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[mahoushoujo]

So I'm making my Christmas list, and being the strange person that I am, I want to ask for a hoop skirt/petticoat/something that will give me poof for ball gowns. The problem is, I have no idea which is better: a petticoat or a hoop skirt. In my head, I always favored petticoats because I thought it wouldn't be so stiff/would be more flowy than a hoop skirt, but now I don't know. Which is better, just in general?

[o01101011]

How large is the ballgown you're considering? I prefer hoops over having a bunch of tulle around my legs, personally, and both are really flowy. Hoops are better for large, heavy dresses, but work with lighter dresses too. Petticoats aren't good for big round dresses, heavy dresses will flatten them.

[CapsuleCorp]

It depends on the shape of the gown - the silhouette you desire - but I will say two things:

1) if you have a hoop skirt, the gown MUST be tailored to fit over the hoop. It isn't this universal thing that you can just wear under any gown.

2) if you have a hoop skirt, you really should ALSO have a petticoat. Not the heavily-tiered tulle petticoat, but an underskirt-style petticoat. Otherwise, the hoop steel of the hoop skirt will show through your gown, especially if it's tailored tightly or made of certain fabrics. Nobody wants to see big giant rings, like panty-lines.

[mahoushoujo]

Well, some off of the top of my head that I wanted to do were Meiko's Conchita dress, Sailor Jupiter's rose ball gown, and Rin's Servant of Evil dress, but really, I just want whichever is going to be the most versatile. I don't want to have to get a different petticoat/hoop skirt for each big dress I want to make. These were the two petticoats I was considering asking for:

http://www.mygowns.com/444-velcro-petticoat.html
http://www.mygowns.com/113-drawstrin...at-6-tier.html

I also thought about these, but I don't know if they would be too big
http://www.mygowns.com/taffeta-mega-...at-velcro.html
http://www.mygowns.com/7mefupe.html