Every one loves the beautiful lace combination suit at the MET museum! And because my first try didn’t turn out like the MET combinations at all, I made another Edwardian lace combination suit which is much more true to the original. 😊 I made some minor adjustments because I didn’t like some details of the MET combinations, like the wide bodice part. But overall it’s pretty similar!
‘There are some things in a girl’s wardrobe that are counted as luxuries and there are others which are absolute necessities.’ The combination ‘is one of the necessities.’ (School Sewing Based On Home Problems, 1916)
Related: Edwardian Combination – First Try
Edwardian Lace Combinations – Second Try!
A couple of years ago, I already made Edwardian combinations. But my first Edwardian combination suit wasn’t historically correct and wasn’t like my inspiration – the beautiful lace combinations at the MET museum – at all! So I made a completely new Edwardian lace combination suit. And I turned my old combinations into a historically correct Edwardian lace slip that I can also wear as a summer dress today.
Related: Refashioned Edwardian Lace Slip
Differences Between My & The MET Combination Suit
I didn’t like some features of the original combination suit at the MET museum. Like, I don’t like the blousy, wide bodice part of the MET combinations. After many years of making Edwardian underwear, I know that the bodice parts of chemises and combination suits should fit snugly – especially at the sides and back – to make the waist appear as small as possible and not to create bulk under form-fitting Edwardian clothing. So I made my Edwardian combination suit more fitted at the sides and back.
I also didn’t like the lace inserts at the waist and sides of the antique combination suit. I think it distracts from the elegant French lines of the combinations. So I omitted those lace inserts.
And I loved the beading lace on the original 1900s combinations at the waist and over the ruffles on the drawers where the silk ribbon is threaded through. But unfortunately, today you can no longer find fine cotton beading lace for threading wide silk ribbons through! So I had to use another historically accurate solution to make holes for the wide silk ribbons. And so I made countless of buttonholes – on the bias! 🙃 More about this below.
I also decided not just to use a wide lace trim at the top and bottom like the 1900s combination suit has. Mainly because I couldn’t find a suitable, fine, wide cotton lace trim at the time. And additionally, these wide cotton Valenciennes lace trims are incredibly expensive! 😉 So I decided to use fine cotton Valenciennes lace trim from my stash and make lace inserts alternating with pintucks at the top of my Edwardian combinations.
Edwardian Combinations Pattern
Because I cut my first Edwardian combinations apart anyway, I used it to make a pattern for these combinations. But I made some adjustments to my first pattern: I reduced the widths of the bodice part to make it fit better and not create unsightly bulk under Edwardian clothing. I also changed the neckline and made the bodice shorter in the back.
Then I reshaped the drawers part of the combinations so that the combination suit overlaps more at the front and especially at the back. I also made the inverted box pleat at the back deeper. The drawers part is based on this free antique Edwardian drawers pattern. By the way, circular drawers with wide legs like these were called ‘French drawers’ in the Edwardian era.
‘In the days of full skirts the wide, circular ones are very popular’ (School Sewing Based On Home Problems, 1916).
Batiste & Valenciennes Lace
This time I used thin white cotton batiste fabric: It’s so thin that it’s partly see-through. I use this kind of fabric for all my fine Edwardian lingerie like my Edwardian Valenciennes lace petticoat. And the fabric looks very similar to the fabric of the MET combinations.
Related: Edwardian Valenciennes Lace Petticoat
‘The material […] will depend on whether they are to be worn daily or occasionally. For service, long cloth or cambric is generally used; the softer nainsook or linen may be used for the finer ones.’ (School Sewing Based On Home Problems, 1916)
I embellished the front of my Edwardian lace combinations with cotton Valenciennes lace inserts. Valenciennes lace is the typical lace of Edwardian lingerie. Almost all underwear in the 1900s was trimmed with Valenciennes lace!
Valenciennes lace is a kind of bobbin lace but way more delicate than ordinary cotton bobbin lace. Valenciennes lace is made of cotton and can be difficult to find nowadays. It’s also very expensive – especially wide Valenciennes lace trim.
Valenciennes Lace Inserts
The Valenciennes lace insertion on the front of my Edwardian combinations is inspired by this 1906 corset cover ‘for evening or general purposes’:
‘This simple mode is illustrated in […] nainsook with Valenciennes lace, insertion, ribbon and beading […] the front has groups of short lingerie tucks, between which dainty trimming is sometimes inserted […] The lower edge is gathered under a band of beading, to which a circular skirt may be added.’ (Butterick, 1906)
Related: 6 Ways How To Insert Lace
I added groups of 3 pintucks between the lace inserts. And I left part of the lace inserts unstitched to thread silk ribbon through like on this antique Edwardian undergarment and this 1900s camisole with lace inserts, pintucks & pink silk ribbon.
Turquoise Silk Ribbon
The MET combination suit has turquoise silk ribbons threaded through the beading lace. But I couldn’t find turquoise silk ribbon. Therefore I used white silk ribbons from my stash and dyed them with turquoise fabric dye in the washing machine.
Silk Ribbon Shoulder Straps
Because I made this Edwardian combination suit to wear under my Edwardian silk ball gown that I’m currently sewing, I added silk ribbon shoulder straps. Silk ribbon shoulder straps had a practical reason: Ribbon shoulder straps suggested that the underwear was intended to be worn under Edwardian evening dresses. Edwardian evening dresses, particularly ball gowns, had only narrow ribbon straps over the shoulders. So there was no way to hide the shoulder straps of the underwear you wore underneath. That’s where ribbon shoulder straps tied in a bow come in handy: After you put on your chemise or combinations and corset, you untied the shoulder straps and tucked them into the corset:
‘This little Paris chemise […] falls to the knee […] At the top it comes only to the bust and there are dainty ribbons to tie over the shoulders. These, when the corset is adjusted over the chemise, are untied and tucked down, out of sight, so that there is only one layer of thin fabric, in the corset cover, over the shoulders.’ (Sacramento Union, 1911)
‘The shoulder straps of ribbon serve a double purpose. They are not wholly to hold the chemise in place, nor are they wholly ornamental. The most common reason of their being is the adaptability they lend the chemise. Tied they permit it to be worn beneath the loose negligée with no support, and untied they permit it to be slipped down into the corset and be worn with a décolleté gown.’ (The Puritan, 1898)
The shoulder straps on my Edwardian combinations are inspired by the following two antique Edwardian undergarments with silk ribbon shoulder straps tied in a bow: Edwardian lace chemise with blue silk shoulder straps and Edwardian camisole with ribbon shoulder straps.
Buttonholes For The Silk Ribbons
The MET combination suit has turquoise silk ribbon threaded through beading lace at the waist and at the drawers. But beading lace that is wide enough to thread wide silk ribbon through is no longer manufactured. So I made buttonholes to thread the silk ribbons through.
Buttonholes were often used in the Edwardian era as an alternative to beading lace like the following antique Edwardian undergarments show: drawers with pink silk ribbon threaded through buttonholes at the MET museum, 1911 drawing of French drawers with ribbon threaded through buttonholes above the hem ruffle (scroll down), Edwardian chemise with silk ribbon threaded through buttonholes at the neckline and 1900s camisole with buttonholes at the waist.
For my Edwardian lace combinations, I had to sew countless of buttonholes. That was so much work. And what’s more, most of these buttonholes were on the bias! And it’s as difficult as it sounds to sew buttonholes into a single layer of fine cotton fabric on the bias! 🤣 It was no fun to sew all the buttonholes on the bias. But I love how they turned out! By the way, I had to sew 144 buttonholes on the bias for these Edwardian combinations!
Related: How To Sew Buttonholes On The Bias
Waistband
The bodice and drawers of Edwardian combinations were either joined with beading lace or a self-fabric band. I used a self-fabric band cut on the straight grain. I gathered the bodice at the front for a better fit. Then I attached the waistband and sewed the buttonholes to thread the silk ribbon through.
‘For a combination, the corset-cover may be gathered into a straight band cut lengthwise of the material, and the drawers set into the lower edge of the band.’ (A Manual Of Home-Making, 1919)
Felled Seams & Bias Facing
I encased all raw edges on my Edwardian combinations for a clean finish on the right and wrong side. I used flat-felled seams. And I covered the raw edges at the armholes and the drawers ruffles with bias facing. Both were typical finishes for Edwardian underwear.
Related: 5 Ways To Attach Ruffles – Historical Sewing Tutorial
‘Face the curve in each arm hole with a bias strip of lawn about 1 1/2″ wide […] To sew on the facing, let the end extend a trifle above the curve of the arm hole, lay it on the right side […] then stitch in place with a 1/4″ seam, holding it rather easy around the curve […]
Turn the facing to the wrong side […] turn under the raw edge […]Â stitch on the machine […] turn the raw edges under at the ends and hem neatly.’ (School Sewing Based On Home Problems, 1916)
Open Crotch Seam & Box Pleat
Early Edwardian combinations still had an open crotch seam for “hygienic” 😉 reasons, according to 1900s sources! To hide the open crotch, Edwardian combinations overlap on the front and back. And there’s also an inverted box pleat at the back. The overlap together with the inverted box pleat hides the opening really well.
I stitched the box pleat down for a few centimeters – on Edwardian skirts this was called “habit back” – like on this beautiful antique Edwardian lace combination suit.
‘If the drawers are to be opened in front, they should be lapped the width of the facing in the back. After they are lapped, stitch them together about 6″ from the top in the back, or about 4″ in the front.’ (School Sewing Based On Home Problems, 1916)
And the curved open crotch seam of Edwardian split drawers was finished either with a shaped facing or a bias facing. I finished it with a wide self-fabric bias facing like on these Edwardian combinations. And here’s a close-up of the overlap, the inverted box pleat and the wide facing on the open crotch seam on an antique Edwardian combination suit.
‘Each leg should be joined with a felled seam […] If the drawers are made open, the edges on each leg should be finished with a fitted facing about 1″ wide.’ (School Sewing Based On Home Problems, 1916) ‘A bias facing […] is also used to finish the front and back edges of open drawers.’ (Clothing For Women: Selection, Design, Construction, 1916)
Button & Snap Closure
The placket of my Edwardian lace combinations closes with buttons at the center front. And the faced open crotch seam below the waist is closed with 2 snaps. Buttons and snaps were often used together in the Edwardian era. Snaps were used where the closure should be less noticeable: on a lace yoke or on closures below the waist.
Pintucks
Pintucks were a popular embellishment on Edwardian cotton underwear! I added pintucks at the back of the bodice because pintucks help to keep the back flat and wrinkle-free. And the short pintucks between the lace inserts at the front help to create the fashionable Edwardian pouter pigeon shape aka S-bend.
I also decorated the ruffle at the hem with 3 rows of pintucks. They serve as decoration and to stiffen the hem.