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As I mentioned in a post a
few weeks back, my goal for #MeMadeMay and beyond was to start working through my fabric stash, particularly the remnants, abandoned projects and unworn clothing. As today is the last day of #MeMadeMay, this seems like an appropriate time to post about the next project ticked off the list, this time upcycling a big gothic net skirt into a petticoat (my first official stash busting project was making a houndstooth skirt out of a fabric remnant, found
here).
As with a few of the items in my to-be-upcycled pile, today's victim was once a ball gown from my university days. This one was for a "masquerade ball", so it seemed obvious at the time that I would make myself a full on gothic ensemble, despite not having access to my sewing machine, or indeed any of my sewing supplies, and despite a big-ass dissertation with an ever-encroaching deadline occupying most of my time. What I'm getting at is, this wasn't my finest work.
The outfit I ended up with was a me-made satin halterneck top with a full-length net skirt, along with a shop bought corset and mask. I was really pleased with how the whole ensemble looked together, and looking back on it, I'm pretty impressed with how quickly I managed to pull this together - I believe it took me a week start to finish, handsewn and with a lot of other things to be doing, so yeah, turns out baby me was quite the productivity queen if nothing else. It wasn't exactly well constructed, in fact I'm surprised the skirt stayed up at all given how flimsy the waist seam was, and given how big it was on me, but it did its job at the time and that's all we can ask for.
Shockingly, it didn't seem like something I'd ever have reason to wear again so I had no issue with hacking this up and turning into something more wearable. I should point out that by "this" I am referring to the skirt part only - I'm not actually sure where to top is, and the corset, though not really my style anymore, is too beautiful to attack with scissors.
I've been in real need of a properly functional petticoat lately - I've probably made dozens of big 1950's style swishy skirts over the past year, but they've never been able to benefit from a decent petticoat to floof them out, so never end up with the voluminousness I crave. So, with 2m of stiff net and 2m of lighter tulle ready at my disposal, it would have been foolish of me not to re-purpose this old skirt into a retro undergarment. There was also 2m of stiff lace in the skirt, but I didn't think this would look right in a petticoat, so that's back in the box waiting to be used for something else.
(After!)
My first job was to take apart the skirt, which was gloriously easy to do - the whole thing pretty much came apart after cutting one thread. I'd also never cut any of the fabric originally, so once unpicked, I was left with three completely unadulterated pieces of material (net, tulle, lace). I then cut both the net and tulle into 8 inch width strips. I was originally planning on doing each tier 3x that of the previous, which would have been 2:6:18 but I realised I didn't have enough ribbon for this, so I slimmed it down to 2:4:9 for both the net and the tulle. The strips were then French seamed together to create longer strips of the relevant lengths, the ends of which were then also French seamed together to turn the strips into circles. For the top tier though (i.e. the 2m tier), I left it as a rectangle and instead turned over each raw edge by half an inch, then another half inch to completely enclose the raw edges. This was to create an opening for later on, so that I could actually get in and out of the petticoat.
As I had more net than I did tulle (clearly it came in wider rolls), I had enough for an extra bottom tier. So instead of seaming the bottom tier to the middle tier as normal, I attached the two bottom tiers one over the other (the wrong side of the top layer sits against the right side of the bottom layer) so they could be treated as one, then attached the two together to the middle tier. This just creates an extra layer of floof at the bottom, which is where you want it really.
But before you get around to seaming everything together, you want to bind the lower edge of each bottom tier with some ribbon or bias binding to avoid it snagging on your clothes. I used some 1" wide poly satin ribbon, which I folded in half lengthwise and ironed before using - the pressed edge of the ribbon forms the very bottom of the petticoat, so you want this to be nice and neat. I didn't feel like pinning this to the fabric as I knew the pins would just fall out and create havoc all over the floor, so I just held it in place as I sewed, making sure I was going slow enough to keep control over everything. The most effective way to get a neat bottom edge would be to sew one side of the ribbon to the underside of the net, then flip it over and topstitch, but with so much yardage, I really didn't feel like stitching everything twice, so I sandwiched the net layer into the ribbon so that the raw edge was covered, and sewed both layers of the ribbon onto the net at once. Then I repeated this with the other bottom tier of the net fabric, and then I did the same with the bottom tier of tulle. Petticoats are a very repetitive business.
Then it was time for gathering, which I did using the longest stitch on my machine. To make sure the gathers are relatively even, and to minimise the risk of a thread snapping while you're pulling it, I like to break stitching every time there's a seam (in this case, every 2 metres), leaving the threads long enough for gathering, then start stitching again, a couple of inches back from where I stopped (so there's a 2 inch overlap), then go through the whole thing again. This way, I have control over the gathering from multiple points, which really helps the whole process.
Once the top edges are gathered, the top of the bottom tier (confusing I know. Basically, the bit that hasn't been bound) is seamed to the bottom of the middle tier, and then the top of the middle tier is seamed to the bottom of the top tier. The same is repeated for the tulle layer, and then I gathered together the top tiers of both the net and tulle layers (so treating them as one) down to my waist measurement, and bound this with more ribbon that had been pressed in half. This time, I did pin, as the gathers made the fabric thick enough for pins to actually stay in, and it's harder to do ad-lib a neat seam when there's more bulk going on. You want to extend the ribbon beyond both edges of the petticoat - I did about 10" each side - as this will make the tie that holds the petticoat up. Stitch all of that down (including the extension) and you're done!
This was quite a time-consuming and laborious task, and I'll be honest, not the most exciting sewing project to actually carry out. The vast majority of petticoat making is just sitting at a sewing machine, sewing what feels like miles and miles of straight seams in varying stitch lengths. I did actually find it quite relaxing to do, as once I was clear on what I was doing, there wasn't so much thinking required, but there's a fine line between relaxing and boring, and this project did cross that line, quite a few times.
But I'd say the dullness of the construction was well worth it for the result, which was a genuinely functional petticoat that's actually quite pretty in its own right, and provides some serious volume to my skirts. This thing is so wide it nearly touches both sides of the door frame and it bounces about like a crazy thing when I walk up and down the stairs, which I love. I feel a bit like a cupcake in it, and no, I'm not entirely sure what I mean by that. So yes, very pleased with now this upcycling project turned out, and I'm pretty positive this new version is going to get a lot more use than the old version did!
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