storing hoops?

[ArielCallista]

So...I'm currently making a farthingale and realized...i don't know how I should store it!...I have a very limited amount of space (dorm room) so hanging it or laying it flat somewhere isnt an option. I'm hoping to move into a house by the summer but i don't know for sure...So whats the standard way to store a farthingale? any tips on keeping it from bending would be nice...

also on a side note I'm on a hunt for a good travel trunk for my garb (besides the farthingale) preferably on that's easyish to carry and would fit in my car...so if you have any ideas please pm me

[Coffeegirl09]

Hey Ariel,

My sis and I bought a big plastic bin from Target, I don't remember how much it was... I bought it like 2 years ago! It fits all of our stuff, our shoes, skirts, bodices, steins...everything! It fits perfectly in our car for all of our ren fair trips. I haven't had any problem with moisture, or any smelly "stored" odor.

As far as the farthingale is concerned we flatten them out as in one hoop on top of the other, cover them with plastic, and hang them in the closet... I have no idea how you could do it in a dorm room (no closet?)

It's all I can offer! I hope it helps!

Liz

[dbaldock]

Can you put any hanging hooks in the ceiling?   

[ArielCallista]

we can't hang anything with 1ft of the ceiling and the closet is too small...I was thinking of collapsing it flat and then sliding it on its side behind my desk or something but i thought that might flatten out one side of my hoops or something

[gem]

I store mine underneath the bed in my guest room (or, if guests aren't coming anytime soon, *on* the bed LOL), but you probably don't have that option.  Sliding it behind a desk is a good idea--that's where I keep my giant cutting mat--but to avoid the squashing of the hoops, can you *hang* it behind the desk?  Either suspended from something like a thumbtack, or even one of those 3M Command hooks with the removable adhesive?

[Adriana Rose]

I store mine in my closet. I looped some ribbon through the waist and thumbtacked it up behind my cloths. and that blasted closet is SMALL I cant even spread my arms out in it and I am 5'3!

its outta the way, but the getting it out is a trick lol

[ArielCallista]

thanks for all the ideas! I've got some spare command hooks somewhere...

also while were discussing my farthingale situation...the pattern has 8 hoops...that seems like alot to me...would 4 or 5 be enough?

[Lady Rebecca]

Eight does seem a lot. Mine has 4 (and it's the ruffly kind) which I like. As far as what I do, if I know it's not going to be too long before using it, I slide it under the bed. If you're in a twin, though, that might not work.

The other way I keep my hoops is in my drawstring bag that goes with my garb. It's a quilted material, with a canvas lining, so I can slide the metal hooping out out of the skirt, coil it up fairly tightly, and put it in the bag. In fact, that's where my hoops are now. The fabric of the skirt I just hang in the closet.

[ArielCallista]

well ive been working on shoving the hoops thru the sleeve thing...i think i should have gotten wider twill tape even tho this is the kind the pattern called for...I'm 6ft tall so i thought 4 might be too few so i've got 5...theyre about 7inches apart...i think it looks alright...well i think it will once ive got the rest of the hoops in...I ordered how much hoop steel the pattern called for...but since i don't need that much since im doing fewer hoops, I'm considering using some of it as boning in the bodice...I've got quite a roll left

As for storing...I've go a twin bed so under the bed won't work...but when i get a house I'm hoping for a bigger bed...also I ordered the hoop steel from www.farthingales.on.ca ...if that makes a difference as to how it should be stored to prevent bending

[Kate XXXXXX]

I drop mine flat on the floor, twist it into a figure eight,  and then fold it gently in half, and stuff it into a large carrier bag, which hangs on the same hangar as the skirt.

[LaurenLee]

Kate, that is what my Civil War reenactor friends do.... twist them into figure 8's and stuff them in a bag.  They even sew hoop bags for transporting them, and take them on airplanes this way.  I stand them up behind a spare room door (three of them) myself...

[Kate XXXXXX]

Well, when I saw this backstage at the Royal Opera House, I thought it was the 'proper' way to do it!   

[Anna Iram]

That's how mine were sent to me, in a figure eiight, but I have a heck of a time getting them back to that shape. Is there a simple trick I'm missing? I gather the outside edges of all four, twist in the center...then that's when it goes all wanky.....

[Kate XXXXXX]

I just gather all the hoops in one hand and the bigger ones in the other, and twist and fold at the same time.  Then you just hold the whole lot in one hand and slide them into the bag...

[dbaldock]

Sounds like you have to use the technique that's used for folding the sun-screens that you put up in the windshield of you car.