Making my combination

I am using the pattern for a combination dated about 1878 out of the Jean Hunnisett book Period Costume for Stage and Screen: Patterns for Women's dress 1800-1909.

 I had already begun making the combination when I had a chat with Eileen and she pulled an proper vintage combination out of her bag of tricks. Once I had seen how lovely the vintage combination was with it's dainty flat felted seams, the bias binding that has been whip stitched on by the most delicate of stitches, and the clever bias binding that lay across the gathering on the rear I completely took apart my combination and started over sewing my piece together. 

isn't that just the most lovely thing you've seen, and it keep the gathering from rubbing up against the body and being uncomfortable or annoying in any way. Really though I just like it cause it's so damn neat and tidy.

 I decided to do french seams opposed to flat felted like the original, for no reason other than I prefer french seams and haven't had a chance to use them yet this year as my last undershirt was all flat felted. The vintage one had a lovely bias binding machine sewed on, then it is folded around to the inside, and folded so as the seam is hidden on the inside. Then it is whip stitched on from the wrong side, leaving the line tiniest of stitches showing of the right side of the garment.

Making my bias binding. I've cut out 2" strips on the bias to make 1" single folded bias binding.

here you can really see the small lovely detail of the stitches. The vintage one also has darts in it, I don't think I'll be putting darts in mine. Instead it will have lace stitched on around the neckline and waist, then I will weave ribbon through the lace to create a cinch. This way the combination won't be as limited, and can fit many different people, and/or grow/shrink with the wearer if they gain or loose weight.

Here's one side of my combination after the bias binding has been sewn on, folded over, pressed, pinned and ready for hand stitching. 

 I am SO please with how my whip stitching turned out, it actually looks a bit better than the original if I do say so myself :) it took about 2hrs and 30-45minutes to hand stitch everything that I needed too. That's about 96inches of stitching, and it takes me about 1.4-2 minutes to stitch an inch depending on how I pace myself. Totally worth every minute of it!