Category: tulle

petticoat, tulle

Petticoat no. 2 – takes a little time!

christinahopgood

After reading a couple Gothic and Lolita Bibles, I realised that one petticoat simply isn’t enough for a modern-day Lolita.  I decided I’d make another one in a different way.

At the fabric shop, I found some tulle in the remnant bin – it was about 1.6 metres.  Luckily it was white and only $2!
First work out how wide you need the waistband to be to get into it.  This measurement is an IMPORTANT ONE.
I folded it in half lengthways so that it was doubled and was around 60cm long, and drew a lot of triangles on it.  Like this, except more… measured and less… crap.
I cut them all out… except I made the points of the triangles flat.  This is so that the small ends of the triangles form the waist of the petticoat.  I figured that if it was too small to get in and out, I’d cut a slit in it and use elastic anyway.
Sew all the panels together, with all the triangles THE SAME ORIENTATION.  Ha ha ha.
Sew in elastic at the top.  Insert over body.  
This petticoat is nowhere near as rad as my other one.  However, it does make a difference when I wear them together, and I consider it to be a success!  And way easy!
I’ll post photos soon.
petticoat, tulle

Petticoat no. 1 – takes a long time!

christinahopgood

While I was in Japan, I bought a great Lolita skirt from a shop called Body Line in Harajuku, Tokyo.  I didn’t buy a petticoat there because I thought, why not make one instead?  I ended up making one like this one, so it is easy to see how I did it by looking at the picture.

Materials: 3 metres of stiff tulle.
Elastic for the waist.
A bunch of approx. 5 – 10cm-wide strips of an old sheet.
Needle and thread, sewing machine.
First, I cut up my tulle into 20cm wide strips, as long as the fabric.  I used it all up.  I counted that I had 30 strips to work with.  To get the petticoat to flare out more towards the bottom, each tier needs to have at least twice as much fabric as the 
previous tier.  So my first tier had 4 strips, second tier had 8 strips, and last tier had 18 strips.  This gives the skirt lots of body.
Before sewing, work out how much elastic yo
u need for your waist, and how much room you need to get in and out of the petticoat.  Write down the measurement to refer to later.  Also measure the length of ONE strip.  This would have made my time a lot easier had I thought of it beforehand.  Think of “1 strip” as a unit of measurement.
Get your first 4 strips of tulle and lay them end to end.  It will go a long way.  Get your needle and thread and loosely straight-stitch along a long edge of the tulle.  Don’t stop between strips, just join them on as though it’s one long piece.  It’s not really necessary to join them beforehand.
Pull the thread so that the fabric gathers.  Make the length of gathered material the same as your earlier measurement.  You have to be able to get into the petticoat!  Arrange the gathers so that they’re even along the whole length.  Gather gather.
Get a strip of old sheet and fold it lengthwise over the gathered edge of tulle.  Pin it in place.  This helps keep the gathers in the right spot – they’re tricksy and like to move around.
Use a sewing machine to run a seam over the gathers and the old sheet.  Yay!  One tier!
Grab your next 8 strips of fabric and hand-stitch down one edge, like before.  This time gather it to the length of 4 full strips – this way you can attach it to the bottom of the first tier.  Once again spread out the gathers evenly and pin the strip of sheet over the gathers.  Now you can carefully sew the top of the second tier onto the bottom of the first tier – and it should fit!
Do the same with the remaining strips of tulle, except gather them so that they are 8 strips long.  Sew onto the second tier.
Now pin the elastic to the top of the petticoat, making sure it stretches and pulls it all in.  Sew in place, directly onto the tulle.  Sew the edges of the petticoat together (it doesn’t have to be perfect, unless you’re wearing it outside the skirt).
Ta-da!  A 3-tiered petticoat that’s big at the bottom and small at the top!  It’s fun walking around and hearing it rustle, and having to adjust it when I sit down.  Petticoats are fun!