Petticoats

After listening to advice about working with netting I have finally achieved a lovely Lolita petticoat with lots of "poomf"! These petticoats form the integral part of the "bell shape" which is typical in Lolita style clothes.

Difficulty: Easy
Total Time: 4 hours

These petticoats really aren't all that hard. I now know that I simply made some errors in fabric choice and was far to gentle which proved the downfall of my first petticoat.

First get a decent cotton or poly/cotton as the base of the petticoat. You really don't want to work with anything shiny, slippery or light weight because you just won't be able to sew the netting to it.

Second, get yourself some netting. You want the normal netting, not the bridal stuff because the bridal netting is just too thin and doesn't give that nice "poomf" when you put your garments on overtop.

The petticoats from Gosu Rori magazine have a tapered shape as the base of the skirt. Sew the two halves together and then mark out where you will sew the netting to make it easier to pin and control. Hem the bottom of the petticoat now if you need to because the netting will make that hard later on. Put this part aside for a minute.

Cut out your lengths of netting (mine were one length of 2.6m x 33cm and one length of 1.6m x 25cm) and gather one side. Pin one length along the line on your base material and stitch into place. Then pin the next length along the other line and stitch.

Sew your waistband onto the top of the skirt and insert your elastic, and you're done!

You can be quite rough with the netting. You won't hurt it!! Make it conform to where you want to sew... and worse case - remember it is going under your garment and doesn't need to look perfect.

If you find the netting is scratching on your legs you might have made the netting ruffles a little too long. Trim them a centimetre or two all the way around so that the netting is above the cotton base and then the cotton should protect your legs.