short hoop: sort of started

[mandie_rw]

That is, I measured my cage every which way I thought I'd need, noted down all the measurements, added up how much tape I ought to need, and deconstructed the crappy hoop. I'm wrangling some absurdly cheap tape from miss_philomena , and I'll see her Sunday, so I can't do anything else with it til next week. But that's okay! I feel as though this is a respectable amount of progress anyway.

 
I'm making the short hoop as long as the 5th steel is in my current one - just a hair below knee-length. The skirt in the drawing is considerably wider, but when you take an organdy petticoat (and artistic license!) into account, I think the skirt will be plenty big enough. And to the right is my cage on top of the boning I took out of the cheap hoop - I measured the longest steel just out of curiosity, and it's 145". Since I am not in fact a caricature, I don't need a bottom steel of 145"... So even using all 6 steels in the short hoop (since it's 1/4" and I'll feel a bit more secure that way), I may well end up with enough left over to bone a corset! Not Bad for $12.

Comments

[totchipanda]

I have need of 145" hoops.. (shifty eyes) (stupid elliptical hoop and stupid exchange rates grumble grumble)

[jenthompson]

How do you keep the hoops from shifting around in the tapes? I've seen the brads that are used for the thin wire hoops, but I'm not sure how it's done with the wider boning.

[mala_14]

Good progress! I always find that those fiddly bits that just need to get done take such a long time but don't look like progress, but they are!

[mandie_rw]

Ooof, yes, ellipticals are wicked things! ALL the yardage of boning! I love the style, but that's definitely part of the reason I haven't gotten into late 1860s yet.

[mandie_rw]

My current hoop is old enough that it's made from the now-defunct hoop boning (sad and tragic loss to our community!) that was 1/2" wide, but was actually two thin steels encased in buckram, so the brad could be punched through the empty space in the middle to the tapes. Very handy!

This one I'm planning to encase the white steels in tape as well (the tape is juuuuust wide enough to fold in half and sew together for a channel for the 1/4" bones), so I'll have something to stitch into at the intersection of the steels and the vertical tapes. And it'll have to be by hand, which I'm sure will be TONS of fun! Not entirely sure it'll work, so this will be, er, an experiment...

[mandie_rw]

Thanks! It's true, sometimes the prep work is the hardest to get started. But putting it off doesn't get it done...which I am very bad about!

[totchipanda]

I tried an alternative boning and it just refused to cooperate :( i had to abandon my celebration dress (cries forever)

[mandie_rw]

Awww, that truly is sad. Boo!