The Disaster Crinoline

My first attempt at this costume had me running out of time fast. I discovered that my thread kept knotting up when I tried to sew tulle to a slip by machine. That left me stitching ever last fluffy piece of that crunchy hell by hand. Hence the very sparse, not so productive item below:

So, when I decided to re-do the whole thing, I spent lots of time (I mean LOTS!) hand sewing a new one. It is almost finished, and still requires a bumroll underneath, and some light boning in the slip to get the fullness I was looking for. I still have one or two layers of crinkly tulle, and probably a light cotton, to smooth out the ruffles. Yes, I could have gone with hoops, but I want to be able to sit comfortably. And I need to be able to get in and out of an RX7 while wearing this thing. (The RX7 is my husband's little red car, and you need to be able to get very low to get in and out of it! Hard enough to do in a corset, never mind huge rings hanging about your legs!) 

The construction started with a tube, gathered to a waistband at the top, with two rings of lightweight boning, one just above the knees, and one near the hem. This was to get as much volume out of the bottom layer of material as possible. 

I then drew rings around the skirt, marking the areas where I wanted to sew the gathered layers that would add more volume. The bottom ruffly layer is some fabric I found in the bins my mom had given to me. Now that crazy mix-matched patterns are back in fashion, maybe this fabric could have gone to something... nevermind! It works in this invisible, yet so important piece of clothing! On top of that, I hand stitched a layer of tulle. And under it. And above it. There are several layers of this stuff! This is where I am now. All around the skirt, from just under the waistband, I intend to sew another layer of tulle, and then on top of that, a layer of something else, perhaps cotton, or maybe more of that crazy 90's fabric, to smooth it out, and I should be done. So far, so good! (What I failed to mention so far, is that I stitched several layers of tulle that I had to remove because they didn't do what I wanted them to! A pain to sew on, and a pain to remove!!) This should give it enough poof to look quite grand, without being too awkward to sit or drive around in. I don't have a nice roomy carriage to ride around in!