All posts tagged: crinoline

Tutorial: How to make a drawstring petticoat to go over a crinoline

My hoopskirt tutorial has been getting a lot of use, and I have had a request to do a tutorial on making the petticoat that goes over the hoopskirt, so here goes. This tutorial will make a full petticoat gathered to a 45″ drawstring waistband with two layers of 6″ ruffles at the hem.   The petticoat has a circumference of approximately 150″ at the hem, and is up to 45″ long. For your petticoat you will need: 7 yards (6.25m)  of 45″ wide fabric (60″ if you want your petticoat to be longer or can be bothered hemming) 2.5 yards of 3/4″ wide  cotton waist tape 10 yards of cotton cord for cord gathering Apologies in advance for the quality of the photographs with this tutorial – I guessed at what I would need as I made the petticoat, and then wrote the tutorial, and my guesses were hopelessly off, so I need to go back and make another petticoat and photo-document the process properly. Step 1: The Hem Ruffles Cut 14 7″ wide …

The 1866 Crinoline in action

I’ve realised that while I make lots of undergarments, some of them very pretty, I don’t often show models in just their undergarments, so I don’t get good photographs of the undergarments on real people. Last Saturday solved a bit of that. One undergarments I was especially pleased to get images of in action was the 1866 crinoline. Mme Denise Poiret wore it, and looked fabulously 1860s and not at all Poiret-y. The one inaccuracy with this wearing is that I put the corset over the crinoline for aesthetic impact.  Audiences like to to see corsets in the full. I fixed some of the issues that I was having with this crinoline for this wearing by slipping an extra set of very strong wire boning into the extra channels that I had providentially included in the crinoline when I originally made it. The extra wires keep the crinoline from warping under the weight of the back ruffles, and help create a back-heavy shape, but also make the whole petticoat quite a bit heavier, which is …

The Corset Model Class of 2011

I got photographs of all the models wearing their corsets on Saturday against a plain cement wall. Every time I have looked at the photos since then, I have cracked up. They remind me of the kind of pictures you take in Elementary School for a ‘me, myself, and I’ project. You have the kid who can’t stop grinning, the kid who closes their eyes in every picture, the kid who won’t smile because they think they look better without one (that would have been me), the kid who won’t stand still for even a moment, and the kid who probably should have been a model. We all look ridiculous, and absolutely gorgeous, all at the same time.  It’s a total celebration of personality, and all the different facets of beauty that exist. Without further ado, I present Ms Oakes’ Corset Model Class of 2011. And finally, the erstwhile instructress: Ladies, you can teach me anytime!