edwardian underthings

[thanate]

One of the doll sites had a link to a fascinating site with reproductions of turn of the last century patterns. And while they have sadly few men's clothes (for the doll, that is) they do have some very nice women's things. Including this which is a lovely pattern for drawers, except that they have that thing where they're only sewn together for a very short space at the front, and the crotch seam is just hemmed most of the way around. Which in theory makes sense if you tie on your bloomers under your shift and corset, and don't want to have to take everything off to pee. But it still seems kind of disturbing to the modern sensibilities... (there's an earlier pattern where the instructions say: "It is in two pieces: One-half of the drawers and one-half of the band. These can be closed or left open." which I take to be implying not everyone did this.)