Sewing Your Custom Drafted Hoop Skirt

by TheLacedAngel

73K14116

Intro: Sewing Your Custom Drafted Hoop Skirt

I sewed up my custom drafted hoops at TechShop.  I showed you how to draft a custom hoop skirt pattern here.  You should have ended up with a pattern that looks something like the second image above, plus a list of hoop circumferences.  Next, you'll need to gather your supplies so you can create your hoops!

STEP 1:

I used a striped cotton pillow ticking I picked up at JoAnns. With a coupon it came to about $3 a yard. It's finer and more tightly woven than regular ticking, and I love the combo of florals and stripes!

You'll need some sort of spring steel hoop boning. There are several kinds, but I tend to use a medium strength variety that consists of two bands of spring steel coated in plastic. You can find it at corsetmaking.com. They have another kind that is similar, only coated in buckram, but I find the plastic stuff is easier to cut and is a little stronger than the buckram stuff. I know that Farthingales has heavier duty spring steel boning, but I've never used it so I can't say much about it. You can figure out how much you'll need by adding together all the circumference measurements you came up with when you drafted your hoops (add an extra 1" for each hoop to allow for overlap). To my displeasure, corsetmaking.com doesn't carry hoop connectors, so I purchased mine in person at Lacis.

I also got my boning cutters ages ago at Laci's for the dirt cheap price of $10. They cut through the plastic coated steel like butter, but may not be as effective on the super heavy duty stuff.

You'll also need enough bone casing or grosgrain ribbon wide enough to act as channels for your hoop boning. To figure out how much casing you'll need, find the width of the fabric in your pattern, then multiply that by the number of bones you're using.

STEP 2:

Trace out your pattern on your fabric.  It's easiest if you just use one long length of fabric so you only have to make one seam.  Make sure you mark the lines where your hoops are going to go.

Sew your side seams together so that you have one big tube of fabric.  You'll want to flat fell your seam or stitch down your seam allowances so that your hoop boning won't get stuck in that space between the fabric and the seam allowance.  Trust me, it's a pain in the butt if you don't.

Once you have your tube of fabric, hem the bottom however you'd like.

Make a casing for a drawstring at the top by folding the fabric over and sewing it down, leaving enough space to run your drawstring through.  Just prior to doing this, you can make two button holes at the top center front for your drawstring to pass through, or you can just leave a small gap as you're sewing the casing.  In previous projects I've entirely forgotten to do this and ended up ripping small holes in the casing to get the drawstring in.  Don't be like me :P

STEP 3:

Sew lengths of bone casing or grosgrain ribbon down along the lines you drew for your hoops.  Sew along the top edge and the bottom edge of each length of casing or ribbon, leaving enough space between for your boning to go.  Be sure to leave a small gap unsewn so you have a place to insert the boning.  I started out using bone casing purchased from corsetmaking.com, but I ran out after the fourth hoop casing.  I grabbed some grosgrain ribbon to finish off the last four casings, so they look a little different from the first four.

STEP 4:

Cut your hoop boning to size.  You found the circumference of each hoop when you were drafting the pattern; add 1" to that measurement so that you can overlap the ends of your hoops.

Feed your boning through the channels you made, overlap the ends by 1" and join the together with hoop connectors.   I tape mine together first so that the ends stay together while I crimp the hoop connector in place. 

I believe it's easiest to start with the top hoop and work your way down.  It's also a good idea to put a piece of tape over the cut end of the hoop so that it pushes through the channel easier.  Take note- if you failed to flat fell your seam or stitch down the seam allowances as specified in the last step, the hoop WILL get caught and you will get frustrated.

STEP 5:

Run your drawstring through the waist casing.

Your fabric will probably be gathered and bunched on the hoops strangely, giving them a misshapen and lumpy appearance.  Put your hoop skirt on a mannequin or a willing assistant and adjust the gathers so that they are evenly distributed around the hoops.  This takes some fussing, but in the end you'll have a beautiful hoop skirt shaped exactly as you wish!  I took my hoops home to wrestle with, but next time I'm going to find a willing victim at TechShop and use them as my mannequin :) 

You'll note that I added a ruffle at the bottom of mine.  You can easily add one in right after you finish the hemming step. 

16 Comments

nahootman 8 years ago

Hi there! I make Disney-inspired costumes, so I need hoops that have that huge, almost spherical shape (think Belle and Sofia The First). They're basically impossible to find, so I'm thinking of trying my hand at making them myself. I'm assuming these instructions could be used for that shape -correct?

Also, as they'll be very wide (the bottom hoop will be at least 160", but possibly 175" in circumference) do you think the medium strength boning will work, or should I look for heavy weight stuff?

Thanks for your help!

nahootman 8 years ago

Hi there! I make Disney-inspired costumes, so I need hoops that have that huge, almost spherical shape (think Belle and Sofia The First). They're basically impossible to find, so I'm thinking of trying my hand at making them myself. I'm assuming these instructions could be used for that shape -correct?

Also, as they'll be very wide (the bottom hoop will be at least 160", but possibly 175" in circumference) do you think the medium strength boning will work, or should I look for heavy weight stuff?

Thanks for your help!

Lia m. 8 years ago

I'm having a problem with my second hoop from the top. It's a good ten inches longer than the top one, but it's coming out straight down or even appearing a little smaller. When I lay it on the ground, the top hoop is indeed smaller than the second up. Does it have something to do with the bunching, maybe? Any ideas?

bridgette.ingram 9 years ago

Hi I have a question...I'm a bit confused and not sure if I'm reading your pic correctly..when you sew the side seams that was just a plain seam right? Then you said something about flat fell seams is that on the right side of the fabric? And where you sew on the bone casing thats a different part of the casing?

Miss Sarcastic 9 years ago

This is so cool! I've always wanted a hoop skirt, but I've been afraid of the cliche- getting stuck in doorways. ;)

TheLacedAngel 9 years ago

Hoopsteel is super flexible, so you can just squish it down to fit through :) Though I didn't use the right stuff the first time I made one, and had to lift one side of my hoop over my head to get through a doorway!

clowreed 9 years ago

I have one question about this.
you said that you need the same lenght of bone casting and boning, but the chanels must go all the wide of the fabric no?
I'm a bit confused arround this, if I do as you said there are parts of the fabric without bone casting.

Can you please help me with that?

TheLacedAngel 9 years ago

Good catch! The channels do need to be the width of the fabric, so yes you'll need more than the boning. To find out how much, find the width of your fabric x the number of channels you'll need.

cattibalistic 10 years ago

How would you adjust a pre-made hoopskirt? I have a cheap costume hoopskirt, but it's a bit too wide for my taste. Also how could I add hoops?

TheLacedAngel 10 years ago

I assume that the hoops are within some sort of channel. You can open up that channel to reach the hoop (this could be as simple as cutting a hole in the channel, or picking out some stitching to expose the hoop), then pull the hoop out and cut it down to size. Put the hoop back into the channel and join the ends as in step 4. You can add hoops by adding channels in between the existing ones (follow step 3 to make channels) and inserting new hoop steels, although this will be somewhat difficult since the skirt already has hoops in it and will be more awkward to maneuver through a sewing machine than a flat piece of fabric with no hoops. Hope this helps!

lustyln 11 years ago

omg I have been trying to make one of these for months alotta messups or just not satisfied I wish i would of found this sooner lol i am in process of redoing it now incerting my boneing now,I didnt know how to go about it i did the skirt in 3 pieces lol after reading yours I definately like yours so I am pretty sure Ill be redoing it again and my boneing are all lengths i just made a bunch of cirxles one bigger than the next matter fact they are still being sized to fit lmao I really like your pattern best thx for shareing it

rbat 11 years ago

Very helpful!! But do you know what we would do if we wanted to make a dress stick out that's short in front and longer in the back? Can you make oval shaped hoops somehow?

TheLacedAngel 11 years ago

From the video and photo you sent me, it appears that the support structure is inside the skirt itself, rather than underneath it. The skirt looks incredibly stiff; it's nearly cardboard stiff. My guess is that it has a lot of super stiff interfacing inside, between the green and pink layers. If "normal" interfacing isn't enough, you might try buckram. I don't think the unevenness makes much of a difference in this particular case, as there isn't a hoop structure or anything similar under there. You could add a small pad at the back that would sit just over the butt to help the back stick out more if you wish too. Hope this answers your question!

SelkeyMoonbeam 11 years ago

This is so cool! I've always wanted to make one of these!