Remember the Edwardian wedding chemise I made earlier this year?
The original one from 1900 is on the left, and my repro is on the right.
I had so much fun obsessing over the lace insertion on that thing, getting the zigzags on the bodice just right.
Well, if you keeping hunting around in the Metropolitan Museum archive, you’ll come across a matching pair of drawers. They’re part of a set containing an identical chemise to mine – the lace is unmistakeable. So obviously I have to make the drawers too.
With no pattern and no instructions, I’m going to fall back, once again, on my trusty copy of Needlework and Cutting Out (1897) by Agnes Walker, which gives me both the pattern draft (below) and the instructions (top of page). (Both original and reprinted copies of this book can be found for well under $20 at Abebooks.)
And there are plenty of bits of lace, ribbon and cotton lawn left over from my chemise project to make this a no-brainer.
Drafting was mostly a breeze, taking the draft in the book and applying some of the advice about the proportions of a pair of drawers in relation to the height of the person they’re made for.
Now to pore over the Met image and make them look like the ones in the picture… which look suspiciously short compared to my knee-length draft.
Another case of wedding lingerie (ooh-la-la)? What do you think? These look suspiciously short to me!
I have seen a lot of Edwardian drawers(mostly on Pinterest) that are really short like that. Most of them are heavily trimmed, so bridal wear is a possibility. I also thing that, in general, drawers became a lot shorter and wider legged in the Edwardian. Check out this pattern from 1907: http://www.tudorlinks.com/treasury/freepatterns/w1907drawerspatt.html
The legs on that pattern are only 13.5 inches! If you look through the drawers in the Met collection, you will find several other pairs that are very short. I have also noticed that many of the loveliest of these short lacy Edwardian drawers do not have a gathered waistband, instead they have darts(e.g. from the Met: https://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/109018?searchField=All&sortBy=relevance&what=Cotton&ft=Drawers&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=12); this would make them fit a lot more closely to the body. This also seems to be the case for your drawers, though it’s a bit hard to tell. I know of a pattern from the 1890s in the De Gracieuse archives online that uses darts instead of gathers; if you’re interested I’ll send you a link.
Hi! I noticed that you said that instructions were at the top of the page, but I see them neither in the Manual of Needlework and Cutting out nor in your post. Could you please clarify?
I was referring to the illustration at the top of the page. Sorry to confuse you!
Oh, it’s quite alright. Thank you!