Pannier

For my Marie Antoinette photo-shoot on Tuesday, I've decided to make a skirt for the costume. I don't really want to be walking around the Rocks in only Marie Antoinette's underwear! So to begin the baroque style skirt, I had to make a pannier, or a basket skirt.

I used two circles of plastic boning (the same stuff I make cheap corsets with), ribbon and fabric. I created a waistband with 6 ribbons fall down off it. These ribbons were then tied to each "hoop" of plastic to hold it together. I then tied the two sides of each hoop (back and front) together to create the oblong shape that accentuates the hips. I covered the hoops in fabric to make it a bit prettier and to match the rest of the costume.

It took a bit of problem solving and fooling around, but in the end I'm very happy with the result. The only issue is that because I rouched the fabric around the boning (to make it pretty), the knots of the ribbons slide around, so I'd have to continue to adjust it to make sure the shape is right.

Next step - the big skirt!