Petticoat Party

March 2019

One perfect ballerina petticoat: priceless

When I was trying to figure out the right distribution of lengths for the layers of the petticoat, I thought that I just needed to make the difference between each layer roughly equal. So originally I set up the layers like this:

Because of the interesting cutting mechanism / inaccuracies from the wing it approach to tulle, I ended up sewing each layer to the one above it 8 inches from the top of the smaller layer. The result didn’t seem long enough to start at the place I meant for it in the dress.

I had a strip of the cotton fabric that I was going to gather the top layer of tulle to and then attach to the dress. The waistband strip was almost exactly one yard and five yards would be too bulky when gathered directly to one. I was stuck for a while. Eventually I realized, I was going about the difference between the layer lengths all wrong, it wasn’t about making the difference between the layers roughly equal, it was about doubling and halving.

I added a two yard strip of the satiny lining fabric as a buffer layer between the 5 yards of tulle and the one yard cotton waistband. This solved both issues since the petticoat is now long enough, and the gathers add just the right amount of fluff.

I think the finished petticoat is my favorite part of the dress so far!

I tried it on on its own and it makes the perfect accompaniment to my **expert** sock twirls. I will be taking this back out of the dress post-wedding and using it for my ballet routine.