Date: 11/3/09 5:45 PM

I realize that I have made the wedding dress, but the petticoat stumps me a bit. THe dress is a mermaid/trumpet and I want a lot of flair on the bottom, plus some "fluff" for the train as well.
I bought some hoop skirt boning to give it a shot, but was wondering how difficult it would be to make the petticoat.
I left some fabric available under the skirt from the underlining to attach a petticoat too.
I guess my question is should I buy one and adjust it for best fit, or should I just make one?

Date: 11/3/09 7:29 PM

This would depend on how much a ready-made one would coat. The bride is only going to wear the petticoat once, so if I could find a commercial one which would fit, I would go with that. Unless you just like to sew lingerie, in which case, go ahead!

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Date: 11/3/09 11:01 PM

If you don't want to make one find out about renting one at a bridal shop. Maybe that would be the way to go.

Reply to tamuchick02
Date: 11/4/09 3:34 AM

I don't think making a petticoat is that hard depending on how you make it, the one I made out of netting was a somewhat a pain in the neck working with yards and yards of netting.

I've never used hoop skirt boning, but I presume you could find directions on the internet.
Or else a heavier crinoline and that should need less yards than netting.

My one warning would be if you have finished the dress including the hem, you will need to make sure the petticoat works with the dress. The more the dress goes out the longer it needs to be. I discovered this in doing my DD wedding dress, but since I had the petticoat with the muslin I figured this out along the way. I also left plenty of hem and still the dress ended up longer than I expected. Good thing I had left plenty of hem.

Were you going to bustle your train at some point? If so you will need to factor this in adding fluff under the train.

Renting or buying a petticoat could be looked into as well, but you would need to be able to try it on with your dress to make sure it works with it. IMHO the petticoats I've seen on the internet seem on the expensive side. When I checked tonight, the decent looking ones cost approx. $70.

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Martha

Date: 11/4/09 8:48 AM

I've done it both ways with my daughters' dresses. One thing that I did with a trumpet skirt petticoat was to add a "panel" in the petticoat layer that was made from stiff netting. It went from the trumpet flare point to the ground and made the trumpet flare more precise. Martha mentioned a good point in that you need to make sure any bustling will work- my trumpet dress had a detachable train so we didn't have to worry about that.

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Connie Bontje

Blogsite: Couturesmith.com
Desperately trying to keep ahead of my pattern, fabric and dressform collection!

Date: 11/4/09 8:15 PM

I am still working out the length of the train. I am trying for about 3 feet, so I think it will need ome bustling.

There are petticoats on ebay for about 25-30 with free shipping, however, these are all regular petticoats, not for mermaid/trumpet. The ones that are for mermiad/trumpet do not look like they will give the amount of flair I want.

I am also not so excited about trying to wrangle yards and yards of netting, hence the boning.

I may go ahead and give making an hoop skirt a try, since I already have all the stuff for it.

Date: 11/6/09 5:45 PM

Hoops won't give you "fluff." They'll give you rigid structure, which doesn't *sound* like what you're looking for (but I could be wrong!). It's hard to know without seeing the gown, but if you want to maintain any kind of folds or softness to the skirts, you'll want to use something like netting or ruffles. Another option is rope, which will be midway between netting and hoop in terms of structure. Rope petticoats are common in historical garments, when you want lots of body but still a lot of softness.

My instinct here would be to make a full slip using the pattern pieces for the gown skirts, and then add lots of ruffles or netting at the mermaid section. I suppose you could add a row of hoop at the point where the mermaid section starts, but you might end up with a more abrupt slope to the skirts than you like.

Anyway, it all sounds intriguing! Good luck with it!

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~Gem in the prairie