ewing nitting  mbroidery

One of the things that most interests me about historic fashion is the way garments were layered. Different combinations of garments were worn than are today and the garments were often arranged to display the undergarments in various ways--for example, by slashing the sleeves of a jacket.

Here, for example, we see a young Elizabeth I wearing a dress with two layers of sleeves, one slashed to show a shirt underneath, and a skirt that's deliberately left open to reveal a heavy underskirt. I didn't think that heavy layers of sleeves would translate well to current styles, but I did want to make a skirt with a visible underskirt.

Materials and Supplies

Construction

The pattern I used was for a handkerchief-hem skirt. I changed the hem so that it would be round. It was a full circle skirt (360 degrees, where many skirts that appear full are much less).

I made a full circle of the blue fabric and I cut the piece for the lining of the waistband from the blue. Then I cut the waistband itself from the black wool, and cut out about 210 degrees of a circle from the black.

I lined up the center of the split at the center front and basted the two pieces of the skirt together so that they would act like one piece as I sewed them into the waistband. Finally, I hemmed the edge of the split and hemmed the underskirt about a half inch shorter than the overskirt.

Results

I call this my "unsolicited compliments skirt" because whenever I wear it, people--strangers halfway down the subway platform, employees at my office cafeteria, and so forth--seem to go out of their way to tell me how much they like it. And it's comfortable to wear, too, probably because my version doesn't involve ten pounds of brocade.

Here is an aerial view of the garment spread out on a bed, showing the fullness of the skirt.

Here you can see the skirt as worn.