on how to construct a woman's full ensemble, and I really recommend watching it all. I used it to make my skirt, and I have been listening to them all and he gives really good advice on pattern making, fitting and how to make everything come together, even if you are not doing an exact copy of what he is making in the series.

One thing he mentions in the video is his argument for why this kind of construction is more likely than simply cutting out a tube or large crescent shaped pattern. The pattern is in his book and you need 16 pieces, something he mentions. Each piece is fairly small though so it was easy to cut it out from scrap pieces. I used a sturdy evenweave cotton, which was good because I couldn't get all pieces on the same grain, so some are cut on the cross grain as well. It is a modern fabric, and I decided to make the hip roll on the machine, since nobody will see it anyway.

I started out with sewing the piecces together, first 1x1, then 2x2 and so on.

All the pieces were sewn together, I used the wrong side of the fabric to not have such a loud colour pattern visible. I topstitched all the seams down to one side, to make them a bit sturdier. For a while I had thought about maybe using them as channels for boning, but I used too small of a seam allowance to be able to do that.

Then it was time to stuff the roll. Matthew Gnagy warns against using poly filling, since it usually gets warmer than using wool or cotton, but poly batting was what I had at hand, and this is a scrap project. I first rolled the batting into a roll before pushing it in. It was a bit complicated to get the filling in, I worked from both sides so that filling would meet in the middle.

I didn't stuff the roll very hard, both because I don't want an extreme roll and becausue it was so fiddly to get the filling into it.

The ends were gathered together and sewn shut. I also added two pieces of cotton tape to tie it in place.

Me wearing the roll. I got a bit surprised first that I had made it too big, then I realised that I had put around the waist, when I put it on the hips it fit perfectly.

Here I am wearing it under my supportive kirtle and to the right is the kirtle without the hip roll, to oshow the difference in the silhouette that it gives, but not too much difference in length of the kirtle.

I wore the hip roll at the 1620's weekend in Vadstena. I found that it felt like it was going to slide down all the time. Most of the time it stayed in place, but I had to push it up a few times. I am wondering if it would stay better put if I switch from tieing the tapes to having them fastened with a button instead?. The tapes were hard to get quite as tight, and I had to retie them from time to time, a button might keep everything more firmly in place.

Here are photos of me wearing the roll under the rest of my 1620s outfit.

Just the facts

What the item is: a stuffed hip roll
How it fits the challenge: It should only be seen while undressing at home
Material: scraps of cotton, probably less than 1 m in total
Pattern: Matthew Gnagy The Modern Maker volume 2
Year: early 17th century
Notions: poly batting, cotton tape
How historically accurate is it? There are no surviving patterns, but Matthew Gnagy gives a good reason on why he thinks this is a good pattern, also all the materials are modern and it is machine sewn so 30%
Hours to complete: It was quick and fun so max 3 hours
First worn: At Vadstena Military Days 17-19th of April
Total cost: really a scrap project, the fabric were from a pair of curtains that I got from work when they were switched for other ones. Maybe it would have cost around $15 to buy everything new.