Sunday, July 21, 2013

Petti Project

     What Little Moth has been working on...
   
1830's/40's Skirt Supports: I decided to ditch the idea of sporting hoops to Dickens Fair this year. Tried it out a couple weekends last season. Hated it. Fezzi's (the dancing guild I'm part of at Fair) backstage is too small and there are already too many goddamn hoops swinging about and crowding the space. So....PETTICOATS!
     Not the tulle-net-synthetic cr@p I wore my first season. It got weighed down by my skirts. And then last season I threw together my first corded petticoat (wow, I didn't know what I was doing when I started that). Problem was, I didn't put nearly enough rows on cording in it and didn't starch it, lacking knowledge of how. My skirts still looked saggy. As you can see...My Dickens Dress. Fail. But, you can see that the hips look a little fuller, which is because I padded the cartridge pleats a little bit to help with the bell-shape of the skirt on top of petticoats and avoid getting the dreaded cone-shaped silhouette. For example:

No.
(aliexpress.com)

Yes.
(Ballgown, ca 1855 France, KCI)

          See the difference of the bell? Well, that's what I'm going for with the petticoats I'm working on combined with my padded pleats. The plan:

-my (now-re-vamped and starched) corded petticoat
                 -made from stiff muslin and thick cotton cording
                         worn under
-ruffled AND corded petticoat (in progress) 
                -ruffles with several cords underneath them
                -made from minty-green King-sized bed sheet my momma gave me
                -100% Egyptian cotton
-both petticoats will have the living daylights starched out of them

     The final decision to go petti came from inspiration from a lovely post by the lady behind Frolicking Frocks. She shows the wonders of multiple layers and starching. I tried the bum-pad idea that she had, but the shape I created didn't quite work for me, so I think I'll try one that is more like hers. 

     Oh, and I think this chick is cute:


That's all for now, folks!