A while back I ordered a simple cotton petticoat off of Etsy, trimmed with a lovely eyelet lace on the bottom. When I got it, it was longer than I had imagined...I still use it for several of my longer skirts, especially when it's cold outside! It really does help keep you warmer.But since then, I've been wanting to make a shorter one to wear with some of my shorter (as in, calf-length) skirts, and with a bit more pouf to it!
I was as Walmart the other day browsing the $1.50 fabric section, and I found some...uh...I don't know, nylon something? I'm not quite sure what it is, lol, but it's synthetic and has a nice stiffness to it, and I thought it would make a great petticoat! I also grabbed some $1.50 tulle to accompany it.
So I figured a petticoat is simple enough, one tier of fabric big enough to go around the hips, elastic for the waist, then another tier or two with more fabric each time for fullness. This was my first attempt:
It's shorter than I had planned because I stopped at the second tier after realizing it was definitely poufy, but it was poufy all around and wasn't all that flattering with the kind of skirts I was planning on wearing it with. It kind of just made me look like I had a huge bottom half! I had also doubled the amount of tulle on the back rather than putting a single layer like I had on the front...
Needless to say, I underestimated tulle's pouf factor!
I thought a bit about where I wanted the fullness to be in the petticoat. I realized I wanted it on the sides and a bit in the back, but I didn't want it much in the front.
So I began again, this time making sure to gather the fabric mostly on the sides and a bit in the back, but to keep it flat in the front. And this was the result:
I'm quite pleased with the result, it's full in just the right places. It's amazing to me how this simple piece of underclothing can add so much! Here are some comparisons of a couple of my skirts with and without the petticoat.
