Little Miss Muffet - The petticoat

The petticoat is such a vital foundation component of a lolita dress, and I really wanted to make one with lots of... 'ow you say... 'poomf'! It seems the difference between a pretty dress and an EGL dress lies (mainly) in the bell-shaped skirt, made possible by the sturdy and voluminous petti.

So I set about making my first ever loli petticoat. I used a combination of the Gosurori petticoat pattern, advice from Enken (who has made one before) and a very handy tutorial on costumewardrobe.com, a great site I found through the Australian Costumers' Guild forums. Very handy!

So I started off wrestling with 3 metres of heavy tulle (netting), using Enken's ruffle foot (a notoriously cantankerous, but (in this case) very handy piece of machinery) to wrench it into pouffy submission, leaving me with three generous lengths of pre-ruffled netting. I cut the underskirt (or base) by eye, using the Gosurori pattern's shape as a guide, pinking the edges and folding over the top to sew in a waistband.
Before marking the lines where the ruffles will be placed (as per the costumewardrobe.com photos) I decided to aim for extra 'oomph' by adding a third later of tulle. Using the regular machine foot, I attached the netting (upside down ie, with the width of the tulle pointing towards the waistband - when it's sewn on it falls over itself correctly to give extra 'lift' at the seam) along all three lines.

I tried it on and was thrilled with the extreme puff-osity, but the bottom of the 'underskirt' was so light compared to the heavy layers of netting it wouldn't hang flat, instead riding up and refusing to behave itself! At this point I decided (for cuteness as well as functionality) I'd make a cotton ruffle in the same fabric and attach it to the bottom of the 'base' (but still sitting under the layers of tulle, not poking out from underneath).

You'd think this'd be a simple final task, but noooo - this is where the ruffle foot decided to stage a revolt and chew up every single piece of fabric I placed within biting distance. I eventually gave up and decided to try ruffling the hemmed length of cotton fabric by 'hand'. Why didn't I try this before??? It worked an absolute charm and went along a lot faster than I imagined. I slowly fed the fabric under the regular foot, folding the material in on itself every centimetre or so and going over it with a straight stitch. It was a really successful operation and saved me the drama of dealing with the poisonous ruffle foot!

After all the ruffling was done and dusted I threaded some elastic through the waistband and tried on the finished product, squeeing all the while over it's kawaii pouffiness. It still needs a 'haircut' (evening it up over all lengths) but this can wait until I see how it sits under the skirt. I'm well happy with its colour, its shape and its mega-volume. All hail the 'poomf'! :D