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Crinoline Sewing Pattern

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Crinoline or petticoat is easy to make, really!!! Well, at least it is so much easier to make compared to the queen gown below.

crinoline pattern

Crinoline when worn under a skirt, makes it look domed and inflated, especially for the gown of special occasion. You can get crinoline easily in some countries but they normally came in white or black. Now, you can make it yourself, if you need a specific color to match your beautiful gown.

Crinoline mainly came in 2 types, hoop or full fabric/tulle. The one I am making is a hoop with tulle, so it is a mixture of both. The reason behind this combination is that I want the crinoline to look soft yet is able to hold the skirt of the gown in a good shape, yet easy to stow away when not in use.

If you look closely at hoop crinoline being worn, you will see the “skeleton” of the hoop if the gown was made of soft and thin fabric. Full fabric/tulle is a good choice but it would be difficult when comes to storage as it is very bulky and isn’t like the hoop type where we can simply take out the resilient plastic strip of the “bone”.

See, the gown is happy and smiling after being given a “lift” by the crinoline!

Before After Crinoline

Crinoline Sewing Pattern

Material:
(this is for little girl’s measurement, you would need more for an adult.)
1. 3 meter of tulle, I bought the stiff tulle as it expends better
2. 2 meter fabric to make into an A-shape skirt
3. Elastic band for the A-shape skirt
4. 12 meter Resilient plastic strip (some call it corset bone or fishbone)
5. 1 roll of cotton bias-tape (about 10 meters)

 
Crinoline

Divide the tulle into 3 equal parts by its width. Cut. You have 3 strips of 3 meters x 1/3 width of tulle.
Cut one of the strips into half the length, become 2×1.5 meter.
Sew the 1.5 meters to one of the 3-meter tulles to make it 4.5 meters.
Now you have 3 strips of 1.5m, 3m, and 4.5m.
Sew the ends together to make into ring. The long side of the measurement becomes the width and the short side become the height.
Fold the height into half.
Divide the width into 4 equal parts and mark their position by sewing red threads on them.

 
Crinoline

Use the biggest spacing of straight stitch, sew 2 lines 10mm below the fold side of the 3m tulle.
Pull the thread to create gathers until the width of the gathered tulle is 1.5m. Pin the red thread markings to the 1.5m tulle (only the bottom layer). Spread the gather evenly and secure it with pins. Sew a normal spacing stitch to hold it.
Repeat the same to the 4.5m width tulle. You might increase the marking to 8 to achieve a more even spreading in the gathers.
Lastly, gather the top of the first tulle to the desired width of the A-shape skirt.

 
sew crinoline

This is an A-shape skirt with elastic waistband and the resilient plastic strip is beside it.
Sew 4 rows of biased tape at the wrong side of the skirt so that you could put in the plastic strip into it.
The spacing between each strip is about 150mm. You can increase the spacing for adult crinoline, anything between 150mm to 250mm is fine.
Remember to leave the ends of the biased tape open so that you can slot the strip into it.

 
sew crinoline

The wrong side of the skirt showing the biased tape.

 
sew crinoline

Attach the tulle onto the right-side of the A-shape skirt.

 
Crinoline

Slot the resilient plastic strip into the biased tape. The plastic strip will expand the A-shape skirt to its fullest.
TIP: If your gown is heavy on the skirt side, you may want to add another strip of plastic to the last 2 rows of the biased tape, this is to further strengthen the “expansion”.

 
Queen Gown

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Andrea

Friday 9th of May 2014

THANK YOU for this tutorial! I'm wondering about the tulle overskirt. Is it meant not to have much gathering? I'd made one in the past, but it didn't have very many gathers, nor hoops, and it had very little flounce to it. I'd like to make something more worth the while for my daughter to enjoy!

Ann McNeill

Monday 24th of February 2014

For a rockabilly skirt, could I use a slip bought at the thrift store to which I could attach the constructed tulle skirt? Would I still need the "bones"?

Andrea

Friday 9th of May 2014

As long as the slip is full enough and the waist line is strong enough to support the extra weight, that would certainly save time on having to make the skirt from scratch. great idea!

Craft Passion

Monday 24th of February 2014

Hi Ann, I am not clear of this, can you further explain what is it?

sultana moni

Tuesday 7th of January 2014

i so much like this.

Rachel

Thursday 3rd of December 2009

This looks like it would be SO much fun to wear! Thanks for the how-to, I'll be linking.

Alice

Monday 23rd of November 2009

Oh my! You are so creative! Awesome! Now, I know who to call when I need a beautiful gown! :D