Saturday, August 20, 2011

Crinoline Slip "How To"

My mom has offered to make princess dresses for the two little princesses upcoming birthday party.  It's not until October, but hey I hate to be rushed and to be perfectly honest, I really, really like planning parties.  In order to make my mom's project easier I decided to make crinoline slips to go under the dresses so she didn't have to add layers of poof to the dresses themselves.

Okay so here is a basic how to for a crinoline slip for little girls.  I did not find a very good tutorial online so I had to figure it out myself.  I had some issues but it all worked out in the end.  The first one is not pretty but it will work.  The second one turned out great.  I'll tell you what I did for the second and spare you the disaster of the first.

The "second" on a very cute and suprisingly cooperative model:


Side Note:  I learned how to use the timer on my camera today.  




I happened to still have left over white fabric from my wedding 5 years ago so I used that.  You could use any light weight fabric.  A couple of weeks ago my friend Carrie gave me some spools of white tulle that she did not want anymore.  So for me the cost of this project was $0.00. Hoot, Hoot, Hooray!!! Thanks for thinking of me Carrie!  However if you do not have the supplies on hand I would estimate the cost of this project to be about $15 if you had to pay full price for everything including fabric, tulle, elastic & thread.

What you need:

*1 yrd light weight fabric
*approximately 40 yards of 6" wide tulle (you can use a spool or yardage can be cut into 6" strips)
*elastic (I used 3/4" because it's what I had on hand)
*coordinating thread



Note: I will give the measurements I used for the slip I made Ava Grace.  She wears size 2T, length can easily be added to make it longer for a larger child.  The length of the elastic for the waist band determines how big around.



First Step is to make the underskirt.  I know my girls don't like anything itchy so I didn't want the tulle to touch their skin.

Cut 2 rectangles from your fabric 32" x 12" sew the two rectangles together along the 12" sides. 



Then to create the waist, fold over and press one of the 32" sides 1/4" then 1" to create a pocket for the elastic.



Sew all the way around leaving a big enough opening for the size of your elastic to be fed through.  Note: Do not feed your elastic through until you have sewn on the rows of tulle.  I made this mistake and it is very difficult to sew the tulle onto fabric that is gathered.


Cut the bottom edge with pinking shears or turn up with a hem.  I chose to use pinking shears.

Next step is dealing with all that tulle.  I made 3 rows of poof.



Cut 6 strips approximately 230" or 19' long.  I laid a yard stick in front of myself and measured out approximately 30 inches at a time feeding the tulle through my hands.  It seems like a lot of tulle but gathering all that length makes for a nice and poofy skirt.

For the top row I used a single layer of tulle.  Sew with a baisting stitch along the length of one side about a 1/2" from the edge.  Pull the bobbin (bottom) thread to gather so that it ends up about 64" long.  Pin to the skirt about and inch below the waist band. Then sew gathered tulle to the skirt along baisting stitch.

For the 2nd row I sewed  two strips of tulle with the baisting stitch, gathered and sewed to the skirt in the same way.  Over lapping with the row above by about 2".

For the 3rd row I sewed three strips of tulle with the baisting stitch, gathered and sewed to the skirt in the same way.  Over lapping with the row above by about 2".

I have a remaining space at the bottom of the under skirt.  I did this intensionally waiting for the exact length of the skirt of the dress my mom is making.  I may need to add a 4th row or trim of a couple of inches.

The last step is to add the elastic.  The length of your elastic should go around your childs waist and over lap 1".  Put a safety pin in one end and feed it through the waist band.  Be sure not to let the other end of the elastic go inside the "pocket" or you will need to start over or try to "fish it out".  Be careful not to twist the elastic, then overlap the ends and sew together and spread out the gathered fabric evenly.




I look forward to seeing the pretty pink princess dresses that will be covering these poofy things up. Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!!!!!

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