Regency underpinnings

When I first made a regency dress I wore it over the chemise and short stays from the Sense & Sensibility pattern. I found this to be a very bulky combination, especially under the finer fabric of my ball gown, which showed all the bumps from the garment underneath.  When I made a second chemise I made the body pieces thinner so as to have less gathering but this still didn’t solve the problem.

So I set about making a ‘bodiced petticoat’ – basically an underdress that is fitted and supportive. This would mean wearing only one layer beneath the dress and that layer wouldn’t be all gathered.  

In my research I found several bodiced petticoats that had been made from dress patterns (instructions are available on the site) but I didn’t like that idea as I wanted the support of stays. I also wanted my petticoat to do up in the front which the dress-style ones didn’t seem suited for.

I found this extant garment online and I think I found others at the time, which were more like what I was going for:

source

I ended up making a set of short stays and adding a skirt. I have found the bodiced petticoat to be greatly preferable to a chemise and stays.