This guide covers the time span of my most frequently made sewing patterns: 1895 – 1905 circa. Down below you’ll find the necessary undergarments to use along with my patterns. Read carefully each chapter, since some udergarments may or may not be necessary for the years you’re working on.
Please, note that skipping one undergarment just ‘cos it’s not comfortable for our modern standards, will lead to lots of fitting issues.
- The Corset
- The bottom Pad
- The Petticoat(s)
- The Bustle Pad
- Bust pad or Ruffled corset cover?
- The Sleeve Supports
The Corset
The Corset is one of the main undergarments that needs to be worn along with your historical garments.
Wear a corset that fit into your desired era. A 1895 corset is a different from a 1900 ones. However, for those who don’t want to have or make tons of different corsets, I suggest to play a little bit with padding in order to correct possible flaws while achieving the right silhouette. E.g. I usually wear a 1901 corset even for my 1895ish clothing. I adjust the padding by removing the hip pads, adding a bust improver and a bustle pad.
The Bustle Pads
The bottom pad is crucial not only to smooth the lines, but it’s also a mandatory to support heavy skirts, especially if the back part of the waistband tends to sits too below the waistline due to the weight of the fabric. Well, in case you have this problem, 99% of the time is caused by not using the correct pad.
Here above you can see 3 different pads:
- 1895 Bustle pad: perfect for late victorian skirts which are very heavy and need additional back support. Wear it over the corset.
- 1900s Combination pad: this pad enhances the hips and the back. I used to worn two little pads under the corset, to make my hips a little bit roundish and more voluminous. This pad do the hard work for me and no more padding inside my corset is needed. It works for early edwardian skirts. Wear it over the corset.
- 1905 Scott’s pad: this is a pad which enhace the back silhouette just a little bit. It’s perfect for the Late Edwardian skirts which have less pad and less volume. Wear it over or under the corset.
The Petticoat(s)
A minimum of 1 petticoat is needed. I wrote “minimum” ‘cos usually two or maybe three petticoats are necessary to achieve the desired bottom fullness. Petticoats needs to be worn over the pad and slighly below the waistline. The Ladies used to keep the petticoats in place by adding a hook on the corset just few cm | inch below the waistline (photo) .
There are some antique photos where a lady is shown with the petticoat worn underneath the corset: this can be useful if the skirt has a very tight waistband/hip line (e.g. some Early Edwardian skirts) and the petticoat has too much bulkiness around the waistline.
The Bust Improver
Unless you have a generous breast (how lucky!) a bust pad is needed. The pigeon breast wasn’t a thing until the 1900s, but there are examples of padded breasts even earlier (around 1895). Padding the breast will fill the gap between your breast and the corset, giving a more rounded shape which will lead to a more accurate historical shape.
Bust pad or Ruffled corset cover?
- 1895 – 1899ish: wear a bust improver and a plain corset cover (e.g. this).
- 1900 – 1905ish: wear a but improver and a ruffled corset cover (e.g. this).
The Sleeve Supports
These are a mandatory for 1895ish bodices or where a leg o’ mutton sleeve is (even later).
You can find them here.
1895 – 1899ish Undergarments
For this time span I suggest to wear:
- Corset
- Bustle Pad
- Bust Improver
- Plain Corset Cover (if necessary)
- One/Two petticoats
- Sleeve improvers
1900 – 1905ish Undergarments
For this time span I suggest to wear:
- Corset
- Combinaion Pad (or Scott Hip pad)
- Bust Improver
- Ruffled Corset Cover
- One/Two petticoats
I just want to end this guide by saying that the 1898-1899 years starts to look like a first approach to the Edwardian silhouette. I suggest to not pad the hips and still use bust improver / bustle pad only.
I hope this guide was helpful!
Laura Nicolin 