Crinoline Tournure

          This tournure is made of white crinoline, and is furnished with steel springs.
          It consists of five straight pieces, each four inches and seven-eights wide and fifteen inches and a quarter long, which are pointed on the under end as shown by the illustration, and are furnished on the wrong side through the middle with a narrow steel spring. These pieces are joined on the sides.
          The two outer pieces are joined each with a piece of the requisite length and two inches and a half wide.     
          Gather the tournure five inches and three-quarters from the bottom on the joining seams of the separate parts and on the side edges.
           Bind the under and side edges narrow, and join the upper edge with a box-pleated crinoline ruffle three inches and a quarter wide and a roll of wadding. the latter is furnished with strings at the ends. On the wrong side of the tournure, about four inches and six inches from the bottom ,set horizontal steel springs.

from Harper's Bazar May 17, 1873 pg. 309

Petticoat 1875

Since dresses are made to cling so closely, the white petticoat, after a few hours' wear, becomes so soiled that a lady who is at all neat with regard to her under-clothing, is unwilling to put it on a second time.  To obviate this the white petticoat is now made shorter than the dress, but a white muslin ruffle flounce, a quarter of a yard to three-eighths of a yard in depth, is basted around the bottom of the skirt, inside, and so falls with the dress, which a petticoat does not.  The ruffle can be made of any kind of cambric, not very full, and sewed on a tape.  Strange to say, the ruffle does not seem to catch the dust as much as the longer petticoat did.  We can speak from experience on this subject.

All skirts are drawn as far back as possible, giving an ugly wriggle to a walk, and making sitting down most uncomfortable and often inelegant.  It is rumored that crinoline is to be again worn, but it is only a rumor, for in no respect have we seen and indication of it.  The best French dresses are not drawn back as tightly as those made in this country, and are not so very uncomfortable to wear.

from Peterson's June 1875 pg. 392