1940s knickers and mini bloomers

Pattern: Vera Venus French knickers pattern (free)

Fabric: about 0.6 m light pink rayon (?) each

Haberdasheries: A button and three snap fasteners each; 1.7 m lace for the knickers, 1 m elastic for the bloomers

When I made my first 1940s clothes, I also made two pairs of knickers, because the event I was attending was two days long. But the D-Day trip was going to have us walking around in 1940s style for four days, so I needed two more pairs of knickers! I think it’s fun to wear authentic underwear below my historical clothes, even if no one sees it, but also, it’s often more handy. In the case of 1940s clothing, wearing knickers over a suspender belt is really much handier than wearing modern briefs underneath the suspender when going to the lavatory, because you can lower the knickers leaving the suspender neatly in place.

Because I’m not that fond of making exactly the same thing twice, I decided to use a new pattern: the Vera Venus French knickers pattern.

Printing the pattern did take a LOT of paper. Page 7 could easily have been skipped or left empty. I cut up the leftovers into grocery list papers.

After printing the pattern and sticking it together, I looked at my previous undie patterns and thought this one was almost the same as the Complete Course In Dressmaking one, but it isn’t – there’s a lot less fabric in this one.

Vera suggests “you may like to put elastic in the hem of the legs turn them into […] mini-bloomers”. Wait, did I hear mini bloomers? I thought that sounded fabulous, so I made one regular pair and one pair of mini bloomers, which I cut 4 cm longer than the pattern, because otherwise I thought them a bit short for bloomers. As I thought might be the case, the elastic in the bloomers needs to be pulled down regularly when wearing them.

The knickers are definitely my favourite 1930s-40s underpants so far. They fit perfectly and aren’t too airy, so it doesn’t feel like I haven’t got any knickers on. I also love this colour fabric!

1940s suspender belt

Fabric: A cotton satin Ikea Gäspa sheet

Haberdasheries: 1.5 m 2 cm wide elastic, 6 suspender clips, 6 suspender regulators, two suspender hooks

When I made my first 1940s clothes in 2012, I attempted to make underwear as well, but I made things unnecessarily difficult for myself by making everything double layered so it would be neat on the inside as well.

I then decided to be lazy and order underwear from What Katie Did. I had ordered stockings from them before and liked those, but I was rather disappointed by their underwear. It’s made of cheap polyester (at 40 euros apiece surely they could have used something nicer?), I didn’t find the garments neatly sewed at all, but most importantly the fit of the bras was the most terrible I ever encountered, at least on me. The Harlow deep suspender belt was fine, the Harlow Bullet Bra was alright but made a weird dent, the Padded Bullet Bra was too pointy for the 1940s, and the most 1940s-styled one, L6036 CC09, just looked awful. Since I wanted a matching bra and suspenders but none of the bras were good enough to keep, I had to return the suspenders as well. Returning went fine, I’ll give them that.

Having found that many original suspenders were simply hemmed instead of double layered, I decided to try to make one again, a bit similar to the Harlow one.

I wanted to use light pink satin cotton but opted for white instead because I couldn’t find pink suspender clips. White ones were readily available though. I ordered six complete clips, and got seven :P.

The suspenders I ordered had hooks to make them detachable, but there was no need for that, so I removed the hooks and used them for the closure. I bought ribbed elastic for the closure, but since that actually had more of an old-fashioned feel about it than the suspender elastic, I decided to replace that. I guess next time I’ll buy separate parts!

I used tie wraps as bones next to the closure in the back. I wouldn’t dream of using plastic boning in a corset, but I felt that here, steel would be a bit too heavy duty.

I left off the lace (which the Harlow suspender has) as the original examples I found didn’t have any.

I wanted to test-wear the belt around the house but didn’t get round to that. I wore it for four consecutive days during the D-Day commemoration though, and am super pleased with it! It fits perfectly, neither slipping down nor feeling tight, and the clips are much easier to fasten to my stockings than the smaller clips of the modern belt I used before, didn’t snap open once, and keep the stockings in place very well.

My portfolio

This is the old version of my portfolio. For the new one, have a look on my Pinterest board!


Every time I make something new, I try to post it. But I already made lots of things before I started this blog! Here’s an overview of all the historical items I’ve made so far, largely in the order of making.

When no mention of a pattern is made, that means I improvised.

 

My first ever historical piece, a Regency day dress

(Photo by Johan Evers)

I found it difficult to get my hair right in the beginning, but I do love the décor on this photo. I have since lowered the neckline of this dress, and added a gold band on top of the ribbon at the waist and wrists.

White Regency bonnet with flowers, and matching reticule

A Regency spencer with regimental buttons of the 92nd Highland regiment

Regency redingote, beret and matching reticule

A Regency ball gown made of silk with a woven in kashmir pattern

Late 1920s clothing

 

This is a cotton satin slip with matching tap pants. The slip was inspired by the blue crepe the Chine one with lace insertion on page 116 of Fashion From The 18th To The 20th Century by the Kyoto Costume Institute.

I based the pattern for this coat on my bath robe :P.

Regency short stays

Pattern: I got a hand-drawn copy of the pattern for this from a friend, so I’m not sure which it is; possibly Simplicity 4052 or Sense & Sensibility Regency Underthings.

Regency camp follower’s / working class outfit

A Regency turban to match my knitted pineapple reticule

A pair of Regency gentleman’s breeches

(Photo by Stephan Vroom)

A Regency stovepipe hat and woollen spencer

(Photo by Hans Hoevenaar)

Regency morning jacket and cap

Jacket pattern: Patterns of Fashion 1 by Janet Arnold, a shortened version of the c. 1795-1803 Victoria & Albert Museum robe (pages 43-45).

17th century clothing

(The brown spots aren’t due to wearing, but to the tea I spilled over the corset just after finishing it...)

Corset pattern: drafted based on The ‘pair of straight bodies’ and ‘a pair of drawers’ dating from 1603 which Clothe the Effigy of Queen Elizabeth I in Westminster Abbey (Costume, vol. 41, 2007) by Janet Arnold, and http://www.elizabethancostume.net/effigy.htm

Bum roll pattern: drafted based on http://www.elizabethancostume.net/bumroll.html

Drawers pattern: Patterns of Fashion 4 by Janet Arnold, number 64 (pages 50-51 and 106); embroidery pattern from Blackwork Embroidery Archives.

 

Victorian underwear

(This one’s still under construction, as I want to add lace at the top, and flossing.)

Corset pattern: Laughing Moon Mercantile #100 Ladies' Victorian Underwear, Silverado corset

Boer war nurse outfit

(Photo by Christine Pet-Sepers)

Bodice pattern: Truly Victorian 420, 1879 Cuirass bodice with evening options (modified)

Skirt pattern: Truly Victorian 291, 1898 Walking skirt 

A late 1920s party dress and matching head dress

A 1940s outfit

Knickers patterns: Vera Venus’s free circular knickers pattern, and circular drawers pattern from A Complete Course In Dressmaking In Twelve Lessons by Isabel de Nyse Conover (1921)

Blouse pattern: Simplicity 1430 (vintage)

Skirt pattern: Simplicity 4915 (vintage)

Two pairs of 1930s knickers

Here are two pairs of knickers which I made to wear under my 1940s outfit for my first World War II event. I used thin cotton fabric in quite bright pink. It really wasn’t the colour I was looking for, but this fabric was the only suitable one I could find (I didn’t want to use silk as cotton seemed more suitable for wartime undies). So I was chuffed when I saw exactly this colour on an image from the period!  > > >

The first pair of knickers was made using Vera Venus’s free circular knickers pattern.

I drafted the pattern according to the instructions, though I wondered whether I shouldn’t make the waist a bit larger so it wouldn’t fit too tightly. It’s surprising how much wider the waistline is once cut from the fabric, though! The rest of the pattern was also quite straightforward. I made the closure in the placket using a snap fastener and some hooks and worked loops.

For the second pair, I used a circular drawers pattern from A Complete Course In Dressmaking In Twelve Lessons by Isabel de Nyse Conover (1921). Though also called ‘circular’, this pattern doesn’t require cutting a full circle, so it takes up less fabric. As seems usual for older patterns though, it’s more of a guideline – drafting the legs is described in some detail, but no explanation is given as to how to draft the belt! Luckily, it wasn’t hard to improvise. The fact that facings are used to cover the separate legs suggests that the crotch is meant to be left open. I didn’t want that, so I omitted the facings and simply sewed the trouser legs together. I made a back closure with two hooks and worked loops.

Arm appears courtesy of my boyfriend ;).

Some detail photos of knickers 1:

And some of knickers 2: