16.10.09

From curtain to petticoat

On tuesday and wednesday I made a petticoat from two old lace curtains I bought from a charity shop for 2 euros each. I wanted my skirt to be about 60 cm long so I cut the curtains into strips 22 cm wide (20 cm + 1 cm on each side to be sewn). With this width I would need 3 rows of 20 cm strips. Here's one of the curtains folded in half, the strip meant for the bottom part of the petticoat already cut out. The rest of the strips I cut horisontally.

I measured the bottom strips and got 7,6 m, then I put together the next row of sprips and made it half the lenght; 3,8 metres. The top row in turn was half the lenght again; 1,9 metres.

I sewed all the pieces of each row together to make 3 rings of fabric. I then pinned together the middle of the back of the top row, with the middle of the back on the middle row. Then I did the middle of the front of both layers, then the middles of the fabric in between and kept going like this until I had a manageable amount of fabric pinned together for sewing. As one layer is twice the length of the other, the pinning will look something like this;

Of course I couldn't be bothered to put the pins this close to each other anywhere else but on the elastic I used for the waist, but maybe you get the idea? The rest of the fabric (loops sticking up) I wrinkled by hand as I sewed.

After pinning together the two strips at the top, I sewed them together. The I did the same thing with the bottom layer, pinning middle to middle, middle to middle and finally sewing the layers together. Here's the result;

And after this I pinned the top layer to the elastic (as seen above) and carefully zig-zagged it to the elastic, stretching it a little as I went. I used zig-zag here because I want the thread to "stretch" when the elastic stretches and not snap and make the whole thing come undone.

Here's the finished petticoat;


I chose the curtain I did beacause of the ready made ruffles, which meand that I didn't have to line the full 7,6 metres, phew. And it looks pretty cute too!


Now this is not the most poufy petticoat imaginable, but with longer strips it would have been. It all depends on how much fabric you wanna use (or how long your curtains are)! I'm pretty happy with the result though, as I have got a cotton even less poufy petticoat, that I can combine with this one should I require more pouf. And that's how I made my first petticoat! Feel free to ask if there's anything that left you wondering!

18 kommentarer:

B-b-b-etty sa...

wow! det är allt jag får ur mig!

Anonym sa...

Just beautiful and a very very good idea ! I will try !

Casey sa...

You are so terribly clever! :) I just love how this looks, and that you reused some old lace to make this! I am going to keep this in mind because my favorite, not-too-poufy lace petticoat is in tatters (quite literally; I have worn this thing to death for the past 3 years!). :( Finally I have an option to make something similar!

Thanks for sharing this little how-to! ;)

Erika sa...

So cute! And so practical! I got to go on a hunt for curtains... =) I think that's the perfect size for a petticoat, I don't like it to be enourmous for everyday use.
Have a great weekend in your gorgeous new petticoat!

Ms. B @ Millie Deel sa...

That's so cute! You did a great job!!!

Cassiopeia sa...

Amazing! I wish I could run things up like that... Sigh. One day, I will learn! Honest! :-D Xxxc

The Freelancer's FashionBlog sa...

Åh! Va fint att du orkade. Fint blev det också!

(Jag sydde en underkjol av 5m rosa tyll, och det var jävla jobbigt - jag gjorde bara två "våningar" och inte så fint slutresultat för den kjolen skulle bara bli en del av en burlesue-kjol för uppträdanden.
Jag tänkte vara lat och köpa en färdig istället!)

Kitten loves vintage sa...

Betty Lou; Tack?! :)

Marie M; Cool, good luck!

Casey; You are so welcome!

Erika; Thanks, I didn't want it to be too poufy either. :) Good luck curtain hunting!

Ms B, Cassiopeia; Thanks! :)

Freelancer; Tack! Materialet var väldigt lätt att arbeta med så det hjälpte. Jag har inte satt mig in i att handla vintage/kläder på nätet så det fanns inte så många andra alternativ till att få tag på en, förutom att sy själv. Synd att det inte går att sy högklackade skor... ;)

Zizzi sa...

Underbart!

Solanah sa...

Wow! This is wonderful!

Kitten loves vintage sa...

Zizzi; Tusen tack!

Solanah; Thanks! :)

Nietuska sa...

Saako tätä ideaa lainata...
Voisin kurkkailla Fidalta pitsi verhoja niin saisin kivan alushameen, tosin varmaan tekisin paljon pöyheämmän.
Ihana!!

Kitten loves vintage sa...

Seinäruusu; Tietysti saat! :)

jessica/vintageportalen sa...

ooooj. så duktig du är. blir alldeles jätteimponerad!

Kitten loves vintage sa...

Jessica; Tack, tack, du är också väldigt duktig! :)

Angel sa...

So Cool, because of this I bought material to make my own one!!!

Kitten loves vintage sa...

Angel; Happy to have inspired you, good luck!

elimil414 sa...
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