In preparation to make a 1770 robe a l’anglaise, I decided that I need to have a bum enhancer of some kind. I have made myself a padded bum before, to wear with my caraco jacket and petticoat, but I really wanted to try a hip roll that curved all the way around my hips.
Padded clothes certainly can have their advantages! The caricature entitled “The Bum-Bailiff Outwitted”, depicts a lady so desperate to escape an unwanted pursuer that she is able to wiggle out of her self-supporting garments and take flight. The accompanying text puts the situation into verse admirably:
Suky like Syrinx changes shape,
Her vain pursuer to escape;
Ye Snapps; of Pans hard fate beware
Who thought his arms embrac’ed the fair
But found an empty Bum-case there.
So an empty Bum-case is what I need!
I found Demode’s post on “Bums, Rumps and Culs” very helpful, especially as she had tried out a number of different types of “bums” to catalogue their effects to the fashionable shape. After researching a little more, I decided that a hip roll or bum roll would be the best for my gown.
Patterning and Construction
Since I was not going to use a commercial pattern, I had to figure out exactly how to make it.
Firstly, I measured around the back of my hips, from my left front “hip point” to my right front “hip point”. (For want of a better term, by “hip point” I mean the part of your pelvis that sticks out at your side front, just across from your navel. It is often where your fingers sit when you put your hands on your hips.)
Once I had this measurement, this became the inner measurement of my bum roll. I laid the tape measure out on a piece of calico, trying to mimic the natural shape of the hips (that is, not a circle but a sort of oval). If you measure the space between your “hip points”, then you will know how much of a gap to have in the front of your “oval tape-measurey pattern”.
After I was happy with how my inner measurement sat on the calico, I used a pencil to draw the sewing line. Then I began to sketch the outer edge of the bum roll. I used the diagram of the “cork-cutter from Paris” to help in getting the shape fairly right, with a larger portion over the hips and a skinnier portion around the back. Then I cut it out, adding a fairly generous seam allowance, in case of mistakes.
Then I simply sewed both layers together, leaving a hole for adding some cushion stuffing. Once it was stuffed, I hand sewed the hole closed and sewed some lengths of cotton tape to the front “hip point corners” so that it could be tied on.
You can see the cotton tapes tied at the centre front. I actually think – now! – that it probably reaches too far around to the front, just beyond my hip point instead of on it.
A bum roll like this is supposed to sit on your “high hip” line, not your waistline. In some of the pictures, mine looks like it is sitting a smidgen high, but that can always be adjusted when a gown goes on top.
Since I whipped it together in an hour, I was pretty happy with how it turn out. Hopefully, once its under a dress, it will give the necessary “oomph” to my bottom!
Stay tuned for my robe a l’anglaise; first part up, the matching petticoat.
Related Posts
Sources and Relevant Links
Image Source: The bum-bailiff outwitted (1786), by Isaac Cruikshank, at The British Museum
Late 18th Century Skirt Supports: Bums, Rumps and Culs, by Demode
The phrase ‘Bum-Bailiff’ made me smile 🙂
🙂 18th Century caricatures are so clever!
I can’t wait to see the impact on your gown. It appears, from the Demode picture that fake rumps can be made of cork. Were they made of other products as well – perhaps wire cages or is that something different?
In the 18th century they seem to generally be pouches of different shapes and sizes stuffed with horsehair, cork and other filling materials. In the late 19th century the bustles become a bit more wire-cage-like structures, or stiffened/frilly fabric, to create more “bottom” under the dress. I do love researching all the different “fillers” people have used over the years to make their bodies more fashionable. It is essentially the same as push-up bras really. 🙂