Kayla's Conversations

Thank goodness for petticoats! I wear my petticoat under all of my skirts (in place of a slip) and, at times, it has proven to be a real life-saver. Ok, not a life-saver, but most certainly a modesty-saver! When we roofed the house in Kentucky, I was working on open rafters, and between my circle skirts and my petticoat, I had nothing to worry about. Well, almost nothing…I was still pretty worried about falling through the open rafters!
Yesterday, I was working on a ladder, and the wind was blowing like crazy, and for some weird reason, I was wearing a wrap-around skirt. That was not the brightest thing to do on a day like that, and once again my petticoat helped tremendously. A few times that skirt blew all the way open, only to reveal my muslin petticoat!!

About my petticoat:
I made it from a pattern I found online, and I used muslin and white eyelet. It was originally supposed to be a fancy petticoat that I was going to wear underneath my good skirts, to wear off. But, I also had to have something to wear while I roofed, so I went ahead and wore it then. After two or three days of being on the roof all day, the bottom edge was discolored, so I couldn’t let it peek out from beneath my skirts anymore. I still wear it everywhere, all of the time, but I just don’t let it show. That was the main reason I put eyelet on the bottom (I’ll explain that in a moment)…so that if it showed, it wasn’t really like you were showing off your slip!
I wear my petticoat, as I said, in place of a slip, and I LOVE it! It provides a lovely poofiness under the circle skirts I make, as well as all of the skirts I have and make, and, as a bonus, provides a great amount of modesty, should you find yourself in a potentially disgraceful situation! I have got to make more of them as soon as I get some spare time!

My petticoat is made out of three teirs. The width of the first tier is your hip measurment plus 4 inches. The second tier is double the measurment of the first, and the third tier is double the width of the second. I used muslin for the first two tiers and white eyelet for the third. (I made only the third tier out of eyelet to save money…I got the muslin on sale for about $1.00 a yard, and eyelet was somewhere around $3.00 a yard.) I gathered the third tier to the width of the second (after I hemmed the bottom of the third tier) and sewed the two together: then I gathered the second tier to the width of the first and sewed that together. So now all three tiers are sewn together, and now you sew the long sides (the edges of all three tiers together) together…you now have all of the skirt except a waistband. For the waist, all you do is turn the top of the skirt down and sew some elastic in. And you’re done! That is, if you can follow my directions! I’m not so good at trying to explain how to sew something…so if you make a petticoat by following these directions, please let me know! For more in depth instructions, you can search online and find all kinds of neat stuff!

After all, what could attest to your femininity more than a lacey, ruffley petticoat peeking out from under your skirt hem?