to wonder why we, and our mums, used to wear the silly garments...

[KatrineEM]

petticoats?

I don't remember what age my sisters and I stopped having to wear petticoats (thin, little dresses under clothing), but I've never even thought of dressing my DD in one.

Mums used to wear underskirts, with elasticated waistbands, didn't they? I wonder why?


AIBU to think petticoats are/were a silly garment?

[YoniTime]

Jersey summer skirts are generally not lined - at least not the ones I've found!

[YoniTime]

Not the linen or wool or other skirts I've looked at the latest years either, in fact.

[SybilRamkin]

Yy, petticoats are fab for stopping clothes sticking to you with static, preventing them from riding up, and most importantly for preventing thin cloth from becoming see-through with a strong back-light!

[Forgetfulmog]

Oh god my mum used to insist I wore these, along with vests & I used to get teased by all the other girls when getting changed for pe

[BMW6]

At least no-one wears Liberty bodices anymore ...... I never had to, but my elder sisters did (which is odd as I am only 2 years younger than my older sis) and I am only 55, not 85!!
(I am told that they were a sort of padded vest, with rubber buttons )

I also went from socks to stockings and sussie belt at aged about 14..... surely tights were invented then??

[KatrineEM]

Your DH has several vintage slips, marriedinwhite? Are they sexy?

[YoniTime]

Not the linen or wool or other skirts I've looked at the latest years either, in fact.

[KatyDid02]

I'm in my 40s and I never wore one, I remember thinking how old fashioned they were when I was a child - they were something that old ladies wore. I don't think my mother ever wore one.

[SoleSource]

I wonder if underskirts were just a British thing. I always wore one as a child.

I never wire a petticoat, I don't think I have ever seen one.

[HappyAsEyeAm]

I have five, in different colours and different lengths! All m and s. They are all half slips, ie they start at the waist. I dont know what I would do without them! When I wear jersey dresses and skirts with tights, the jersey would stick to my legs and ride up, otherwise. They make my skirts and dresses hang well.

[apostropheuse]

When I was a child (in the sixties) I had to wear a vest, then a liberty bodice on top of that, on top of which the petticoat went. I would then wear a dress or blouse and pinafore, and then put a cardigan on top - and of course I would have woollen tights on. My granny, who lived with us, would then put a scarf on me, criss-crossed across my chest and tied at the back. I would then be put into a duffle coat. I looked like the Michelin man!

To be fair our house was freezing cold, with only one room with any form of heating - a coal fire in the living room.

I wore petticoats up until probably the eighties, but don't even possess one now.

[Startail]

Central heating happened, double glazing happened, lycra and thick tights that fit happened.

Most of all being allowed to wear trousers to school happened.

Over the knee socks and a polyester school skirt in the Welsh hills was freezing waiting for the bus and bloody cold in class rooms with grotty storage heaters and ill fitting windows.

Hence my DMum making me a nice cotton underskirt (actually out of a redundant, with the advent of duvets, sheet). I remember her moaning about the cost of a length of cotton lace to finish it.

She got her money's worth, I think I wore it and the same three white v necked T shirts under my uniform for seven years. I got taller not wider.

I still had the T shirts at uni.

Sadly I have got a lot wider now.

[digerd]

I too remember the Liberty Bodice worn in the winter in Yorkshire, but soooo long ago, I can't remember how they did up - at the back I think, but not sure.

Petticoats were for unlined skirts. Mum made most of our clothes until I left school.
Now I'm old, I don't wear skirts, though still got a wardrobe full of mainly long elegant ones < that don't show my wrinkly knees>. Last year I wore stretch elasticated jeggings/leggings in the summer - in the garden and at home. From a distance I look like a teenager in my baseball cap and sunglasses. , but not close up

[NUFC69]

Another one who wore a liberty bodice - and knickers with pockets in for school! I was born in 1948 and was a teenager when the rage for very full skirted dresses was just ending. The petticoats were wonderful - I remember having one with several layers of pale green net which made my skirt stick out beautifully - I loved that petticoat and refused to throw it away for years. I started wearing tights when I was in my late teens - oh, the joy and freedom. And, of course, during the era of the minis tights were a must.

[marriedinwhiteagain]

RofL - dh thinks they're sexy on me you numpty

[NUFC69]

Liberty bodices did up at the front with rubber buttons - my sister is five years younger than me and never had to wear them.

[marriedinwhiteagain]

And I rember my granny wearing a long line bra; a long line corset with suspenders attached for stockings, bloomers over the top and a long line slip. If she went riding although she took the slip off, her jodhpurs went over that lot. Can you imagine the discomfort.

[Annunziata]

I wear slips with dresses, I get cold otherwise. But I'm a bit obsessed with vests

My mum still wears her corset!

[twofingerstoGideon]

yikes! Look what an ebay search for petticoats brought up!

[LapsedPacifist]

Exactly what apostropheuse said - but minus the liberty bodice (or 'lilly-bolly' as my gran called them!) We had our mittens on strings looped through the sleeves of our duffles. We used to sleep in our vests too, worn underneath our ankle-length nighties, and go to bed with two hotty botties because it was so indescribably cold in the winter. We NEVER got out of bed in the middle of the night - we'd have frozen to the spot! Our only regular source of heating (in a 5 bed Victorian house) was an aga range in the 'breakfast room' which was between the 'pantry' and the 'scullery' .

[DeWe]

I've just made dd2 (age 9) a petticoat from a 1950s pattern. She loves it-the lace just pokes out the bottom. I'm threatening to make her the pants that go with it though. She thinks they're hilarious.

My dm has a friend who she remembers as being the only one in the class with a liberty bodice rather than a vest, and how she hated it.

[Weegiemum]

I'm 42 and the first thing we made in "Domestic Science" (yes at my school they still called it that!) was a petticoat.

Mind you, in my school the girls did that and the boys did technical subjects!

[TheCatcherInTheRye]

I'd forgotten about these OP! I used to love them, the full slips were comfortable and pretty as pj's, and they smooth things out, no vpl, no see-through... hmm, might be my next purchase!

[IneedAyoniNickname]

There's a girl at my dcs school who wears a slip. She's in year 5. I know because her nana, who she lives with, told me shed bought her some so her knickers don't show when she hangs upside down on the climbing frame. I'm not sure how that works, as surely the slip rides up too?