Since I posted How to Sit in a Victorian Bustle, I’ve had quite a number of you pipe up that you wanted to see a video on how to sit in a hoopskirt. Well, my dear readers, you’ve asked for it and now it’s here!
It’s not as complicated as you think, so enjoy this video tutorial with tips for how to sit down when wearing a mid-1850s through the late 1860s hoopskirt. (Please share with your friends and fellow reenactors too. 🙂 ).
See – it’s not hard to sit in a hoop and not have it end up over your head!
Have you had issues sitting in a hoopskirt? End up with the skirts in your face? Knocking over the stool on which you are trying to sit? (yeah… been there…)
Share your sitting story below. 🙂
This was so helpful!!! How do I use the bathroom though?! With all these layers. Getting married in September with a dress with crinoline and I bought a hoop skirt to go under it, ….Also,,,,, do I need to wear something under the hoop skirt too!?
Hi Jess, Congrats on your upcoming wedding!
You’ll find this blog post helpful on getting around, even without wearing a corset with your hoop (which I do recommend to support the lower back and even out the weight around the hips). https://historicalsewing.com/what-everyone-ought-to-know-about-wearing-a-victorian-corset
I do mention using the facilities in the post above, but the key is to walk in and face the wall and sit “backwards” on the commode. Split crotch drawers are a must to do this if wearing a corset. Although, without a corset, you can still successfully accomplish the task facing to the wall with the hoop and skirts staying behind you.
A modesty petticoat or slip is recommended under the hoop if you feel too “exposed”. But it’s not necessary. A narrow slip down to the knee level is all you need.
Thanks so much for replying, sorry that I missed the “facilities” part. Your advice is very helpful! 🙂 I was panicking a bit but I feel better
I didn’t see this when you put it up, as I had started to lose the time for historical “costuming” that I used to have. But it’s interesting to see that what I found that almost always works in a graceful way is similar, but different. I’m a bit short (5’1″) with short legs even for my size, and I think that has me have a habit for sitting that made me think a little differently.
I know the reason for lifting the back. But with any very stiff hoop (might not work for a lighter one), pushing down on the front also lifts the back (how the “King and I” humor works). I approach from the front, slightly from the side to double check my aim, glancing back most of the time. A slight rise up and forward (sort of bounce to tiptoe) and a press down on the top, front part of the skirt lifts and angles the back a smidge… Continuing to hold /press the front down while sitting down keeps the skirts from hooking onto the front of the chair, and almost always settle nicely. Having the habit of sitting near the edge, because of my short legs helps the don’t sit too far back part too.
I can’t remember which actresses I’ve seen in movie or on stage do similar… But it’s often seen as a sort of a sway and settle graceful dance like movement, when the elegant ones do it (nope, mine will never look like that).
We were glad to find this tonight. My daughter is wearing a hoop skirt tomorrow for a drama performance. She is very excited about it but a but nervous. She got to work with it a little today but not much. You have helped “the wardrobe” to feel more confident for tomorrow’s performance of Beauty and the Beast. Thank you
Hope all went well!
Hi … sorry, came to this video rather late, but thank you.
Have you any tips for sitting in an eliptical cage crinoline. I am an historic interpreter and sit in a room with a small bench. I am wearing an 1866 eliptical crinoline and hitch it up in a similar manner to that shown to sit down. However, due to the bench I bundle most of the crinoline to one side. Unfortunately, during the day, it twists around and I end up with the peak at the front pointing right and the ‘bustle’ sticking out of the left at the back. I have to get under my skirts (in private) to pull it all back to shape.
Any tips?
Thanks
For sitting, no. Keep doing what you’re doing. Although, try adding a connecting hook on the top petticoat and buttonhole in the waistband of the hoop (or sew a hook to the cage and put in a horizontal buttonhole in the petticoat waistband). You might need two – one on either side of center front. This will help keep your layers together as you sit and move. You can incorporate this idea with your top skirt and petticoats/cage as well.
Thanks, Jen. This was very helpful! I recently got a hoop skirt, but the hoop is badly twisted. Do you know of a way to straighten it out without replacing the hoop itself? I’m not much of a sewer!
Depends on how it’s twisted. Can you push the fabric around the hoop wires to straighten it out? Or perhaps open up a space in each wire casing to remove them then insert them again to make it straight?
This video is great! But I’m struggling with how to play the piano in a hoop skirt … Yes, I can follow your instructions to sit on the bench, but in order to do so I need to pull the bench about 5 feet from the piano, then have no graceful way to get myself close enough to the piano again to actually play.
I’ve heard you can put the hoop entirely over the bench? But then I have the problem of having to lift the hoops so high I flash everyone before my performance even begins. (Maybe that IS the performance?)
Please help …
I’m thinking having the bench as close as you can get it and still slide in with your skirt. Or have someone (like a gentleman) push the bench closer to you after you stand in front of the keyboard (same as if it were a chair). I’ll have to ask my husband who is a professional keyboardist and knows a bit about dressing in period costume.
Thank you for this video! I am getting married in a few weeks and wearing a fairly large hoop skirt under a big ballgown and I have been trying to figure out how to sit and go to the bathroom in it! Thank you for your help!
Rather too late to suggest for you, but for others…. My sister had a similar dress. She found that the hoop and it’s covering tulle was attached at the waist… And easily unattached and stepped out of, in front of the stall. Slightly more interesting to step back into the center, but wasn’t too bad holding the front up a bit and helped by a bridesmaid to step correctly (and balance help) and re-hook, etc. Would have been less hassle with a less modern toilet area, but.. It worked.
And when wearing one that can fit into the area… Done at a Renaissance festival… The easy is back to the door, and literally hook the lowest layer over your shoulders (if large enough), tucking the skirt between it and you… Will keep it out of the way, and not the hazard of drooping/dragging in something. Not elegant, but… Works.
I am one of the adults responsible for accompanying the first communion kids at church tomorrow. We have 3 adults. We also have 6, possibly 7 hoop skirted kids. HELP! The part where we have to help them not fall off the steps is relatively straightforward, although difficult (in an ideal world we would have one adult per hoop skirt and one extra adult on either side for the other kids but we neither have the people nor the space for the additional adults), but this video at least helps me help them sit down.
Now I can only hope they fit on the benches (we have never had more than 3 hoop skirts to 4 adults) and that they have fancy hoop skirts like yours and not just the ones with a single hoop at the knees and tulle from the knees down. Or worse, only one at the ankles.
I have been trying to figure out how women removed their cage hoops to ride in a public conveyance, when the practice was to hang them on the back of the carriage, etc. Any ideas how that was done in a demure way?
I would guess they had them off already when they left the building/house then put them on again inside the place of their destination. They would NOT have dressed in public.
Women wore traveling cages if they had one. Maybe what you see is the everyday cage that they are taking with them.
Nice video. Quite helpful. I wish I had a video to send you. For one re-enactment, I put one of my young sons in a hoop dress. Oh my gosh, you should have seen him. Absolutely anything you could do wrong, he did. Most unladylike. Last time I tried putting him in one of those. I should have had some daughters LOL
I just found this blog and love it. Having sewn for a number of years I learn something new every time I sit down to sew. As for sitting down in a hoop I was lucky enough to have a well verse lady show me. However I was at an event indoors which only had the folding style chairs. I did the back up to said chair, lifted hoop which in turn the next hoop down firmly hooked under the leading lip of chair. I sat back onto a nicely folder chair on the floor. Hoops, petticoats and drawers shown to the world. I learned to just not sit with folding chairs.
Oh no! Yes, folding chairs with arms as well as lightweight stools are not the best for full hoop skirts.
I adored this video — thank you so much! I’m currently sewing a mid-Victorian gown to wear for Christmas caroling and I was concerned about how to sit in the hoop skirt. This is one of those times when a picture that MOVES (a video!) is really worth a ten-thousand word explanation!
I am still nervous about the hoop skirt after reading through the comments, though, because I will need to drive myself to various shopping centers, country clubs, nursing homes, wherever my group is booked to sing, already wearing my costume. I bought a 6-ring hoop skirt that has a draw string and I am guessing that I’m probably not going to be able to drive in it, right? I had planned to add a wide elastic waistband to the top of the hoop skirt to make it more comfortable to wear when singing and to make it easier to step in and out of the hoop skirt in parking lots, but one of your readers commented that her elastic waist hoop skirt slid down while she was wearing it! I just have this vision of myself with my skirts up over my head, trying to tie the dumb waistband string… Any suggestions greatly appreciated!!
So glad you’ve found it fun and helpful!
I’d recommend a drawstring on the hoop skirt rather than elastic. Make sure the ties come out at the front to make them easier to tie & loosen. And elastic won’t make it any easier to sing in as your waist is below your lungs and diaphragm. Also, be sure to wear a corset with the hoop skirt to protect your lower back and help the skirts hang properly.
Although, you CAN drive in a hoop – throw the bulk of the skirts into the car as you slide in. Or pick them up on the right side so they are angled down from right hip to left foot; sit into the car; push them over your legs over the steering wheel until you can close the door; push skirts toward door and under wheel.
Good luck!
Now, about driving a car while wearing a cage hoop…you can hit yourself in the chin with the front of one or more of the hoops if you work it right. Cute. Hoops can turn a girl into a public hazard. You absolutely must remove the hoops before you even consider driving.
Best thing is to genteel-ly ease yourself out of the hoop before entering the vehicle. With your back to the vehicle, nonchalantly work the waistband of the garment open while you blithely look into the distance. If this works right, the whole hoop assembly will collapse into a circle at your feet. Step wide of the thing. Pick it up, grasp it on two sides, and wrestle it into a small package, tie it with the string you previously used when you left home for this event, then heave the rascal into the back seat.
Take your shoes and stockings off if this makes you feel better. Emit any sighs of comfort that you care to–you’re going home, aren’t you? Heave shoes and socks into the back seat also. Take off your bonnet and box it up and put it some place safe. Now you can see properly in all directions, can’t you? Then start looking for your car keys. You’ll hope you thought ahead, won’t you? Well, sure you did, you put them into your reticule and there they are.
Make a getaway and turn on some heavy music once you’re on the road. Tap those toes against the accelerator and You Go Girl!
I’m wearing a hoop skirt under my custom made Cinderella gown for my prom and I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to sit down, but this video helped me so much! Now I can sit down without it popping over my head. I can’t thank you Enough! Thank you!
You are very welcome Tabitha. So glad it’s helped you stay a lady. 😉
I ENJOY WEARING MY HOOP UNDERSKIRT, RECEIVED QUITE A FEW COMPLEMENTS, BUT ALSO ALOT OF STARES, IT IS ALOT COOLER THAN WEARING MULTIPLE PETTICOATES. UNFORTNATELLY, MY DAD CALLED ME SCARLET, HE WAS’NT KIDDING. I HAVE ONE CRITICAL OBSERVATION, TRY GETTING IN TO A CAR, OR GOING THROUGH A NARROW DOORWAY WITH ONE ON.
Where did you get your hoop skirt? I just got into reenacting and I i was wondering. Thanks!
It’s the Truly Victorian TV141 – 1858 Round Cage Crinoline. I love it as it’s airy in hot weather and light to move in. It’s my main hoop that I wear to Civil War events.
Prancing about in your undergarments for shame! 😉 J/k I loved the video and greatly appreciate it. I’ve wanted to wear hoops underneath my Elizabethan Garb for years but I’ve always been so terrified of sitting in them. I never knew all it took was a simple lift and sit gently I always assumed there was some sort of strange and complex trickery. I found your video on Pintrest randomly but I do believe you have a new follower. Thank you for posting this.
Glad you found it helpful Bhire!
I fondly remember the scene in the movie “The King & I ” where Missy Anna puts the Siamese women in hooped ball gowns and the women behave in Siamese manner, by kneeling and touching their foreheads to the floor when the King appears. All their hoops pop up & over their heads like peacocks.
Lol that is more challenging than it looks. Both times I was in a cast for that (school and community, not paid type) we practiced taking a bit of a grab and wrist twist to make sure they flipped up. They don’t always do such a noticeable thing… Just often 😄
Missed seeing kitty in this one.. 😉
Good video! I’ve been practicing on my own, doing what seemed right, but had no way of knowing how it looked from the front or side (or rear) as my mirror is in a tiny closet! I think I got the hang of it now after seeing you demonstrate. 🙂
Thank you for this informative video! Now the practice of gentlemen holding chairs for ladies makes perfect sense.
I’ve heard that one should never actually take hold of the hoop itself, but of the fabric between the hoops (which is a bit harder). Otherwise you are clearly drawing attention to your undergarments.
In this video I’m wearing a cage that actually has no fabric between the hoops. I would think that I’d want to sit down as “normal” as possible and with good movement rather than fumble to grasp a bit of fabric between hoop wires. But that’s just me. Even if you only grab a wire you should not lift the skirt very high.
My hoops weren’t 1850s, but from what I can tell, the differences between an Elizabethan-era farthingale and antebellum hoops is slight at best–particularly the construction and placement of hoops. (Farthingales tended to form a more conical shape while hoops a more bell-like shape, is what I seem to see in the artworks and construction.) I never had problems with sitting in them, but I can tell you this: never, ever, EVER, EVER make one with an elastic waistband! It was the first costume I’d made completely on my own, and I made SEVERAL mistakes–one being to incorporate the corset into the bodice as per the instructions of the pattern. This wouldn’t seem to be a terrible mistake, particularly for a first-time costumer…except that I had a two-hour ride to get to the Faire, and I couldn’t wear the farthingale in the car. At all. But without a separate corset and bodice, I couldn’t remove the bodice to put the farthingale on. So I thought, hey, elastic waistband, it’ll just slide right up under the corset and I’ll be good to go!
Theory correct. Worked perfectly. ….unfortunately, I did not particularly account for the weight of the steel hoops over the course of the day, so in addition to having one boob in each armpit thanks to a mis-measurement I didn’t catch in the bodice…I struggled with my hoops gradually getting closer and closer and closer to the ground…..one ring at a time…
The following year, I had ripped that damned elastic out and put in a drawstring waist, and was wearing a separate corset and bodice, and THEN my only problem was getting my skirt caught on a large splinter in a doorway and having to stand there, blocking traffic, until my friend could figure out where the door frame WAS in my skirt and free me. Fortunately, most of the crowd seemed to feel this was a great photo op. ;-P
I learned this the hard way. As I was at a ladies tea, my back facing the entryway. Several ladies came in but not a word was said. One lady come up to me and whispered in my ear I may want to check the back of my skirts or this wasn’t the place to advertize so much. To my horror, one of the lower hoop wires was caught on the back of the chair and flipped my skirt and petticoats up over the back of the chair. Needless to say, as guests walked in, they were greeted with a nice full moon. Now I make sure I am fully covered in back.
Oh no! (the horror…) Glad someone said something!
I’m willing to bet that the custom of seating ladies and gentlemen alternately around a dinner table originated to allow room for the ladies’ skirts.