Making a crinoline.

Making a crinoline.

TAKES FOREVER!

 So I am making a crinoline for a Halloween costume I have been working on.  The skirt in the pictures is quite poofy so I figured this was the best way to get that look.  

It's in two layers (folded, so I guess 4 layers) of Crinoline.  Yellow is the longer layer for the bottom

And orange for the above layer.

This is my day...right here.  

Gathering and gathering and gathering.

The Crinoline is being sewn the way I remember Fabrics doing ours at Kings Landing Historical settlement. 

Layers of gathered ruffles rather then the standard 50's petticoat crinoline.  I wanted a good amount of poof, and if this method works for and 1860's hoop skirt. It should work for this.

So the white part (which will be trimmed) is actually just a cotton version of the circle skirt that will be over it.  I guessed that the over-skirt length would be about 40cm or so when done, so I've made the petticoat 35com so it doesn't hang below. Once it is done, it will get sewn into the waistband of the over skirt and function as a lining/petticoat.

I've left it bare down to about the 20cm mark, which is just around where my hips are (so I don't get a big butt profile :P)

The orange layer of gathering is 3, 3m pieces about 31 cm wide and then folded in half (so 15-16 cm after the fold), sewn and gathered together.  The yellow band under it is 20 cm wide (so 10 cm when folded) and is 4, 3m long pieces.

Once it is all gathered, I laid the skirt out flat and pinned the ruffle along a line I drew in chalk to make where i wanted it to be.  As I went  along , I made sure I had it the right length to wrap around the entire skirt and that the gathers were even. Then I sewed down the orange later.  I've repeated the same steps for the yellow ruffle and have just got it pinned and ready to sew down.

Once it is sewn down, I'll be binding the edges with cotton seam binding (crinoline is hella scratchy/picks otherwise) and then trimming off the excess white fabric and hemming it/attaching it to the already made over skirt.

Stay tuned!