Antique Edwardian 1900-1903 Summer Gown: Part 2, the Skirt

In July I introduced you to a circa 1900-1903 Edwardian summer gown. After looking at the dress as a whole, we had a deep, detailed look at the shirtwaist portion of its construction, for this gown was unlined and its bodice not built on a fitted foundation. This time, we are going to examine the skirt in just as much detail. Are you ready?

The dress as a whole is shown above. It has been set over a corset cover and a single trained petticoat, but there is no corset as I have none that fit. Had there been one, the dress would sit differently, with a slightly enhanced dip in the front to emphasize the bodice pouch, and a higher set to the back of the skirt, with again, an enhanced roundness there, especially if a hip pad were worn. Do watch the Sew Through Time YouTube video called  “Getting dressed: 1903 summer vs winter” to see how this is achieved, layer by layer, although note that the video author does not purposely dip the skirt in front.

Exploring the Skirt

You can tell from the photos above that the skirt is smooth across the front and then gathered tightly in back, with a center back closure. 

You will also notice that it has a very tall flounce, which is higher in the back than in the front, an elegant look which elongates the line of the dress and accentuates the train in back.

Finally, you will see from the above as well as photos below that the skirt is trained. In some Edwardian evening wear, the trains are very long, but this is a day dress, and the train is shorter—daywear with a train was popular from the end of the 1890s through the into 1905 or so, unless the skirt was for working or sports, or for a rainy day, in which case it was fashionable to wear a skirt, often wool, above the ankle!

A Trumpet Effect, without a Trumpet Cut

Ideally, the skirt will puddle around the front of the feet, too, as if the wearer were a mature tree rooted to the ground, or as if the bottom of the skirt was the bell of a trumpet. How to get this shape?

You might think that the skirt pattern itself would be cut such that each piece curved outwards on both sides to create a curved flare towards the bottom of the skirt. In the case of heavier winter skirts, this was a popular cut. 

Another popular way to achieve the flare was to apply one or more circular flounces to a straight-gored skirt. A circular flounce is cut such that both top and bottom are cut on a curve, with the bottom length being longer than the top. The tighter the curve, the more pronounced the flare.

The circular flounce can be applied to a full length skirt so that the base skirt can be frilled with a dust ruffle, and the flounce sit outside. One or more flounces could be stacked this way. Or, a single circular flounce could be attached to a a shorter main skirt, one only about 2/3 of the length needed.

In the case of this dress, the main skirt’s gores are straight. The flounce is very slightly circular, but it is made by cutting several widths. Each width is wider than the gore it goes with, and each one is set in tiny, not quite even pleats onto its gore. The flounce is so long that the pleats fade out by the bottom and the fabric fans out. The fanning is strengthened by three tiny horizontal tucks taken in the flounce plus an applied frill. Add in the excessive length and you have the trumpet effect.

We will address in part 3 how people were advised to walk (!) with a skirt that long.

Cut and Measurements

Rather than attempt to draw the cut myself, I found an existing diagram of the basic skirt design in a January 1901 issue of Vogue magazine, then a rather new magazine heavily focused on fashion and striving to be both au courant and still court an reader on a budget. Here is the cut for an evening gown, on page xii, near the back of the issue. The pattern pieces marked with the blue arrows are the ones we’re interested in. They show the basic cut of my dress’s skirt fairly well. If you want to know how the gown is constructed, the article that goes along with the pattern describes it well. The magazine included a pattern about every other issue, for a year or two. Oh, how I love them!

Here is the skirt laid flat and turned inside out. You can see the bottom of the flounce serving as the skirt’s hem. Frills are mounted to the outside of it, and the flounce has three tucks above that.

The skirt is cut so that the waistline dips in front, because the front and side front pieces are not cut straight across the top. The cut is in line with that of the shirtwaist, which has a lower front point and a very high back. The straight-fronted corset almost surely worn with the dress would encourage the low position in front, while the higher back of the skirt and the upwardly canted back of the corset would help the skirt sit higher there.

You can see clearly here how the asymmetric tall flounce is lowest at center front and very soon thereafter starts to rise on each side.

The main skirt is made of the same tucked cotton lawn as the shirtwaist, while the flounce is made of smooth lawn. The band between skirt and flounce is where the lace used to trim the shirtwaist has been applied to the outside of the skirt to cover the join.

The back of the skirt, shown below, shows that the angle that the flounce rises in the back is gentler, and that the center back placket closure is not that long relative to the skirt’s back length.

Now, for my skirt’s measurements. Because the garment is delicate, I haven’t poked and prodded it much; measures are approximate.

The waist is 24 3/4” around.

The skirt is cut in 5 gores: 1 front, 2 side, 2 back with the center of the back on a seam, which therefore is necessarily on the bias.

Here are the dimensions of the main, tucked portion of the skirt, without the flounce added:

• The front gore: cut straight of grain at the center. 4” wide at waistline and 12 1/2” wide at the bottom. Gore is 29” long at center front, outer seams are 28 1/2” long. There is a barely discernible curve to the bottom.
• The two side gores: cut straight of grain on the front-facing seam, which is 28 1/2” long. Back-facing seam is 26” long. Width 4” across the top and 11” along the bottom.
• The back gores, which are of indeterminate width because they are gathered so closely that I cannot ascertain whether the pieces are as wide at the top as the bottom: 
• The right side: 6” across the top, stroke-gathered for 1 1/2” from the closure edge, 26 1/2” wide at the bottom. Front facing seam is cut on the straight of grain and is of course 26” long, but so is the back, center seam. The back center line of each of these gores is on the bias. Because the fashion fabric is tucked, the center back forms upward-pointed chevrons, a pleasing and elongating effect.
• The left side: 7” across the top, stroke-gathered for 1 1/2” to seam with the under-placket. Extends 1 1/4” further for under-placket.
• Closure is 10” long.
• Added together, the circumference of the main, tucked portion of the skirt is 87 1/2 inches.

Then there is the flounce. It too is in pieces, but their seams do not match up with those of the main skirt. Instead, they are arranged such that there is an unbroken length across the front, and another across the back, with a piece to either side. While I am not entirely certain, I believe that the flounce pieces are circular-cut. The illustration below shows a skirt with the circular-cut flounces. You can see the curved flounce pieces laid out in the schematic to the right of the illustration. Because the skirt also is trained, at the back the flounce pieces are taller than they are at the other end so that the flounce is longer there. My skirt’s flounce is like that.

Vogue, June 13, 1901, p. Xii

Here are the approximate locations of the four pieces that compose the flounce and their dimensions.

• Piece spreading from right side of front to left side of front: 24” wide at top, 42” wide at bottom. Very lightly gathered across top.
• Side piece: left side of front to well in back: 24” wide at top, 42” wide at bottom. Very lightly gathered across top.
• Center back piece: 15” wide at top, 45” wide at bottom. Medium-gathered at top, except for about 3/4” to each side of center back, which is stroke-gathered.
• Side piece: almost center back to right side of front: 24” wide at top, 42” wide at bottom. Lightly gathered across top.
• Flounce heights as measured at seams:
• Center back flounce seam length: about 23”.
• Side flounce seam length: about 21”.
• Front-ish flounce seam length: about 14”.

Skirt Seams and Hem

The lawn of which the outfit is made is fairly closely woven and doesn’t fray that much. 

Waistband, Back Gathers and Skirt Placket

Whereas the front of the skirt is laid flat into the waistband, the back of the skirt is stroke-gathered tightly into the self-fabric waistband. The back panel of the skirt is actually very wide in order for there to be fabric enough to gather this tightly.

Stroked gathers are set so close together that there is no space allowed between them; they are nudged up together by hand with the blunt end of a needle—to my knowledge a machine cannot create them. Years ago I wrote a tutorial on how to create stroked gathers in a mid-19th century petticoat; you see them commonly in very fine antique lingerie and on garments such as 18th century men’s shirts.

It is the luxurious fullness of the back of the skirt and its extra long flounce that creates the fullness of the train. The skirt has such a small waistband that it doesn’t close on the mannequin. Imagine how full that center back fall of skirt into train would be if it actually closed!

Here is how the skirt closure would look if the skirt were properly closed.

This skirt placket only consists of an under-placket. The top part of the placket, which would often be a smooth band of fabric on the inside of the skirt closing edge that would meet up with the under-placket, doesn’t exist. The gathered fabric on the waistband just closes over the under-placket and that’s it. 

The under-placket is wide and is simply doubled fabric, with the selvage at the inner edge so that there is no need for a hem. The placket width ensures that the skirt will not gape open. Interestingly, the under-placket is barely sewn to the back of the skirt fabric at the placket bottom, as you can see in the photo below.

Here is the back side of the under-placket so that you can see its construction.

Here also is the underside skirt closure that closes over the under-placket. You can see that the waistband was fiddled with a bit.

You can also see on this and the previous image how the waistband was constructed. It’s nothing unusual. The long strip of fabric which makes up the waistband was laid along the outside of the skirt’s gathered waist edge (and under-placket) and sewn, though I don’t know whether by machine or by hand. Then the other long edge was flipped to the inside, the raw edge turned under, and hand-sewn closed, probably with spaced backstitch.

Note the two sturdy brass eyes and matching hooks sewn onto the narrow waistband with rough stitches. The brass will not rust, obviously. 

Skirt Hangers on the Waistband

The skirt has two “handles” or hanging loops on the inside of the waistband, one on each side, to use to hang the skirt from a hook or perhaps an early hanger. The handles are nothing more than self fabric in a long strip, all raw edges turned in and folded in half lengthwise, then sewn by machine for the length, and hand stitched in place.

Horizontal Tucks and Frills at Skirt Bottom

The skirt’s bottom is nicely frilly and fluffy, as are so many lightweight, summery outfits of the early Edwardian period. Let’s have a look.

Here is a photo of the bottom of the skirt flounce, showing its three tucks and a frill, with annotations showing how each part of it was constructed. Of special interest to people wanting to create elegant Edwardian dress frills:

• Place your frill so that the top of it falls beneath the cover of a tuck. It looks neater that way.
• Notice how narrow the gathers are, and that not every bit of fabric is gathered. This makes the frill quite delicate and not so frilly that it stands out in waves. These days most people take rather large gathers, nipping up, say, a quarter of an inch. I would not expect that this frill is quite 2x the circumference of the skirt bottom, though I haven’t measured. However, the tiny gathers are close enough for a delicately frilly effect.

Here below is an excruciatingly close-up photo of the frill and how it’s sewn down. My eyes aren’t that good anymore, but I know that the allowance for the frill was turned over, and a fine gathering thread was, I think, used to make the equally fine gathers. Then the gathered frill would have been pinned just underneath the third tuck (which would have been pressed or pinned up to get it out of the way) and the frill sewn on from the top and right over the gathering thread. Thinking I can detect the gathering thread every so often, but might be wrong. In any case, in some places so little fabric was gathered that the result is almost flat. Afterwards, the third tuck would have been lightly pressed down over the frill header to hide the latter.

Here below you can see how the frill allowance is raw at the edge…it doesn’t show and won’t get wear as it’s sandwiched up against the skirt.

Here is the back of the skirt. You can see that the hem is quite deep and goes right up to the last line of stitching that marks the third tuck.

Last comment on the photo of the hem above. The person doing the hem was working fast, and the fabric wandered a little the machine stitched. Also, the stitch length is short — it would need to be on fabric as fine as this.

Goodness, that was a lot, wasn’t it? There is a surprisingly large amount of information that you can collect from a close look at an extant gown like this one. Not being lined, the workings are there for you to discover. I hope that you have learned something useful that you can take into your own Edwardian sewing adventures, or into whatever realm it’s needed.

Next time, placing the dress — both skirt and bodice — into the context of the fashions of the day using lots of photos and documentation, and looking a bit at just a few of the accessories that would have accompanied it.

The Autumn of the Twins’ Senior Year and College Applications

Since I last published a post in July, our family has been very busy with the whole applying to college/university process and we are not done yet, and won’t know where the boys will attend until some time next spring. I wrote, over the last 10 minutes, a description of the costs and the amount of work involved, but deleted it. I will only say that everyone is and has been pulling together, for many years already, but it will be a humungous, long row to get them safely through, and by the time they graduate, I will be viewing the shady side of my sixties. Meantime, am valuing all the moments that we have together while our boys are still kids. Poignant? And then some.