I made a matching 4 piece Edwardian lingerie set consisting of an Edwardian lace combination suit, Edwardian summer corset, Edwardian lace petticoat and Edwardian lace camisole. I trimmed all pieces of my Edwardian lingerie set with matching turquoise real silk ribbons. And I also embellished it with cotton Valenciennes lace inserts and pintucks.

Edwardian Sewing Details

I made my Edwardian lingerie set as historically accurate as possible. I used Edwardian sewing techniques and a lot of hand-sewing! 😀 For example, I attached and inserted most of the lace by hand. I also used historically accurate materials.

Historically accurate sewing details of my Edwardian lingerie set:

• cotton Valenciennes lace trim
• lace sewn on with overhand stitches by hand
• lace joined with the invisible lace seam by hand

Related: How To Join Lace – Invisible Seam

• lace inserted with tiny hems or hand-rolled hems
• embellished with pure silk ribbons
• pintucks
• made of sheer cotton batiste fabric
• flat felled seams – flat felled seams are the traditional seam of Edwardian underwear because it makes a clean finish on the right and wrong side
• facings, button & snap closures – all based on historical sewing instructions from the Edwardian era (primary sources)
• ruffles attached with the Edwardian receiving tuck, finishing braid or whipped gathers by hand

Related: 5 Historical Ways To Attach Ruffles

Sheer Cotton Batiste Fabric

For my Edwardian lingerie set, I used the finest, sheerest cotton batiste fabric I could find. The white, pure cotton batiste is very see-through with a low fabric weight and high thread count: In short, it’s a very beautiful fabric! 😀 The cotton batiste fabric is similar to the types of fabric used for the best underwear in the Edwardian era.

I needed a lot of this cotton batiste fabric for my Edwardian lingerie set. Petticoats in the early Edwardian era could never be wide enough around the hem! 😉 Also, there are two layers of fabric and a dust ruffle at the hem of my Edwardian lace petticoat. And my Edwardian combination suit has French drawers with very wide, circular legs.

Cotton Valenciennes Lace

I used various fine cotton lace trims from my stash to embellish my Edwardian lingerie set. I primarily used cotton Valenciennes lace trims. By the way, Valenciennes lace was the most popular type of lace to embellish underwear in the Edwardian era. I love cotton Valenciennes lace – its’s one of my favorite types of lace! 😊 It’s so fine and delicate and still so strong: it never frays when cut and after washing.

Related: 6 Ways How To Insert Lace – Historical Sewing Tutorial

I also used fine cotton bobbin lace and cotton Mechlin lace. Mechlin lace is similar to Valenciennes lace: it only has cords that outline the motifs.

Turquoise Silk Ribbon

To embellish my Edwardian lingerie set, I dyed countless meters of white, pure silk ribbons from my stash with turquoise silk fabric dye in the washing machine. In the Edwardian era, narrow silk ribbons were used on camisoles and wide silk ribbons on petticoats. For my Edwardian lingerie set, I used silk ribbons between 0.5cm and 3.5cm wide.

Pieces Of My Edwardian Lingerie Set

My Edwardian lingerie set consists of 4 pieces:

• Edwardian combination suits

• Edwardian summer corset

• Edwardian lace petticoat

• Edwardian lace camisole

Edwardian Combination Suit

My Edwardian lace combinations is inspired by the beautiful lace combinations at the MET museum! It’s already my second try to recreate this beautiful 1900s combination suit. My first Edwardian combinations didn’t turn out the way I would’ve liked. So I made another Edwardian lace combination suit with cotton Valenciennes lace inserts & pintucks, and also 144 buttonholes on the bias to thread silk ribbons through! 🙃 More details in the separate post about my Edwardian lace combinations – click the link below.

Related: Edwardian Lace Combinations

Edwardian Summer Corset

Years after I finished all the other pieces of my Edwardian lingerie set, I still couldn’t find suitable fabric for my corset. The quality of fabrics – even corset fabrics – has become so poor in recent years. And to make the long story short, I finally decided to make another Edwardian summer corsets because I love the first Edwardian cotton net summer corset I made a couple of years ago.

Related: My First Edwardian Cotton Net Summer Corset

So I ordered more of this sturdy cotton net fabric, heavily adjusted one of my self-drafted Edwardian corset patterns and then readjusted the placement of the seams. I made a lightly boned Edwardian summer corset with cotton Valenciennes lace trim and silk ribbons. Read more about this Edwardian summer corset by following the link below.

Related: Edwardian Summer Corset

Edwardian Lace Petticoat

My Edwardian lace petticoat was one of my first historically accurate Edwardian pieces of underwear I made many years ago! 😀 I loved how lacy, cool and lightweight it turned out. However, there were also some things I didn’t like about my Edwardian lace petticoat. Like, the hem circumference was not wide enough for an early Edwardian petticoat. I also had used a combination of cotton Valenciennes and cotton Mechlin lace. And I somehow didn’t like anymore how these diffferent types of lace looked together.

Related: Edwardian Lace Petticoat – The Before

So I debated for years whether I should take apart my Edwardian lace petticoat because I had gathered all the tiered ruffles with whip gathering by hand! 😉 But then I finally decided to take the petticoat apart and refashion it completely so that I would like it again.

Related: How To Sew An Edwardian Petticoat Drawstring Closure – Video Tutorial

I removed the Valenciennes lace and only used the Mechlin lace for the petticoat. My refashioned Edwardian lace petticoat is now embellished with 5 rows of Mechlin lace. There are 3 wide Mechlin lace inserts alternating with groups of pintucks. And because Edwardian lace petticoats usually had a wider lace trim at the hem, I sewed together to of the Mechlin edging lace trims like on this beautiful Edwardian lace petticoat. I inserted the lace with tiny hems and joined the lace trims where necessary with the invisble lace seam by hand.

Related: How To Join Lace – Invisible Seam

I also added more width to the hem of the petticoat by cutting apart the original 3 tiered ruffles and turning them into only 2 tiered ruffles. Before the refashion, the tiered ruffles measured from top to bottom: 209cm, 271cm and 365cm. After the refashion, the ruffle at the hem measures 485cm – so I could add over one meter of width around the hem. 😀 Then I reattached the now wider but shorter tiered lace ruffle further down the petticoat with an Edwardian receiving tuck.

Related: Receiving Tuck & 4 Other Ways To Attach Ruffles – Historical Sewing

There are two layers at the hem of the petticoat: The petticoat with a dust ruffle at the hem – and the tiered ruffle with lace inserts and pintucks on top. Most Edwardian petticoats had 2 layers of fabric at the hem.

I sewed buttonholes above the lace ruffle inspired by the following two antique Edwardian lace petticoats with buttonholes for silk ribbons: 1900-1905 lace petticoat at the MET museum and this beautiful Edwardian Valenciennes lace petticoat. Then I threaded 3.5cm wide turquoise silk ribbon from my stash through the buttonholes. I tied the silk ribbon into a bow and now my refashioned Edwardian lace petticoat matches the other pieces of my Edwardian lingerie set. 😊 It was so much work to refashion my Edwardian lace petticoat: I gathered the tiered ruffle with whip stitches by hand again! But I love how my refashioned Edwardian lace petticoat turned out! 😀 So it was worth it.

Related: How To Roll, Whip, Gather & Attach Lace To Gathered Edge – Historical Sewing

Edwardian Lace Camisole

For my Edwardian lace camisole, I used various cotton lace scraps left over from other sewing projects! 😊 In total, I used 11 different cotton Mechlin, Valenciennes and fine bobbin lace scraps for my Edwardian lace camisole. Read more details about how I made my Edwardian lace camisole in the link below:

Related: 4 Edwardian Camisoles Made With Lace & Fabric Scraps

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