Petticoats
Chris’s blog post on ‘Always smiling’ pointed out that it was 89 years ago that Elvis Presley was born on 8th January. She mentioned petticoats and that brought to mind the ones we used to wear.
To make them stiff so that they made the skirts over them stand out, they were starched in a mixture of sugar and water and left to dry. My patient mother spent much time starching my petticoats. I remember going to a youth club proudly wearing my sugar petticoat, (or was it paper nylon?) relishing the crackly feel of it. My recollection is that it didn’t stay stiff for long, soon wilting to limpness after a short while.
I’m sure that Beverley Rhodes, younger sister of Dame Zandra Rhodes, went to the same youth club. I didn’t know her very well. Zandra was well known then but not as famous as she was to become later, creating designs for Diana, Princess of Wales and rock stars like Freddie Mercury.
I think they lived on Chatham Hill, a steep hill leading from Chatham to Gillingham. Certainly, it was steep enough that when I cycled to school I always had to get off and push my bike up it. Going home was wonderful, though, freewheeling at speed down the hill.
I have a small collection of vintage petticoats, both half slips & full ones. I just love the vintage fabric & laces in them & have thrifted them all. Years ago, I used to sometimes get invited to church groups & suchlike to show my collections of vintage linens & the younger girls & younger Mothers would come up to me & ask me "what is a petticoat". They had no idea! The same as when I showed vintage Oven cloths. No idea!! I guess they just use a teatowel!
ReplyDeleteI suppose petticoats are a thing of the past. I haven't worn one for years, but then I wear trousers all the time! My mother and mother-in-law always wore full-length slips but I wore a half-slip.
DeleteThat picture is exactly what I would have loved when I was very young and wanted my dresses to stand out like a ballerina's. As I got older I didn't care so much about all the frills and flounces my friends were into, it's hard to frolic about on the beach in flounces.
ReplyDeleteI remember my mum starching my skirts, but with a powdered starch that was first dissolved in a little water, then stirred into hot water for dipping the skirts into. Sugar starch was unheard of in our house and with all the ants in our town (in the whole dang country) that was probably a good thing.
Ants don't need any encouragement! I can see that flounces on the beach would look a little strange.
DeleteI never wore ones like that, but I do remember wearing the nylon ones under my skirts lol
ReplyDeleteHappy days!
DeleteMy grandmother used to use starch for some clothes and also blueing tablets? I don't know about them. My mother used spray on starch called....a brand name....ah, Fabulon. I think even I used that on work shirt collars. You do conjure up memories at times.
ReplyDeleteI think you are right about blue bags.
DeleteWe had blue bags rather than blueing tablets. I'd quite forgotten about those. My mother used to use them for my school blouses.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could remember what was said when someone's petticoat was showing under a dress - something rude I think. (That's the ordinary sort not the net starched).
ReplyDeleteHere in Bedfordshire we would say Charlie’s dead.No idea who Charlie was!
Delete‘Charlie’s dead’ is what we said, although I don’t know why. I’m off to Google that!!
DeleteI'd forgotten Charlie's dead - we said that in Kent, too. No idea why.
DeleteJust found the following: Mrs. Goodfellow, Birkbeck Road, London, N17, writes:
DeleteA reader wondered about the origin of the saying “Charlie’s dead” to a girl whose petticoat shows below her skirt. Well, my aunt, who lived on the Isle of Wight, where King Charles I was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle, told me this tale.
When the king was executed, lady Royalist sympathisers, not daring to go into mourning openly, simply let their petticoats show below their skirts.
I don’t know what the Royalist gents did.
We said 'Charlie's Dead' too. xx
DeleteWhile I never enjoyed quite such bouffant petticoats, petticoats in cotton and linen, with Broderie Anglaise and coloured ribbon inserts, and ruffles were inherited from mother (and possibly had been adapted from something grandmother had worn) and were worn finally to holes by me. An extra layer of insulation? Easier to wash than the outer layer - especially of winter skirts and woolen gym frocks.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember ever wearing petticoats under school uniform. These petticoats were purely for leisure.
DeleteI certainly remember the nylon crinkly stiff scratchy full petticoat. I think by the time I was five or six I had no longer had to wear that kind. Then it was just full slips that my mother made, and usually put some kind of eyelet or maybe a little lace on them. Time goes on and sometimes I still wish I were dresses and slips instead of trousers. But I don't and I probably never will again.
ReplyDeleteI didn't wear full slips, only waist slips, and not even those any more, as, like you, I wear trousers apart from (very rare) more formal occasions.
DeleteMuch as I love vintage clothing, I've never worn one of those full petticoats. They are lovely to look at though, even if they're not my era ! xxx
ReplyDeleteThey were nice to wear - rather special.
DeleteI wear waist slips when needed. My Mum always had full ones but they're not for me. xx
ReplyDeleteMy mother-in-law said full slips were to improve the line of the dress. She was always beautifully dressed, unlike me!
DeleteThere was an art to wearing those petticoats. I had a friend who loved to tell the story of a growing up on a military base in a time where 'cotillions' were a thing. Where women would dress up in very fancy dresses with voluminous skirts made so by wearing many petticoats. Back in the day, there was always an alcoholic punch served and gallant officers in training would bring gloved ladies little cups of punch. She relates one story: "It was at the end of the affair, and I needed to use the bathroom. In those days, women would be escorted to the door of the ladies room and their dates would wait outside. The bathroom had wooden stalls and swinging doors and there was an art to using the bathroom in those days. You would have to flip your skirts up and then pull your pants down as you were backing into the narrow stall with your skirts pressing around your shoulders. The bathroom was crowded, and we were all a bit tipsy and giggling. I began the process, and in some way, managed to get turned around the wrong way, and backed my bare butt against the door leading into the restroom. I felt a blast of cool air on my bottom and heard shocked voices that didn't belong in the women's bathroom and realized immediately what I had done."
ReplyDeleteShe related crying in the bathroom, embarrassed, while other crying women gathered around to decide what to do. The bare bum could not be identified, and all the men waiting would be wondering if they had glimpsed their own date's nether regions. In the end, they could do nothing but swear each other to secrecy and walk out together. As far as she could tell, word never got out what she had done.
That is so funny, but,oh, the embarrassment!
DeleteAnd do you remember the suspender belt, worn to hold up stockings, before pantyhose was invented?
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, and the seams which had to be straight at the back of the legs.
ReplyDeleteDid the sugar get sticky in the petticoat?
ReplyDeleteI don't remember them being sticky but then my attention was usually focused elsewhere:-)
DeleteAll I can remember is that on a Saturday night when the girls were going out, when they got on the bus with their multi-layered petticoats the situation was 'interesting' to say the least.
ReplyDeleteDouble-decker buses?
DeleteGreat post and I enjoyed the comments too.
ReplyDeleteI'd not heard of the expression 'Charlie's Dead'
I just wear waist slips when needed.
All the best Jan
It's interesting to see what prompts memories.
DeleteI never had such a petticoat nor desired one. LOL. I had a simple 'petticoat' in 5th grade, I remember. During gym (physical education) class we all changed into gym clothes. After we showered after gym class, my 'petticoat' was missing. I remember riding home on my bike feeling kind of naked without my petticoat. By some research we found that a girl who was very poor and very dirty had stolen it. I didn't want it back after it was in her home. I remember just letting her keep it. mostly in those days I had non frilly slips. Mostly I had clothes that didn't need one. I haven't worn one in decades.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad to reflect that some people were so poor that they had to steal clothes from others.
ReplyDeleteI haven't worn a slip regularly for donkey's years. Not needed under trousers!