Historical Undergarments

Now Accepting Custom Orders for January 2025!

No historical silhouette is complete without proper foundation garments. These foundation garments are collectively referred to as historical undergarments. Maggie May Clothing’s foundation garments/historical undergarments include but are not limited to shifts, chemises, chemisettes, petticoats, corsets, and bustles.


Our historical undergarments have been streamlined to fit a variety of silhouettes. For example, our extra full petticoat is best suited to time periods that have wide, full skirts. Whereas our ruffled hem petticoat is best suited to time periods with a slightly narrower silhouette such as the 1820s, 1870s, 1880s-1900. We have also streamlined our petticoats to fit most all sizing with most employing a drawstring waist closure. Our shifts and chemises are sold by BUST or HIP size depending on style. We use a standard 35? hem length for most all our ready made garments as this is the ideal hem length for the average female height we normally serve. Over the years we have offered a variety of corset styles but have found that our Over Bust corset pattern is the most versatile and best design to date. We recommend clients always use our custom order PDF when ordering corsets so we can ensure a proper and comfortable fit. Stock size corsets are best suited for museum display and/or interpretive pieces or when specific fit is not required. We recommend our Over bust corset for any client seeking an hourglass silhouette.

Beginning March 12, 2023: Orders with combined in stock and backordered items will ship together once backordered items are restocked. Requests for separate shipments may be made at checkout. However, please note additional shipping fees may be assessed.

Effective September 1, 2022: In effort to keep shipping costs down, we currently ship all orders on Tuesdays (and Thursdays during our busy season). Orders placed at the end of the week may be rolled over to the following week’s shipment. Thanks for your understanding!

UK BUYERS: MMC will not collect VAT or customs fees on your behalf for purchases made from our website. Please note we support not for profit entities. Please check with your local officials for more customs regulations.

EU BUYERS: For packages with a value more than €150, VAT and customs will be collected on import from the buyer by the postal carrier.