Edit: I’ve recently created a video tutorial going through this process, if you’re interested it can be watched here!
Hello everyone~ I’m getting an early start on my AnimeNEXT cosplay and thought I would share some of it with you guys. Also, my “The world god only knows” uniform part 2 will be up VERY soon. Expect it in the next week!
Anyway, meet Napoleon:
Napoleon’s skirt is ridiculous in the poofyness and ruffle department, seriously it’s insane. So right away I knew that I would need tons of material, and some sort of stiffening for the hem. Luckily I already had several yards of white bridal satin laying around, then the other day I picked up 12 yards of horsehair braid, which meant I had everything I needed to get to work.
Step one was drafting a quick circle skirt pattern, I think everyone has seen these before, but this is what mine looked like. Please excuse my terrible handwriting.
Next step was cutting them all out, in total I cut out 4 circle skirts.
Then I sewed them all together. At this point they didn’t look much like a skirt, but they made a lovely scarf. For reference of how much material was here, I’m around 5’ 10”.
Then came the pinning. Oh god, the pinning. The hem was 12 yards, which means it tookages to pin it all, and to make things worse, my bobbin ran out half way through without me realizing, which meant I had to do even more pinning then I had originally planned.
And for those curious, this is what the horsehair braid looks like.
After it was all hemmed and had the horsehair braid added you could see the ruffles forming. Modeled once again, as the lovely scarf that it was. 
Since a corset/vest is worn over my waist, I couldn’t have the ruffles extending all the way up. So I made up a waistband, it’s made of three panels and has interfacing in all of them. Then I went ahead and lined it for good measure. This is also where I gathered my “scarf” down into 40 inches of ruffles.
Then I sewed them together, and looky here, It’s pretty much done! I just need to tack down some of the ruffles and add a zipper. But that should be very easy.
Edit: 5/5/12 A few updates on this skirt!
I added a petticoat for more “oomf”
And then I went through and sewed certain parts down, giving it all a more uniform look.
I know the frustration of pinning insane amounts of fabric haha, I had to pin ruffles to a 15.5 yards piece of fabric when making a Will of Abyss cosplay and it took forever.
I’m totally looking forward to seeing this cosplay completed though, she looks absolutely cute and you have such a good start already, I bet you’re going to look gorgeous ^^
Oh my, that is a lot! But if I recall correctly that costume came out fabulously. For this one I had to hem it…then sew the horsehair braid in. So it ended up being 24 yards of pinning, blah!
Thank you very much! Yeah, I’m in love with the design. I hope it all works out in the end.
That skirt is beautiful. 🙂 I can’t wait to see your finished outfit, doxie.
Quick question: How did you sew the circle skirts together? I’ve been confused on that for a while unfortunately, and couldn’t really find the answer anywhere.
im late by a few year but im still gonna post it for anyone else that needs it but you cut a slit all the way up the side of each circle skirt then sew one end to he end of another so in the end it looks like a spiral then you ruffle it and sew the last ends together
Hello! Your skirt looks so lovely! I was wondering what could I do if I wanted a full circle skirt but with a number of specific pleats in it?
Thank you and keep it up!!
Thank you so much for this!! I’m gonna use it to make a lolita skirt! ^~^
Hi. Thanks for making this tutorial. I was wondering about the pattern paper of the circle skirt. what kind of circle skirt did you make? is it a 3/4 or a full circle skirt?
How did you sew the four skirts together? I just cant figure that out…
each piece looks like an “O” with a slit (makes a C kind of) then you sew end to end.
muito shool
That skirt is really puffy! I’m a novice at sewing, but this post had me motivated to start on my first costume from a pattern! I wanted to experiment and try making the skirt like you did here, I even locked down some tutorials on how to sew in horsehair braid. I know this post may be old, but how exactly did you sew the circle skirt pieces together? It looks like one very long skirt, like you sewed them together in the same vertical orientation. Thank you! ^^
Hello, thank you so much for sharing your tutorials, where do you usually buy your horsebraid? Is it stiff? Or normal?
que bello!!
como no haces un tutorial explicativo
para aprender
Omg! I’m sure you’ve heard this a million times but that skirt is sooooo cute and I love your pumps! ❤
I love this skirt!! You did an amazing job!