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.

HSM 2025: Foundations - mending my favorite shift

 The theme for November 2025 is foundations

Make something that is the foundation of a period outfit. This can be a literal foundation (ex: a shirt, stockings or stays) or an item that is a “foundation piece” in your wardrobe (ex: a garment or accessory that can be styled in many different ways). Get creative with your interpretation!

For this I chose to go back to the foundation piece of my 16th century wardrobe, my favorite shift.

This was the first iteration of it, back in 2016 when I posted it for the HSM challenge "tucks and pleats". This really is my favorite shift, it's so comfortable and the linen is so light and soft against the skin. Since I made that first version I quite soon made the neck opening smaller, so I didn't have that very wide opening. I did that by simply making the smocking on it tighter.

Back in 2023 I replaced the worn out facings on the cuffs and neckline, and made proper cloth buttons for closing the cuffs, it went with the HSM challenge "back to the beginnings"

I should probably have gone over the shift even more back in 2023, because this summer I realised that quite a few of the seams had started to go up, and the hem was definitely held in place by just a few struggling stitches. So I took an evening and mended all the holes and rehemmed it. I didn't take a phot of the shift, it looks exactly as before, just not as torn and worn as before.

What the item is: a 16th century smocked shift
How it fits the challenge: The shift is the foundation of all costumes, and this was also the first one I made so it is the foundation that I have based all my other 16th century pieces on. For this challenge I simply mended the worn out seams and rehemmed it.
Material: linen thread from the stash
Pattern: none
Year: 16th century
Notions: linen thread
How historically accurate is it? Mending is always historically accurate
Hours to complete: 2 hours
First worn: - 
Total cost: nothing, just some hours of work and thread from the stash

HSM 2025 February: Under it all - a 16th century underkirtle

 February: Under It All (2013 & 2014, 11th and 3rd most popular respectively): Make something that goes under your outer garments, to protect them from sweat/grime or provide the right shape/support.

During most of the winter and spring I worked on a new supporting underkirtle for my 16th century wear. This post is a summary of the individual posts that I have made during the project. 

It started out with a day of constructing the pattern using the bara system as developed by Mathew Gnagy - the Modern maker.   I detailed the work in this post. But basically the system allowed me to make a better fitting bodice than ever before. It still needed quite a lot of adjustments to make it sit tight enough though, this has a lot to do with my bust shape.

This is the work on the pattern, making sure that I get a deep neckline.

The construction of the kirtle can be found in this post. The kirtle was constructed from one layer of wool and one layer of linen. I opted for side closures, to make sure that it fit really well over the bust. The skirt was cut in gores. I had to keep adjusting the straps to give support to the bust, but I finally had a well fitting bodice and skirt.

AFter that it was only the hemming left, and I used a fairly wide strip of wool to make a hem facing, to give the hem a bit of body and make it stand out from the legs.

I started using the kirtle during the medieval week in Visby, but since it's an underkirtle it's been hard finding photos of me where it's not hidden under my outer gown or my big work apron, I found this photo of me and my husband though.

Just the HSM facts

What the item is: a supportive underkirtle
How it fits the challenge: It's the supporting garment that makes sure that everything else sits nice on the body
Material: 4 m of wool, 1 m of linen
Pattern: Constructed using the bara system by the Modern Maker and the pattern by Magnifica Sylvie La Chardonniere based on that system
Year: first half of the 16th century
Notions:linen thread, lacing cord
How historically accurate is it? Around 80%
Hours to complete: A month, it was an on and off project
First worn: Medieval Week in Visby
Total cost: $2500 for the wool and linen

16th century underkirtle

 Back in March I posted about constructing a new supportive underkirtle, using the barra system. Back then I only had some fiddling to do, and I hoped to have it finished in time for Leksand's Medieval Market. Well that didn't happen. With Project Toad going on I have had the project on the backburner, picking it up from time to time, but now it is finished as well.

I started with bodice. It's made from wool and with a linen lining. It closes at the sides with spiral lacing.

I was worried on how hard it would be to close it by myself, but when I switched the lacing from being laced up, as I normally do with frontlacing gowns, to lacing it down it was a lot easier. The laces are temporary, I will switch them for more historical ones before packing for Visby.

The skirt is cut in gores, and to be honest I mostly winged them, rather than following a pattern. That also to do with my getting some really low blood sugar while cutting them out, and low blood sugar leads to some strange decisions, but once done I couldn't change them..

I added the skirt, that was still wide enough that I needed to gather it to the bodice, and then I could try the whole kirtle on - and I was so dissappointed. Even if I had taken in the front seam some more, there was no support, even if it felt snug under the bust. The problem was that the straps were too long though, so when I shortened the straps, I finally got some support.

The result of the shortened strap is that it doesn't sit perfet at the back where it joins the back piece, but it is good enough.

Now it felt a lot better, and then it was only the hemming left.

The hem is done by adding a long strip of wool as a hem facing, that is my favorite way of making hems. I really like the extra stiffness it gives to the hem.

The finished kirtle, which ends at around midcalf.

HSM24 challenge 2 - a quilted petticoat

 There is something with the month of December and my creativity. I always end up making projects that I didn't have any plans for and yet I most say some of them also give me the greatest joy because there aren't months or weeks of planning and choices behind them, they are more of "make it work"-projects.

This week was no different. We finally got some decent winter weather with temperatures well below freezing. I talked to a colleague about that I should get myself modern insulated overskirt, quite popular in the winter here. She said that a friend of her had gotten a nice one in wool, and not the regular puffy versions. Well that got me thinking...

And the February HSM challenge is Seasons of Fashion: Make something designed for a specific season, whether that be a meteorological season (ex: winter or summer, or the dry/rainy season) or a cultural season (ex: Carnival, the London social ‘Season’)

I have always dreamt of a beautiful matelasse and embroidered 18th century petticoat. I haven't had the time or energy to make it myself, and the perfect quilted bedcover that I know is out there, has so far eluded me.

The dream

Looking around at digitaltmuseum.se, which holds digital collection from a lot of museums in Sweden including Nordiska Museet, I found quite a few examples of more simple quilted petticoats, called "stubb" in Swedish. Many of them are later, second half of the 19the century or early 20th century, and they are usually quite worn as well, obviously made from pieces that have been patched together.

Petticoat from my hometown of Falun
photo: Dalarnas museum

A common thing between them semmed to be that they are not quilted all the way to the top of the skirt, and some have a nice decorative binding at the lower part of the skirt. 

I decided to make one, I would use the 18th century style, with openings in the sides and tied together with ribbons, but I would do it more in style of the later skits and quilt rather than embroider the fabric. I also really liked the binding at the bottom.

Then it was time to rumble in my stash, and I immediately knew that I wanted to use a quite stiff green wool fabric that I have, since I don't consider it suitable for historical projects, both the stiffness and the colour is off. For the quilting I used an old cover for an ironing board and since that wasn't very wide I also added a fleece blanket for the wadding. On top of that was an old Christmas curtain from my mother-in-law

I definitely left the historical materials for the inside, but again this was what I had at home. I quilted the pieces together with the machine, and then it turned out that the curtain was really good. I didn't have to mark out the sewing lines but used the star pattern as guidelines. Still the wool fabric was a bit short, for a modern skirt it would have worked, but I wanted it to really go to at least half my calves. Time to rummage in the stash again, and now I decided to use a nice 18th century reproduction print that I bought more than a decade ago. I figured that if I really just cut out fairly narrow strips I would still have enough of the fabric to be able to make a nice jacket out of the fabric one day. I used a strip of fabric to the top, and bond the lower edge with the same fabric. I then knife pleated the top, which of course was easier since it was the cotton and not the thick wool, into a lining of the same wool as the main skirt. Finally I added ribbons to the side so that I can tie the skirt around the waist.

The finished skirt, which is an 18th century petticoat, but back in those days it would probably not have had extra strips of the expensive cotton. As a bonus it will work as a petticoat for folk fashion throughout the 19th century, and I am planning on using it on cold winter days as well with my modern clothes. I was really wondering if I would put this as challenge 2 or challenge 7, which is "always in style"

Me wearing the petticoat under a regular 18th century skirt. I loved how puffy and big the skirt got with it.

What the item is: a quilted petticoat
How it fits the challenge: It is a quilted petticoat to keep warm during the winter
Material: 1,8 m of green wool, 0,5 printed cotton for the outer, a lining of 0,7 m cotton felt and wadding.
Pattern: My own, but basically I just cut fabric in strips and pleated to the lining.
Year: 18th century
Notions: sewing thread
How historically accurate is it? The style is historical, but modern construction and on the inside it's all modern mateials so I would say 30%
Hours to complete: 5
First worn: As a petticoat on December 8th for a Christmas fair.
Total cost: stash project, but probably around $60 if bought new

HSM challenge 1 - back to the beginnings

 January: Back to the Beginning: Re-make one of your very first projects. Or make something that is the beginning of an entirely new outfit.

Back when I started my 16th century costuming I of course started with a shift. It was challenge 2 in the HSM 2016 challenge. It's been my favorite shift, because it's so comfy, but this summer I couldn't bring it to Visby because the facings of the neckline and cuffs had totally disintegrated.

This cuff was held on with a few stitches. So I decided to do what I should have done ages ago and repair it. I've reattched all the facings and I also replaced the safety pins that cloaed the cuffs with new cloth buttons. 

Now I am ready to use this shift again.

How it fits the challenge: I went bak to the very first 16th century shift I made and repaired it by replacing all the facings around the neckline and cuffs that had come loose. I also added cloth buttons to cloae thw cuffs instead of the safety pins I've used the last years.

Material: scraps of linen and cotton

Pattern: none

Year: ca 1520

Notions: sewing thread,ä

How historically accurate is it? Patching and repairing is correct so 90%

Hours to complete: 1 hour

First worn: Not yet 

Total cost: A stash project, but bought new around $1

 

Beach 2023 (or 1523)

 As I am heading off for Medieval Week in Visby again I realized that I needed something for bathing. The beach in Visby is honestly not a bathing beach, but it's the water and it's nice to go down and wash off. It's very public, so something to wear is essential. Last year I simply had a bikini, and when going down and up I pulled one of my regular shift over it to cover up, and look a bit more historical. 

Bathing shift were a thing in the Middle Ages, it's easy to google and find a lot of examples of them. Now most of them looks to be fairly tight around the bust, and from quite a sheer fabric. I decided to draw inspiration from them, but make a modern version.

I wanted to be able to pull the shift both down and up, so for that reason the shift is quite loose around the top, so I can pull it down over my bottom and hips. The straps have snaps, so when I want to get changed to what I'm going to wear I can undo the straps, pull the regular shift over me, and then remove the bathing shift by pulling it down. 

It's also quite a bit shorter than the images of the medieval bathing shifts, they were shorter, but not that short. I would say this is not historically accurate, but I can move around in the camp in it, and I can leave it to dry when we have the camp open for visitors. It is also totally machine sewn, since it wasn't a plan to make it historically accurate.

The top has a draw string as well as straps.

The straps are fastened with very modern snaps.

The pattern is really just a tube of fabric, and I have added a front and back gore to make it wider over the hips. 

HSM22 challenge 10s - my 1916 underwear

October: A Perfect 10: It’s the HSM’s 10th anniversary, so make something 10 themed. 10th century, the something-10s, something that incorporates 10 of something? Be creative with it!

The whole set with combinations, corset and petticoat

I have come to like the fashion in 1915-1917 more and more, and with the need for some underwear for my wedding gown it also gave me a reason to make a new set of underwear. I'm not going for an historical wedding gown, but I like the silhouette and want to make my wedding gown from that. Up until now I have made to with my Scroop Pattern Rilla corset that I patterned tested and an 1980's romantic skirt that I have turned into a petticoat. I had already made the Wearing History 1917 combinations, so now it was time for the rest of the underwear. 

When I pattern tested the Rilla corset I got the finished pattern as a reward. Since then Leimomi Oakes has made another set of sizes for the Rilla so that it now comes in size pack A, B and C. I had the size pack A and B, and I was just on the outside of the largest size in B. I still decided to try and work with that, instead of rebuying the pattern. I shouldn't have worried. The Scroop Patterns are really true to size, in fact I would say that they have a tendency to run a bit large. Every time that I have made a pattern and gone up a bit to be on the safe side I have had to take them in back to the size I should have picked from the start.

Since this is a pattern that can be bought I don't want to talk to much about the construction, it's all there in the very clear and good instructions. The only thing I get a bit worried about is to choose the length for the boning. I bought the boning before starting to sew and I picked the middle of the road in the size options given. It works, but if I hade sewn the boning channels first I would probably have chosen to have the back bones be the shortest option, they really go down deep on my bum. 

A thing that made the materials for the corset more expensive was that apparently it's impossible to find spring steel with plastic dipped ends in the EU. All the Swedish and contintenal sellers that I could find only had them precut and wanted you to put metallic end caps on them. I had to order the boning from VenaCava in the UK, and with Brexit that means that I also had to buy customs and toll cleareance for them.

The Rilla corset doesn't have a lot of reduction, it simply smooths out the curves. This makes it really comfortable. I am really unused to the longline corset though, and in that way I feel more restricted from the waist down, compared to Georgian stays or Victorian corsets. I definitely need to practice more about simply going to the bathroom, and being able to pick up the flap on the combinations so that I can button them to the front. I might have to adjust where I have placed the buttons on the combinations as well.

Since this is my wedding corset I made it from white coutil, and I also used gold details on the busk and lace. 

When the corset was done it was time for the petticoat, made from Scroop Patterns Ettie Pettie, that is designed to cover the time period 1900-1910 and goes really well with the Rilla corset. I loved the idea of making a really fluffy petticoat, and there are two ruffles with lace on the version that I made.

Inserting several rows of lace and using lace for the hems was tedoius, but I loved the result. There is a lot of lace, which is reflected in the price tag of the materials, there simply wasn't a lot of options when I wanted pure cotton lace. The lace also made the petticoat surprisingly heavy, considering that the fabric is a very light cotton batiste.

One mistake I made when cutting out the pattern was that I didn't adjust for my length. I have very short legs, but I'm used to being able to adjust the skirt length either at the waist or at the hem, which is possible when working with large rectangular pieces that are gathered to the waist. Instead of recutting the pattern pieces I made two tucks just above the first ruffle, which is a common detail on period petticoats. One of the pattern variations have similar tucks on the ruffle itself.

Another mistake I made was to simply don't read the full instructions. So keep in mind that you should mark out eight points and not just quarter points when it is time to gather the ruffle, and the outer ruffle is not attached exactly the same as the dust ruffle. The result was that the ruffle is not quite as evenly gathered as I would have liked, and instead of cutting away the fabric behind the lace covering where the ruffle is attached to the skirt I just sewed the lace over the seam as a ribbon. It works fine, and is an option in the pattern, but I really like the more delicate look when the fabric is cut away.

The one thing left to do now is to starch the petticoat to get it really fluffy and crisp, but that is for later in the summer.

The Historical Sew Monthly details

What the item is: - A corset and petticoat
How it fits the challenge: It is from the 1910s
Material: corset - 1 m cotton coutil, petticoat - 3 m cotton batist
Pattern: Scroop Patterns Rilla corset and Ettie Petticoat
Year: 1915-1917
Notions: For the petticoat -  7,5 m cotton insertion lace, 5,5 m hemming lace, elastic waistband, snaps, hook and eye, for the corset - 1 busk, 48 grommets and 24 spring steel bones in varying size, 1 m grosgrain tape, 6 m of corset lacing, 2,5 m bias tape
How historically accurate is it? I have follwed the instructions, so I think this one is pretty closee.
Hours to complete: one month for both
First worn: not yet
Total cost: $200 for both pieces

Wearing history's 1917 combinations

 I have been intrigued by combinations, the one piece garment that combined the chemise with drawers to be the layer between the skin and the corset in the first decades of the 20th century. One reason for that is because my thighs are so big that I get chafing if I don't wear some fabric between them. In older periods I simply wear a pair of linen or cotton shorts under the clothes, unhistorical but comfortable. With the longline corsets of the 1910s I have had problems with that. If I have the shorts under the corset it is really complicated to go to the bathroom, and if I have them over the corset it's hard to pull them up because the corset is so long.

Wearing history has several combination patterns and I decided to go for the ca 1917 pattern.

It is based on this original pattern

It has just a crotch flap instead of full drawers, and I felt that if the crotch flap didn't work out it would be simple to just cut it off and have a nice and cute chemise.

As usual with the Wearing history patterns there are not a lot of instructions, but they are not needed either because it is really just two pieces that needs to be sewn together. Leimomi Oakes of The Dreamstress was a pattern tester for this and she has also made a good post about it, that I used for some further inspiration.

The pattern ended before my size, but looking at the measurements given I realized that the pattern is very roomy, and since I didn't want a lot of extra fabric under the corset I had no problem going down a size to the largest available on the pattern. It is still a roomy and comfortable garment.

I opted for the straight top, with just a pair of satin ribbons for shoulder straps. This was simply because I didn't have enough fabric to cut out both the shoulder straps and the crotch flap. I also felt that the straight top felt a bit more "modern" and forward looking to the 1920s. 

The seams are sewn with french seams, if you don't know how to do it there are a lot of tutorials out there for french seams. In the back the fabric needs to be pleated into a box pleat, I hid the raw edges of the fabric under a piece of cotton tape.

With inspiration from the Dreamstress I baglined the crotch flap. Unlike in the instructions I didn't make button holes, instead I just metallic snaps to fasten it.

There are no instructions on where the crotch flap should be fastened. At first I simply fastened it at the bottom of the front, but when I tried the combinations on the crotch flap hung so low that it didn't do anything to prevent my thighs rubbing each other. After some experimentation I raised the fastening quite a lot. 

Now I have tried the combinations on while just walking around at home and they feel really comfortable, I still haven't tried them under a corset. It will be then that I discover if the raised crotch flap will be a problem, and if they really will help against the chafing. 

Back to the 18th century

 It is time for me to return to the 18th century. I haven't done anything since the Lady Poe gown, and already when doing that I realised that I needed a shift and a new pair of stays. Now my pair of stays works for the mid 18th century, but I have always loved the later 18th century silhouette, and the only stays I had for that was my Desert Rose stays. And they were done when I was at my tiniest, so I was able to wear them twice before I started gaining back my weight again.

This is my start. The mound of fabric in the lower right is a new chemise. I have sewn it together and is working on felling the seams before hemming  everything. This is a project that I will bring with me to our cosplay meets on Tuesdays since it's a simple thing to just sit and handsew and talk.

Then it's on to the stays. Together with my weight gain I have also had a lot of issues with my shoulders the last few year, and now it is impossible for me to lace up a corset or stays in the back. I need a pair of frontlacing stays. I decided to buy the Redthreaded 1780s front lacing stays instead of fiddling with drafting my own pattern.

For the stays I'm doing more of a theatrical than historical constructions. I'm using coutil as the strength layer. My original plan was to use linen or cotton canvas, but I couldn't find any in my stash. Since I had to order fabric and the place that I ordered from had a sale on coutil if you bought more than 3 meters I decided to use coutil, and buy enough of it so I can make the 1910s corset that I will need to make later in the year. Here is a big difference from the last time I made corsets or stays, brexit has made it hard to order from my favorite supply site, so I now have to go back to Swedish sites. The good thing is that there are now several options selling boning and corset fabrics in Sweden as well, which really wasn't the case when I started making corsets.

For the inner layer I'm using a sand/grey cotton twill from the stash, and since I want my stays to look good I found that floral cotton in the stash as well. It's not 18th century, but I go for cute rather than accurate with the stays.