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Dear all,

my 1865 outfit is starting to take a shape (at least in my head). I started sewing the hoop skirt yesterday. Now I realised - I'm about 1,80 m. This skirt will be very short and probably looking very strange on me.

Do you have any idea how I could lenghten it? Or is a ruffle at the bottom the only thing I can do?

Thank you so much for your help!

Sushi

[Heather]

The hoop should end about 4-6" from the floor, so you don't want it to be too long. You need to measure yourself from the waist to the floor, as total height doesn't matter.

The pattern is set for someone 40 inches waist to floor, which is 101.6 cm. Figure how much you need to lengthen by subrtacting the 101.6 from you personal measurement. If the difference is less than 8cm then I would do nothing. But for more than that, then you can add length to each of the support ribbons, and then space the hoops farther apart.

Heather - thank you very much! So I will ask my DH to take my measurements and then decide what to do. I hope it's less than 8 cm...



Saskia

Today I had a look at my measurements - the length of my side (waist to floor) is 116 cm
So I will space the hoops and hope all will come out well

This weekend I spent a super time with a friend working on our hoop skirts. The upscaled length was perfect - I added 14 cm. Im still working on fastening the hoops (perfect exercise for practicing sewing with thimble). As soon as I'm finished I will post a picture

Hiho!

It took some time and I must admit I tried sewing some of the hoops using my sewing machine (worked, but was challenging). Here's what my hoopskirt, that still has no buckle, but things need time:



(my I introduce my dress form "Elli" by the way)

I decided I wanted to make sure the hoop skirt is not pressed downwards when wearing heavy skirts, so I made a prototype for a small bustle pad to be worn with the skirt. This is a first draft, I think I will make another one with a slightly different shape. Here's a closeup:



What do you think?[/img]

[Heather]

Theoretically, you should not need the pillow underneith. If you tighten the ties on the top 3 wires, that will have the effect of bustling the back more. Which is why they are there. So play with those first, and see what you an get.

Hi Heather,

I don't mean to have the pad for more bustling effect - the effect of the hoop skirt is quite perfect. But when I made a bustle other than your 101, I found that when wearing the skirts with it, the weight of the skirt pressed down the hoops - with the result of no bustle effect at all. With this bustle pad I just want to make sure this won't happen with the hoop skirt