Making a Simple Crinoline

This project was born of necessity: I have a skirt that needs just a little poof to display all its charms, so I need a crinoline.  The word "crinoline" comes from the Italian "crinolino", where "crino" is hair or horsehair and "lino" is linen.  Originally, crinolines were made from horsehair cloth, which was naturally very stiff.  However, the term crinoline can now be applied to any underskirt made of a stiff material that stands out from the legs.  This one is a synthetic net, which I had in my stash.  

The white fabric, also synthetic, is a bit of an old curtain.  I had torn the curtain up for something, but saved the folded over hem from the bottom and the casing from the top.  Now I have a use for them!  Since the net is stiff and scratchy, I use the foldover hem of white to cover the bottom of the black net.  It is very easy, since they are both rectangles.

The next step is to make the waistband from a long strip of curtain casing.  I don't measure anything; I just cut a strip long enough that it'll fit over the widest part of my hips with room to spare.  Then I mark the four quarter points with pins, do the same to the black net, and begin pleating the net to fit on the waistband.  I could gather the net instead of pleating, but I prefer the look of pleats.  Plus gathering can be annoying to do, with the fabric bunching and curling; pleats are easy.

I sew the pleats down, then turn the curtain facing over so it encloses the raw edges, and I sew it down to make a new casing for the strip of elastic that I put in there.  The elastic gathers the waistband even smaller, and makes it stay where I put it on my waist, hips, wherever.  

The finished crinoline stands on its own, and when I wear it stands out just a little from my legs.  It's not a huge poof, just a little.  It also doesn't scratch my legs, because all the raw edges are enclosed in slippery white fabric.  It does the job!  

Every good crinoline can stand on its own!