Petticoat Tutorial- Part 1 (Basic Skirt Pattern and Materials

One of the costumes I am making for my culminating project are lolita outfits. (Learn more about gothic lolita here: )

One of the main components of lolita is the petticoat. Lolita has a lot of rules, and one of them is the skirt (or petticoat) has to be bell-shaped. I didn't have the money to buy a petticoat, so I decided to make my own. After reading a couple threads on Craftster.org on how people made their own petticoats, I decided to start on my own.

I am posting this tutorial because I did not find many great tutorials on a lolita-petticoat. I thought it would be nice to share my technique.

I started out making a circle skirt pattern using this tutorial : http://www.geocities.com/roriitapage/FlaredSkirt_Process.html

Optional: You can use this tutorial for the basic skirt you will make first. You'll still want to draft a fuller skirt pattern to go over the gathered tulle on the petticoat.
http://community.livejournal.com/egl/1009565.html

I designed my costume's skirt to be an empire waist. So I took a piece of paper cut to be 1/2 my waist measurement wide. The length measurement was a little below my waist (Below here I would want the skirt band to sit) to a couple inches above my knees.

After the basic square is cut out the rest is pretty easy. Cut from the bottom up, leaving a little connection on the side that will be your waist.

After everything is cut out, spread out the strips of paper so it forms a semi-circle. You might have to cut the strips a bit more or use more tape, but try to get the shape. If you want to use the pattern again, use strips of paper to tape together the strips of paper and reenforce the waist to keep the semi-circle shape.

This is a lot easier than using math to draw out a semi-circle.
For the waistband you just cut out a strip 1 inch+ your waist measurement long by two inches wide. Iron it folded in half so the actual waistband will be 1 inch wide.

You can lay it out of the fabric however you want. If you have enough fabric you can lay it out and have a seamless circle. I did this for the first petticoat I made and it turned out nicely. However, it also gives you a lot of small scraps you can't use.

Two bedsheets made two petticoats. I did not buy any fabric yardage. I just bought two thick, nice bedsheets from a thrift store and cut those out. Never underestimate the power of thrift stores. I couldn't find a second white sheet so I brought it home and bleached it white.

For a basic petticoat you are going to need:
~4 Yards of basic white cotton or a lightweight fabric. You may need more or less. You want enough for two skirts made out of the semi-circle pattern.
.5 to 1.5 yards of band elastic-- For the waistband. You only need enough to fit snugly around your waistline
8 yards bridal netting. You'll want to get the white, slightly stiff one with larger holes. Anything soft and colored is NOT the right kind and will take a lot more to get poof out of.
(Optional) 5 yards lace OR twice the measurement of the hem (round part) of your skirt pattern. This is another thing you can get for cheap at a thrift store. I had a package of 1-inch wide lace that I added to the hem last minute. It added a nice finished touch.It looks a lot better than a normal hem if your petticoat happens to show.
White yarn
Yarn Needle

Some Things I have been working on

I haven't been slacking off the past few months. I crocheted five dolls, sewed clothing and made hair for them. They each took about 40 hours each. x_x I made one of Jim Hawkins, Captian Silver and Morph from Treasure Planet. I also made Simon and Kamina from Gurren Lagann (Pictured above.)

My friend Amanda and I made that cake for my installation. It took five days to make it (Its a sheet cake, feeding forty people) in my kitchen. The bottom layer was devils food cake, the middle blue buttercream frosting, and the top layer funfetti rainbow. It took four boxes of cake mix to make it. Then everything is covered in buttercream icing and fondant. :9

Busy times

With the date of my Installation as Worthy Advisor (aka president of my local assembly/charity group) coming up soon, I don't have a lot of time or energy to blog. I'm busy on crocheting and making decorations for the party and planning my 6-month term.
So I'm going to take a break, and I will begin working on cosplay again when the installation is over. c:

Small update (Repost from personal journal)

Totally slacked on writing my culminating project research paper... But, like I thought, I could do it in my sleep. I have two pages of written words, and two pages of typed worked and I'm already over the page requirement and only on my third bullet on my outline. It's insanely easy to write about. Almost too easy, after having to do one for Honors English with Andrews, writing 55,000 words for NaNo, and just finishing a 27 PAGE technical report last week. It's due tommarrow and I have no worries, especially since it's only the rough draft.
My only sadface is that I found a FANTASTICAL source after I started writing and there was some things I had to go back and insert. But other than that it's been a breeze, just time consuming.

c: It also reminded me I've got to get my butt on line with working on stuff. There is a Gasukan meetup at Seattle Center on December 13th. Anyone want to go? I'm thinking of going as Gakuen Gurren Nia to go with the winter theme and use my cute new coat. c: More info here:http://www.cosplay.com/showthread.php?t=166021
I will probably be able to get rides for everyone there, the problem is getting from ferry to Seattle Center. But we can get directions from the Seattle-savvy moms of the group, na? c:

I might also have time to just make Supreme commander Simon jacket, since tonight is my last final and then I'm ~free~ c:

Uhhh... Well, there's MEW con on new years (Chowder should go. and Emily. My mom was thinking of splurging on a hotel room and going down to Portland while we party at the Con. Hmmm... Maybe I'll be able to roomshare with guild people... I'll have to mention that sunday.) And apparently Kei-con in February, a normal costuming convention in the same month, then Sakuracon. c: I'd like to go to Kumoricon, Anime Evolution and Akicon next fall. I'll just be going to OC and hopefully holding a job, so it'll be fun. c: Just think, in April I was emo that after Sakuracon, the fun of cons and geekdom and cosplay were over for the year. How wrong I was.

I need to find some new anime or something. I want to find something amazing to cosplay, something different from Gurren. Soul Eater is too easy, too plain and too popular. And I don't want to get attacked by any Black Star cosplayers. Black Star annoys me so much... >>; *cough Naruto clone *cough*.

Other than report stuff.. I really have been slacking, jeez. x_x I need to do a few things, like write Christmas cards ( to my Rainbow correspondent especially), get Amanda's Yoko done, figure out wtf I'm going to do for a wig for Yoko, get moving on Nia's cape and belt, figure out what I'm going to do with the resin casting stuff I got [I fail at casting], figure out wtf I'm doing for money...general things.

Augh, I'm finding great wigs, FREE shipping, thirty bucks... But I dont have that much D: I wish someone would buy my Simon wig from me!

Akicon 08

Oh my god. Where does the time go? It's almost the middle of November. CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

Aki Con pictures are up: http://flickr.com/photos/25312209@N02/

This is one of my favorites: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3148/3017391033_1e25da6329_o.jpg



Here is the guild I was talking about. c: Minus one or two of the Gurren people-- it was decided they had to be pulled in. I am in the center dressed in pink.

Cosplay guild (Reposted from a personal blog)

So, I've been emailing people into cosplay for my culminating project. During a computer lab day with Eisele a couple weeks ago Mandarr helped me found a article on a college website about Sakuracon! It turned out to be awesome, as I found information about the Olympic Cosplay guild. I emailed the guy a week-ish ago, and he emailed me back! Robert Grey is the founder of it, and he seems really awesome. The guild was founded in Sequim, but there are people there, in Seattle, Port Angeles and there's NINE in Port Townsend. Bremerton works out to be the center of it all. Turns out the best place to meet would be Seattle or... the mall! :0

So, since I told him I had several friends interested in joining, I'd thought I'd share. :D
Since we're all under eighteen, there's only one question we have to answer in order to join. Once I get it, I can give it to others to have them join. Pretty cool. :o
During our searches we also found AKI-CON! Which is a small anime convention in Everett November 7-9th. It sounds really awesome, a decent size, and they happened to have a Gurren group last year. :D


I'm excited about this, so sorry if I don't make sense. Talk to me at school. c:

Cosplay Ramblings (Repost from Personal Journal)

Aaaa. D: I want to cosplay Stein SO much now. He's such a crazy SOB and I LOVE it :D
Just need a lab,coat, lots of grey fabric and some pants :D

Cosplays I want to do now:
Nia (Have the materials)
Commander Simon (Have everything)
Lolita Nia (Have lace,etc)
Maka
Dr.Stein :D
Cut for rambling.
Stein would be the easiest. I'd want to piece together his sweater, but everything else is pretty much goodwill/Halloween clearence and lots of embroidery. Plus, giant screw.
I'd be pretty fun to go through Sakuracon on a wheely chair. But I don't have the truck anymore, so no go. :<

I got bra cups and white pleather for Yoko today. My mom paid for it, which was pretty sweet. c: We got the shorts done. They need to be taken in around the butt.I just need an hour to do the bra and its done. Yoko is pretty simple... I haven't bought the tights or the gloves... Jason can buy those. >>;
I got the fabric for SUPREME commander Simon pants. (That's how the dub translates it :D Makes me happy.)
I'm going to fix up and sell Simon jacket.. It's so godawfully huge on me now and it was before. Since I've dropped 6 pants sizes/shrunk a bit up top, it's better if I have a nice fitted jacket. I'm also replacing Simon wig (Maybe. I bought another one and will compare them if no one has replied to my ad by then.) and I stripped Simon goggles of their paint and have added sculpey and clay onto them to make them the right shape.
I wince every time I look at the pictures from Sakuracon. There's a reason why I don't go on cosfu anymore, cause I know I'm on it. >>;
Cosplaying Maka will be fun as well. I mainly just wanna make soul-scythe c:
Looking through cosplay.com, someone had the really good idea of having the staff screw into the blade part. I should do that. And have Yoko gun be collapsible so we can stuff it into cars, etc.

The one thing I'm kind of iffy about.. is Lolita Nia. I don't really feel like doing it anymore.. it isn't as exciting.. but it was the dress I was going to show off as my product as the most difficult and complicated. I have a bunch of stuff collected for it.. but mainly in appliques and lace. I don't know of anything else complicated.. so I guess I'll do it and sell it.. But I'm rather 'meh' about it.