Discussion Query: Steel wire petticoats?

[labricoleuse]

I have a few cool posts of projects-in-process coming up soon, but I wanted to solicit opinions on a project I'm just starting to troubleshoot.

Has anyone built a steel-wire petticoat like this before:







I have to build two of these with the following properties (theoretically):

--Hoops must be metal
--Hoops must be round diameter in a cross section (i.e., not flat hooping)
--Tapes must be limp, like wide twill tape, so that if an actress sat in one the petti would telescopically collapse like a camping cup

I've built such things with flat hooping before, and i've seen antique actual ones of these. Anyone who's built one with steel wire, with this dense number and spacing of hoops before, i'd love to hear any pros and cons of troubleshooting it, advice, holy-crap-don't-do-this info, etc.

Comments

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

I have been thinking about the riveting route for stabilizing the tapes on the hoops, and also making channels in the tapes. So tape channels worked good for you, with what type of hooping? Flat steel, spring steel, etc?

They have to be round because the costume designer says she wants them round.

These are for a mainstage show, the final one of our season, runs for i believe 3 weeks. So, they need to stand up to active use but over a relatively short period of time.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the channels worked perfectly for me. There was a bit of wrestling to get the boning into the channels, because I didn't leave enough unsewed, but once in there it was very good. I used the heaviest weight of hoop steel from Farthingales. It's spring steel coated with plasti-dip to be non-rusting (as far as those things go, anyway). Mine seems really durable, it's been on my dress dummy pretty much constantly since I made it, and I've been layering heavy fabrics over it and taking it on and off to work on it, moving the dummy between tight doorways, and it folds well to fit through, but it likes knocking pens off my desk :( It also packs *really* flat, I'm very happy that I'll probably have an easy way to get it places. There are new pics up of it with netting and a cotton petti, and my corset, here (http://auroraceleste.livejournal.com/125282.html#cutid1).