Sewing: Dorset Buttons on Victorian Drawers

The waistband fastening consists of two 

buttons and buttonholes, and a larger opening 

for the drawstring.

A while ago, I was rummaging through my boxes of languishing projects, attempting to find a spark of inspiration to pick something up and either finish it or re-work it into something else entirely. I like to think that I have a pretty good memory of most of my unfinished projects, but I'm totally ashamed to admit that on this particular rummage, I found a project that I had absolutely no memory of ever starting, and have absolutely no idea why I stopped working on it. It was a perfectly serviceable pair of Victorian drawers, made from the Laughing Moon Mercantile Ladies' Victorian Underwear pattern (#100).

I'd cut out the leg pieces and stitched a series of tucks around the hem, and then just stopped. I have no idea why. I have another pair of drawers made from this same pattern in black cotton which I've worn on several occasions, so it's not a problem with the pattern. The drawers aren't particularly complicated to construct, with just one seam on each leg, a drawstring waistband, and a bit of hemming.

In other words, this project was an easy win.

So of course I found a way to make it complicated.

It started simply enough. All I had to do was sew up the leg seam, hem the crotch opening, and stick on a waistband. At the time, my treadle machine was easily accessible, so the leg seam was a breeze. For the crotch opening on my black pair of drawers, I'd machine-stitched a rolled hem and was never entirely happy with the results. Making a rolled hem on the bias is never a fun exercise, so I decided to try a new technique used for hemming silk scarves by hand. I think it worked out rather neatly--much better than my black pair.

This project involved a new-to-me technique of making a narrow
rolled hem, which works even on the bias.

All that remained was the waistband. How hard could that be, right? 

Except the waistband on my black pair of drawers is my least favorite part of the garment. The drawers go on under my corset, so if I tie the drawstring comfortably tight on my un-corseted figure, they tend to slip down on my corseted figure, and if I tie them tight enough to stay up on my corseted figure, the drawstring digs in uncomfortably. Plus, they're split drawers with the waistband opening at the back, so the dangling ties of the drawstring hang down over my butt, which is slightly disconcerting. Ideally, the drawers would be full enough that the fabric would have plenty of room to overlap, but I've, ahem, expanded somewhat since either pair of drawers was cut out, so the overlap is not all that it could be.

So I decided to modify the waistband.

Some years ago, I found an illustration of 19th century ladies' drawers that were still split, but had an opening over one hip instead of in back, with small buttons and a drawstring. I thought this was a brilliant idea. The buttons keep the drawers from falling down while you fuss with the drawstring to adjust the fit. Not to mention the fact that it's much easier to tie a drawstring over your hip than behind your back.

[image of drawers with side opening]

The buttonholes on either side of the
placket are for the drawstring.

The simplest way of making a side opening would be to cut a slit down the side and make a narrow rolled hem around the edges, and then overlap them slightly for the button closure at the top. As I mentioned, the drawers were already a bit on the snug side though, so I couldn't afford to lose that extra inch or so. Instead, I made a placket, giving me a bit of overlap for modesty without losing any width.

I placed the buttons and buttonholes close to the edge, and made a third buttonhole a bit further back from the edge on each side, going through just the outer layer of the waistband, to allow me to thread a drawstring through. Because I'm a masochist (and because I don't have a way to make buttonholes on my treadle machine and it's much too much trouble to dig out the UK/US power converter to run my electric one), I decided to use this opportunity to practice hand-stitched buttonholes.

Then, once I'd decided to make proper buttonholes, I couldn't just use plastic buttons, could I? One of my costuming buddies had recently shown me some photos of her first attempt at making death's-head buttons, which got me thinking about thread-covered buttons in general. A type of thread-covered button which was commonly used on 18th and 19th century underthings that were likely to take a beating in the wash was the Dorset button. Not wanting to be outdone by my friend's buttons, I decided to try my hand at a pair of these.

Hiding the plastic ring with a round of buttonhole sttiches.

I used tiny plastic curtain rings (which I'd been using as stitch markers for my knitting) and a bit of cotton crochet thread leftover from my embroidered shift. Somewhat unfortunately, the crochet thread turned out to be a creamier white than the thread I used for the buttonholes, but oh well. It's underwear, right? Who's going to see it anyway?

The middle of the button started as a tiny pentacle/pentagram.

To make the buttons, I started with a round of buttonhole stitches to completely cover the plastic ring. While making the buttonhole stitches, you leave the little ridge on the outside of the ring, but once the stitching is done, you slide the ridge into the middle of the ring. You can make the stitches much denser this way.

From there, I stitched a tiny pentacle through the middle. I wove the thread back and forth, over and under each point of the pentacle in a kind of figure-8 pattern until the space was entirely filled in, and then moved on to the next one. After filling in each point of the pentacle, it looked less like a pentacle and more like a 5-petaled flower, which is also totally fine by me. With the remaining thread tail, I stitched the button onto the waistband, finishing with a rather messy french knot to fill in the small gap in the middle.

The finished buttons and buttonholes.