start by finding a pattern for a western skirt or navajo skirt that has several layers of ruffles, then use netting rather than cotton. I strongly suggest you use nylon for the top area below the elastic to avoid having it be itchy.

How are you going with the petticoat skirt? They are actually easy to make if you have a bit of time.
I'll help you if you are still stuck.

Friendly greetings
Michelle

Oh, gosh, I'm dating myself, but, to the best of my recollection, here is how we used to make these (we never used patterns): Cut a piece of material wide enough to fit over your hips plus a little extra for the seam. The length would be the distance from your waistline to your middle or lower hip area. Sew a casing at the waistline & thread some elastic through it to fit your waist. Now get some netting & cut a ton of 6-8" wide strips & join them together. Loosen the tension for the upper thread on your sewing machine, use the longest stitch, & run a line of stitching along the edge of the strips. Pull one end of the thread to gather the material into ruffles. If you have a ruffler attachment for your machine, then that would make the job go even faster. Now put the tension on your machine back to normal and then sew the gathered edge to the bottom edge of the first piece you made (the one that fits over your hips). When you finish this row, keep adding more ruffled strips to the bottom edges of the ones you just finished until the petticoat is the length you want. Each row will get bigger & bigger and you'll end up with a very fluffy, billowy petticoat.

We used to wear these under those circular felt poodle skirts popular in the fifties.

We also used them under those cotton flared skirts, and never used patterns for these, either. Just made a waistband large enough to fit, sewed strips of material together, stuck in a zipper, gathered it & attached it to the waistband.

Thanks for bringing back some great memories!

You're just in time! I just (belatedly) opened my my most recent issue of Sew Beautiful Magazine (issue #102). The adult pattern featured in this isssue is the "Vintage Chic Petticoat Skirt" on page 70. Definitely check it out.

Since it says "no pattern required", I'm pretty sure you could adapt the instructions to your needs, and skip some of the fancier stitches for plain ones. You'll have a one-of-a-kind.

I have just been searching the internet for hours looking for how to make a petticoat for my fancy dress costume.
Hopefully from the information you gave out Loomis i will be able to do it. My mum will be making it but i had to find out how. She has a sewing machine but i'm not sure if it has a ruffler attachment. We'll have to see.

The only thing i don't underdstand is how the petticoat will be thick if you are just adding to the length instead of the thickness?

Rach -
Each row of gathered netting puffs out farther.

You usually sew a whole 'nother netting petticoat over the first one for more layers of frou-frou. See the pictures and you'll understand how to make them ... it's easy.

http://www.bridalpetticoat.com/images/108DSR_thumb.jpg
http://www.bridalpetticoat.com/images/108DSB_thumb.jpg

I am trying to make a Navaho skirt for my grand daughter. The directions I found said to divide the total length of the skirt by 3 and this plus enough for seams and waist would equal the length of each tier. Then it said to use 2 "widths" of fabric for the top tier, 4 for the middle tier and 6 for the bottom tier. You would sew these "widths" together on the short edges and gather each tier and sew as described in above posts.
The width of these "widths" was not mentioned. Should I assume they mean 36"? My grand daughter is only 5 and is tiny for her age. Any advice here will be sincerely appreciated. Thanks

for the navajo skirt the first width should be approximately ten inches larger than her hips. then base the doubling quadrupling etc on that first width.

the length of each band will depend on how long you want the skirt to be, am I making sense?

Datawgal =
The first "width" is her hip measure, more or less. It's not critical, and can be up to 3 times the hip measure if the fabric is thin or gathers well.

If you are going to sew trim onto the skirt, do it before you stitch the ruffles together. It's much easier.

Thank you dayenu and lazygardens, that helps a lot.

IM TRYING TO MAKE A HOOP CHILD CRINOLINE PETTICOAT FOR DAUGHTERS BIRTHDAY PARTY ANY SUGGESTION OF WHAT CAN I USE I BOUGHT CLOTH WHAT CAN I USE FOR LOOPS.

http://sugardale.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-make-petticoat.html
Hope it helps you. Kisses.