Victorian Corded Petticoat

Victorian Corded Petticoat

This is my Victorian corded petticoat. It’s just a short petticoat – about knee-length. Usually, stiffened underskirts, such as (horsehair) crinolines and corded petticoats, were shorter than over-petticoats in the mid-Victorian era: 1858 painting, ca. 1835 short whalebone crinoline, and mid-19th century crinoline. This 1840s short corded linen crinoline has about the same length as my corded petticoat.

Mid-Victorian Corded Petticoat

I’ve used a stiff, green and brown checked cotton fabric which I’d in my stash. Green was a difficult to produce dye at that time, so this isn’t historically correct. Apart from that, not all underwear was white: Old patterned skirts were often remade into underwear when they became too frayed to be worn as skirts, especially by the lower classes.

Mid-Victorian Corded Petticoat

With the many rows of cording it’s really stiff and creates the fashionable mid-Victorian bell-shaped silhouette, but I find cotton petticoats without cording more comfortable to wear.

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