Inspired 1900 Bloomers - Undergarments 1/2

This is something I always wanted to make when I started my endeavours into the historical garments but never came around to it. Until now! 

After I had seen Bernadette Banners her youtube video on how she made her amazing pair of combinations, I was inspired and wanted to make one my self. They seemed pretty and comfortable at the same time and I definitely wanted a pair of my own. 

So I decided my goal was to make a separate pair of undergarments the drawers and the chemise, I know, you have the combinations that combine the top and bottom part together form 1900 but however, I think I like the chemise and separate bloomers than a pair of combinations personally. These undergarments are heavily inspired by a pair of undergarments from 1903 called the "wedding ensemble" found on the met museum website

We'll start with the drawers of this undergarment endeavours. The bloomers were very easy to make, and I enjoyed it a lot.

I used this Burda pattern for the drawers only but made some adjustments along the way to give it my own twist. I used 100% cotton fabric, two types of ribbon, white cotton bias tape and a pink ribbon to thread through the fabric. 

For the bloomers, I made a small adjustment as I wanted a pink ribbon on knee hight for some delicate and elegant feel. When I traced this pattern I made a cut around fifteen cm from the bottom where the first ribbon would come in. 

Sadly I didn’t have enough of the bottom lace trim to box pleat it.

After I had cut out all the fabric for the bottom trim I sewed on the first ribbon to the top part of the bloomers, right sides together and then zig-zag stitch over it so it wouldn’t fray any further. 

After that, I made my way to the lace and sewed that wrong sides together with the side of the fabric a little lower on the edge of the lace. so on the outside of the garment, there is now the raw seam. 

Then I flipped the lace over the raw edge so it would cover it and topstitched over it so it's all nicely tucked away.

Once that was done, I decided to sew the top part of the bloomers to the bottom part. Once they were fully attached I zig-zag stitch the insides so the fabric wouldn't unravel while wearing it

For this step, I pinned all the way down the sides of the bloomers, half a cm in and again so the raw sides are completely tucked away and sewed over it as close to the edge as possible for a neat clean finish. 

Then I sewed the sides of the bloomers to each other so I have two separated legs.

Once they are sewn together with a straight stitch and afterwords a zig-zag stitch I had two separate pant legs like so: 

Then I folded the top of the bloomers over by two cm and sew over it in a straight line but didn’t close the sides, as there would be a ribbon that needed to go through the channel. 

The next step was making a ribbon for the bloomers. I decided to use a white cotton bias tape and folded it in half and sewed over it as close to the edge

I then fed it through the upper channel of the bloomers so I could tie it up around my waist when wearing it.

The last step to complete my bloomers is feeding a soft pink ribbon through the slides, it's optional but I think it really fits the delicate and elegant feel of it.

And with that step, my bloomers are done! 

Thank you for reading!