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Simplicity 5726  - Petticoat/Crinoline

NOTE: The corset in this pattern is the same as in Pattern #9769. For more information on it click here.

Simplicity refers to this pattern #5726, as a corset, chemise and petticoat but when I think of a petticoat I think of a light to medium weight fabric that drapes and when I think of a crinoline I think of fabric that “pouf’s”. This “petticoat” definitely “pouf’s” and so to me is a “Crinoline”, so from here forth I will refer to this garment as the crinoline rather than as the petticoat.

This seems to be a good point at which to discuss a little further; fabric choices for making this petticoat/crinoline. You can see by the photo that this is quite full and while it is being worn over a hoop crinoline – I asked and it is, it still stands out from the hoop as you can see in the photo on the pattern front. This crinoline is unlike the petticoat pattern found in the Simplicity Pattern #9764, which drapes over the hoop petticoat. The fullness is created by the fabric, the amount of it and ruffles. You will never have unsightly hoop lines if you wear this over your hoop petticoat. Ordinary fabric will not respond to this pattern to give you the look you see here! To attain this effect you need light and very crisp fabric….poly or silk taffeta is too limp in comparison to what you need and will not do the job. Fabrics suggested on the pattern back are tarlatan (which is almost impossible to find and not cheap when you do) and crinoline which is almost equally hard to find but much more reasonably priced. I stock the crinoline, although mine is not quite as wide as this pattern calls for. I also stock cotton organdy and my “American” cotton organdy would work just as well, is the required width and is only marginally more costly – but then you are getting more fabric. You could also consider a good stiff diamond net which will create the effect but is not period accurate. Diamond net is 60" (150cm) wide so you would have some waste…but the price is better.

One of the great advantages of crinoline and organdy is they hold a crease really well! This is also a disadvantage. You will not need to do much pressing of seams as they fold very nicely. You will find that your crinoline can get rather battered looking as you are working on it, don’t worry you can smooth it out later. Crinoline and organdy are also quite stiff so it is not the easiest fabric to manipulate around and through your sewing machine, especially once it is gathered. Thankfully this garment is fairly simple to construct so the fabric is not too much of a challenge.

This is an easy pattern to follow and has very simple pieces, in fact they are so simple you only get the yoke piece as the skirt and ruffle pieces are simply illustrated in the pattern layout section. I always like this as it saves struggling with large pieces of pattern tissue. There is one piece that could be easily confusing….at least it was for me…in two spots!

Pattern piece #13 and 13A are not pattern pieces that you cut and sew. That is the first mildly confusing bit. These two pieces get cut and taped together to be used as a template and the first error I made was to cut on the wrong line so be careful here. It seemed that one line just ended so check all the lines around these pieces before cutting, you can look to step two of the instructions to see what the pieces should look like. My next error, which I caught before I “cut”, was in the pinning of the template to the sewn together skirt. There is an illustration provided for this step, study it and note that the front skirt seam will be shorter than the back seam. I did look at this step, thought I had it right but decided to double check; luckily I did as I had the template made from #13 & 13A on upside down. For the way I was working I had to lay the pattern piece “printed side” against the fabric. Be sure to check this before you cut.

I made my crinoline out of “crinoline” fabric as suggested on the pattern envelope; however the crinoline I stock is not as wide as the pattern required so mine will not be as full. My crinoline was cut from 37” (94cm) goods so the panels could not be the 41” (104cm) width shown in the pattern layout. This meant I had to adjust pieces #13 & 13A (the template) as it was now much longer than needed and simply cutting off one end would destroy the proportions, change the curve of the top edge of the crinoline skirt and affect how the crinoline skirt fit the yoke. SO, do NOT just cut off one end if you face this same situation.

To alter the “template” I marked 14 vertical lines parallel with the center front to create 14 x ½" pleats. How did I come up with the #14? I took the original “template” and lay it on the sewn together skirt as illustrated in step #2 of the pattern instructions. It was 7 inches too long. I know from experience that I did not want 7 x 1" pleats to remove the excess as the 1" pleats cause too dramatic a change in the curves on the edges. Multiplying by 2 was the easiest math to do : ) so 14 x 1/2" pleats were made.

		Pattern pieces 13 & 13A taped together to form a template
		NOT TO SCALE! 14 evenly marked vertical lines parallel to CF to fold into 1/2" pleats
		After the pleats have been folded you may have to smooth out the cutting line.

I then lay the template on the sewn together skirt and followed the instructions all the way to #14. Instruction step #14 tells us to sew on the bottom ruffle first but I chose to do otherwise and I attached the top ruffle first. My reason was that by sewing on the bottom ruffle first I would have a lot of fabric (the bottom ruffle and the hem) to manage in the opening of my machine (to the right of the presser foot) and this would result in a crushed looking bottom ruffle until I pressed it. I hoped to avoid these two problems by attaching the top ruffle first, then folding it back out of the way toward the top (and to the left of my machine where there is lots of room) when I attached the bottom ruffle. Personally I hate making ruffles, and I dislike even more…applying them! When gathering the ruffles I used two rows of long stitches and I would strongly suggest you use something at least as strong as quilting thread for this as I used basic polyester sewing thread and my gathering threads broke at more than one spot – I think the crin fabric is rather abrasive on the thread and weakens it quickly. I finally gave up on using thread and zigged over some cording to do the gathers. There is a photo below showing how this worked.

Despite the problem with the ruffles, this was not a frustrating project and went together smoothly. Dealing with the fabric being the only challenge I faced.

Pictures of our version:

		Front view of finished crinoline. Shown with Corset and Chemise from Simplicity Corset Pattern #9769 - Authentic Civil War Corset, Chemise and Drawers Ours is NOT worn over a hoop crinoline as it is on the pattern front, and therefore does not look as full.
		ABOVE: Side view as intended to look when worn over a hoop skirt #9764 LEFT: Side view of finished crinoline, not worn over a hoop skirt.
		Detail of ruffle construction, showing the use of cording rather than thread to gather the ruffles.

If you want to build this garment you can either order the products you need from the catalog or you can purchase our KIT. We’ve also included a list of supplies separately in case you only want to order some of the materials.

The Products we used to make Simplicity Crinoline #5726 are listed below. You can purchase just the items you need, or the complete kit, by adding them to your shopping cart.

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