How to Draft a Custom Hoop Skirt Pattern With the Exact Shape You Want

And I do mean pretty darn exact.  Check out this photo of my finished hoops with my draft laid over the top for comparison!

You can use the following method to create any type of round hoop, whether cone shaped, bell shaped or a crazy undulating shape.  The key is that only round style hoops can be done like this; bustle/hoop combos, elliptical hoops and panniers won't work with this method.  But if the silhouette of your intended hoop design is identical from the front, sides and back then this will work for you.

To start, you're going to need a largish sheet of paper, a ruler or an architect's scale, a pencil and the following measurements in inches:

    your height
    your waist to floor measurement
    your corseted waist measurement
    desired circumference of hoop (optional; you could just draw what you like and go with the resulting circumference)
    desired distance between floor and bottom edge of hoop

Step 1:

We're going to make our drawing to scale; that is, it will be drawn to the exact measurements we need, only smaller.  For instance, you could draw it so that 1" = 1/4".  If I am 65" tall and want to draw my figure in 1/4" scale I would draw it 16 1/4" tall.  Choose the largest scale that will allow you to fit a figure your height on your paper.  You'll be taking measurements later, and it's harder to take accurate measurements off a tiny drawing.  Once you've picked what scale you'll be drawing at, stick with it all the way through.  I'll be using my real life measurements as examples, but assume that from here on I'm converting them to scaled measurements when I actually draw them (so when I say I drew a line 65" up from the floor line, I'm actually drawing it to my scaled height of 16 1/4").  

I've already got my figure drawn to scale, but here's how I got there-

To begin with, draw a line at the bottom of your page to indicate the floor.  You'll also want to draw a vertical line down the center of your page so you can center your figure and hoops exactly.  The top of your figure's head will be [your height in inches] above the floor.  In my case, I'm 65" tall, so I drew a mark 65" up from the floor to indicate the top of my figure's head.

Make another mark where your waist will be using your waist to floor measurement.  My waist to floor measurement is 41", so I measured 41" up from the floor and made a mark.

You can guestimate the diameter of your waist by dividing your corseted waist measurement by π (3.14).  Usually your waist is more of an oval than a circle, but a corset tends to compress your waist on the sides more than front and back, making your waist very close to a circle.  My corseted waist measurement is 25".  Divided by π, I get a diameter of 8", so I drew a 8" wide line centered at waist level (green line in the above picture).

At this point I sketched in my figure from the waist up to that mark I made for the top of the head.  I got a bit fancy and drew undergarments and whatnot, but don't worry too much about details.  It's also no big deal if you can't draw people very well; the point is to just get a very rough idea of the shape of the body above the hoop.

Comments

[cbui1]

Thank you for this! I really needed help how to make one. I was wondering do you just sew the centre back up and leave abit to put your body through? thanks. Also this might sound silly but the rectangular pattern is actually the pattern of the hoop skirt? So you don't trace of the shape of the skirt that you have drawn to measure the distance between each hoop? thanks alot if you can answer this for me!

[TheLacedAngel_TSMP]

I've posted an Instructable on how to sew up the hoops here.

[TheLacedAngel_TSMP]

I'll be doing an instructable on how to sew up the pattern very soon. On my hoopskirt I didn't need to leave a part of the seam open, as I used a drawstring along the top edge and the first hoop was plenty big enough to get past my hips :) The rectangular pattern is indeed the shape you'll cut your fabric to; the actual shape is created by the hoops. As you put each hoop in and connect the ends, the excess fabric will be gathered up and the skirt will begin to take on the correct dimensions. This makes for a much simpler pattern and assembly. Were you to try to create a gored pattern, figuring out the shape of the pieces would be far more complicated, plus you'd have more seams to sew. Trying to feed hoop wire into channels that are crisscrossed by seam allowances can be a pain in the butt too!

[jessyratfink]

Great instructions! This is very neat.