To go with my 18th Century corset I created an 18th century hooped petticoat or set of panniers. To create this I first flat drafted a pattern by scaling up a pattern I found in a book. From this I altered the pattern to fit my model in her corset and altered the length to suit her height.

I made the panniers up in calico first and then once I had draped fabric over them to check that they created the correct shape for the gown that I had used as inspiration. The aim of the project was to create the foundation wear to fit underneath a chosen gown.

The gown I had chosen was from the V&A collection (right), and to create the shape of the skirt of this gown I thought panniers would be the best foundation to use.

I think that the panniers that I created worked really well and gave a very good shape. They matched the gown perfectly and I was impressed by my ability to scale the picture of the gown up to create the right width of pannier that would be worn beneath.