Plackets
Five of the six petticoats have center back openings with plackets. The Embroidered Petticoat has a drawstring top, instead. In the period sewing manuals I looked at there a lot of descriptions of how sew plackets; usually there are multiple descriptions per manual. All five of the petticoats with plackets are done slightly differently from each other. The Lacy Petticoat and the Cutwork Petticoat plackets are the most similar to each other, and are quite similar to the instructions given in Clothing for Women;
“Hem for Petticoat Placket. – Very narrow hems are sometimes placed on each side of a petticoat opening, the hem on the right hand side folded to wrong side, so as to form a lap, stitched across the bottom in slanting line, and caught in the belt at the top.”(Baldt 243)
Clothing for Women gives many more descriptions for how to sew plackets, but none of them describe how the plackets for Bess Moser’s Petticoat, the Woven Lace Petticoat or the Eyelet Petticoat were done. Plain Underwear mentions three types of plackets that may be used for petticoats, but it doesn’t describe them:
“The flat-stitched placket is the most commendable for petticoats, it provides strength at its lower end, is neat and easily applied. However, the seam placket or the continuous placket may be used if preferred.”(Picken 26)
American Dressmaking Step by Step describes how to sew a “Continuous Lap Placket” in lesson 195 which is quite similar to the way the Eyelet Petticoat placket is constructed. The description in lesson 194 on “The Invisible Extension Placket” results in something similar to the Woven Lace Petticoat’s placket. None of the descriptions I found come close to describing the placket on Bess Moser’s Petticoat, which is the most neatly executed of the five examples.
Basic things like the depth of the placket and whether the placket is fastened right over left or vis-versa are subjects for debate in the sewing manuals. Plain Needlework says that, “On women’s garments, plackets are usually closed right side over left”(Roberts 44) which is how Bess Moser’s Petticoat, the Lacy Petticoat and the Woven Lace Petticoat close. The other two close left over right. The Edwardian Modiste says that “the placket should be about 12” deep." (Grimble, The Edwardian Modiste 366) This is about the approximate depth of the back opening for some of the petticoats we’re analyzing, but not all:
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Petticoat |
Depth of Opening |
|
Bess Moser’s Petticoat |
6 ¾” |
|
Lacy Petticoat |
11” |
|
Woven Lace Petticoat |
13” |
|
Eyelet Petticoat |
10 ½” |
|
Cutwork Petticoat |
11 ¼” |
Bess Moser’s Petticoat
The placket on Bess Moser’s Petticoat is set in the center back seam. It is a continuous placket, meaning that the same strip of fabric is applied to both the right and left sides of the 6 ¾” opening, but unlike all the instructions I found for continuous plackets, the right and left sides are treated very differently.
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| Placket open | Placket closed |
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| Bottom of placket | Reverse or inside |
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| Placket laid flat | Center of placket when laid flat (e.g. the stitching at the bottom of the placket) |
On the left side, the placket is a 2’ wide rectangle cut on the straight of grain and folded in half around the edge of the petticoat. The inside edge is on the selvedge, but on the outside of the fabric the seam allowance is tucked under and the entire thing is topstitched together..
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| Left side |
Right side (this is done the same way as a faced hem) |
On the right side the placket is a 1” rectangle (still on the straight-of-grain) with the seam allowance tucked under on both sides. Despite the difference in width the right sides and the left sides of the placket are all one piece of fabric. The inside edge on the right side is simply cut away at the center seam (e.g. the seam at the bottom of the placket).
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| Top of the placket, laid out flat | Cut-away view of the side of the placket fastened to the petticoat |
Lacy Petticoat
The placket on the lacy petticoat is an 11” slit in the middle of the back panel. The left side is a 1/8” machine sewn hem with the seam allowanced tucked inside. The right side is an 11/16” machine sewn hem, also with the seam allowance tucked inside. So the opening doesn’t gap, the bottom of the right hand side is folded on top of the left hand side and is topstitched down, creating a pleat at the bottom of the placket.
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| Placket open | Placket closed |
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| Bottom of Placket | Reverse |
Woven Lace Petticoat
The Woven Lace Petticoat opening is the top 12 ½” of the center back seam. The two sides of the placket are sewn separately. The left side placket is a 1 ¾” by 13” rectangle (plus seam allowance) cut on the straight-of-grain. The placket is folded round the edge of the petticoat and topstitched. The bottom of the placket is left unfinished; the raw edge is unattached to the petticoat.
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| Placket open | Placket closed |
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| Bottom of placket |
Reverse (The right side of the picture shows the unattached bottom of the left-hand placket) |
The right hand side of the opening has a 1” by 12 7/8” rectangle (plus seam allowance) cut on the straight-of-grain. It is sewn to the inside of the opening, right sides to right sides. The placket is then flipped into place and topstitched down along the selvedge edge (which is the edge opposite the opening). The bottom of the right-hand placket is secured with two parallel lines of machine stitching, forming a shallow rectangle.
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| Left side | Right side |
Eyelet Petticoat
The Eyelet Petticoat is the only placket that has fastenings along the length of the opening. It has a single hook and eye 5 ¼” down the 10 ½” opening. The opening is in the center back seam.
Unlike the other petticoats the right and left sides of the opening are finished with the same piece of fabric in the same way. The placket is a single 1 ¾” (plus seam allowance) by 21” rectangle cut on the straight-of-grain. This rectangle is folded in half lengthwise, the seam allowance is tucked under, and the edge of the slit are sandwiched between them. The entire thing is topstitched together.
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| Placket open | Placket closed |
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| Bottom of placket | Reverse |
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| Hook midway down left side of packet (view from interior of petticoat) | View of hook from exterior of petticoat |
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| Eye midway down right side packet (view from interior of petticoat) | View of eye from outside of petticoat |
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| Placket folded out showing the hook (view from exterior of petticoat) | Placket folded out showing the eye (view from exterior of petticoat) |
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On both sides of the opening the placket is folded inside and the pleat is secured with the waistband. |
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Unlike the other plackets the right and left sides of the Eyelet Petticoat only meet each other; they do not overlap, making it more likely for the opening to gap. This is probably the reason for the extra insurance of the hook-and-eye mid-way down the opening.
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| The placket is folded back at the waistband | Sketch showing the same folds |
Cutwork Petticoat
The Cutwork Petticoat’s placket is very similar to the placket on the Lacy Petticoat.
The opening is an 11 ¼” slit in the middle of the center back panel. The right side is a 3/16” machine sewn hem with the seam allowance tucked inside.
The left side is a ¾” machine sewn hem with the seam allowance tucked inside.
So the opening doesn’t gap , the bottom of the left-hand side is folded on top of the right hand side and is whip-stitched in place, creating a pleat at the bottom of the placket. The stitching barely shows on the outside.
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| Placket open | Placket closed |
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| Bottom of placket | Reverse |
I just wanted to let you know that the pattern links are working again!
Thanks,
Noelle