Project: Polonaise- Part 4, The Pockets and Garters

This part of the underpinnings was one of my favourite to construct. During the eighteenth century women would wear sort of bag shaped pockets around their waists and the other layers of clothing would have slits cut into them so they could be reached. Garters would be worn to keep stockings up. Both of these items would often be embroidered and I decided to make them to match. My main source of inspiration was a pair of pockets from the Snowshill Collection and two pairs of garters from the V and A that I got to sketch during my visit.

Pockets from the Snowshilll Colllection

Garters from the V and A

Garters from the V and A

Luckily the pattern from the Snowshill pockets is available in Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion One so I was able to grade it up and use it to construct mine. The pocket panels were cut out from linen leftover from my shift and tacked onto a cotton interlining to help stabilise the embroidery. My design was traced onto the fabric and I began embroidering in chain stitch.

Once the pocket had been embroidered it was lined with cotton, this was done for economy as the fabric would not been seen, historically linen would have been used which in the 18th century was much cheaper than cotton. The front and back of the pocket were then bagged out leaving the top open. The opening was cut in the front panel and bound.

The top of the pocket was then bound and ribbon threaded through for tying around the waist. The second pocket was embroidered to match.

The two completed pockets

My model wearing the finished pockets

For the garters I cut two strips of cotton for the interlining and tacked them to some silk before embroidering them.

They then had pink ribbon attached to either side to match the colour scheme and were bagged out with a linen backing.

The ribbons could have done with being slightly longer as they only wrapped once around my model's leg, meaning there wasn't really enough tension for them to stay up, luckily the stockings were secure enough to stay up on their own.

My model wearing the garters

That's all for now, next up is the false rump which shouldn't be to long a post, and then I get to to tell you about the petticoat!