A Tale of Two Petticoats

So back in April for my birthday, my husband and I took a surprise-to-me trip to Astoria, Oregon. While we were there, I decided on a whim at a vintage store that I just really, really needed a petticoat. But since I couldn’t decide on white or red, the woman running the shop (who owned it, I think!) offered me both petticoats for a discount that ended up being exactly the amount of birthday money I had left.

I bought them both right then… and once I got home to try them on, was disappointed that they were shorter than expected, and WAY fluffier than expected, and didn’t work with any of my skirts or dresses.

So, they sat in my closet all that time, and today I pulled them out to list them on Etsy for sale.

And then I tried them under this skirt.

Magic.

Suffice it to say, I have since pulled this skirt from my Etsy shop, and it and these petticoats have a permanent home in my closet. I knew from reading around on blogs wherein bloggers wear petticoats that not every petticoat is the same… which should be obvious. You can’t wear a shorter petticoat with a longer skirt, or you get a weird line. But since I’d never gotten a petticoat before, I didn’t know how long or short or full or slim I wanted my petticoats to be! And now that I know what type of skirt works with these, I’m going to make a few more superfull skirts to wear with these ones, because they are glorious! I mean, look at the fluff! How can you not love that!?

I think overall the white one is my favorite; it’s a little tiny bit less fluffy, if possible, and stays smoother under skirts; the red has a lot more stiffness to it, and tends to get bent out of shape when sitting. Plus, it’s kind of scratchy so if I didn’t wear it with tights, it wouldn’t be a nice feeling against my legs.

But oh, I am so glad I found a skirt fullness and length that works! I was having a really hard time letting go of these petticoats despite their perceived shortcomings; I have gone to list them for sale so many times, and always held off because I wanted to find some way to wear them. Thank goodness for this skirt!

Hopefully I can make more skirts to work with the petticoats quickly; otherwise it might be a bit boring to see this skirt with these petticoats all the time. I loved matching the red petticoat with red tights, and if I’d had time I would have changed my top to show off a bit more of a difference between the two. But such is mom life and having to shoot outfits during naptime. 😉

SO FLUFFY.

Skirt (vintage), shirt, both pairs of shoes, headscarf (vintage), and brooch (vintage), thrifted | petticoats, Garbo’s Vintage Wear | tights, Target

And now that I know how much fun these are, I am on the lookout for a few longer, slimmer petticoats to pair with my longer, less full skirts! I am 100% a petticoat convert. Why did we ever stop wearing these regularly?

Do you wear petticoats, or would you? What’s your favorite way to style them?

Happy Wednesday!