Hoop Help Please?

[Dayna]

I don't have a way to cut or secure hoop steel.  I recall reading somewhere that plastic tubing (NOT HULA HOOP STUFF) can be used instead.  I have three hoops, no way to hold them out, and I have to get them working in time for Siouxland.

I can go to Home Depot yet this week and should be able to find something around the house I can use to cut the stuff.

Thanks much in advance,

Dayna

[Master James]

I have heard many say that the 1/2" plastic water tubing works well and is easy to cut and by getting joiners can be easily held together.  I'm not sure however how well it will hold up to a heavy gown.  I'm quite sure it would work well with a lighter gown but something like velvet may be too heavy for it although that is only my guess on that as it tends to bend fairly easy when you but some preasure on it.  M'Lady uses steel hoops and they work very well even with some of her very heavy gowns.

[gypsylakat]

There was a thread on the old forum about this, the plastic tubing was used and it did have a bit of give to it when under a very heavy gown. That's not to say that it won't work in your situation and you can by all means try it and see if it does.

[Baroness Doune]

I use a bolt cutters from Home Depot to cut the steel.  However, it is still very sharp after cutting, so I use the hoop connectors from Farthingales to connect the hoops.


I have also used the polyethylene tubing with brass connectors.  Polyethylene tubing requires a hoop channel wider than the usual 1 inch wide.  I used 2 inch hoop channels.  I made an ordinary size farthingale (bottom hoop was about 116 inches in circumference) and a larger farthingale (bottom hoop was about 144 inches in circumference.)  The larger circumference farthingale was very "floaty."  It also would become distorted when trying to squeeze into small places and not spring back into the proper shape.  I added some plastic coated metal cable to the inside of the poly tubing in the bottom hoop, which helped some, but I eventually abandoned the thing. 

You might consider plastic coated metal cable.  It needs to be cut to length in the store with that special machine Home Depot has for cutting cable, but you could just overlap the ends by about 3-6 inches and tape.

My farthingale stuff

[Dayna]

Thank you Baroness!  I've had hoops that were made with hoop steel, but they would deform into ovals and/or the steel would rotate around and suddenly there was a strip of steel sticking out of the hoop.  This was after I disposed of the hoop held out by cloth covered wire and masking tape.  'Nuff said I gather?  The metal would also rust and could not be removed due to the tape being NOT by the openings anymore.

I found that tape made an absolutely horrible mess when washed, and my hoops are washed frequently because I cannot stand muddy underwear!

What is this metal-coated cable of which you speak?  Perhaps I could put two rounds in each channel?  I'm not looking for something to hold out a 150 inch heavy velvet.

Dayna

[Baroness Doune]

IIRC the plastic covered cable is in the same aisle as the rope at Home Depot.  It is maybe 1/4 inch in diameter???  It fit inside the polyethylene tubing.

Somebody, somewhere, has used the plastic covered cable for a rope petticoat but I can't remember who it was.

[Lady Anne Clare]

I used the plastic covered cable in the bottom channel of my farthingale cause I couldn't get the plastic tubing to uncoil itself enough for it to lay nicely.

Here's a picture of the cable in the channel.  It has a clear plastic on it that you can't see in the pic.



I doubled it over a good 3 feet cause I somehow over estimated how much I needed and I don't have cutters for it, but I struggled to do it.  If you make your boning channels a little bigger than you would for the poly tubing, I think you'd have no problem putting two rounds of the cable.

I used 1/4" diameter cable and 3/8" poly tubing which has a diameter of 1/4"

[peggyelizabeth]

Jen Thompson used wire rope from home depot to make her "corded" petticoat.

[LordPaulet]

unilady
go to Menards, andgo back to where they have all the PVC pipes...
you are looking for a rust colored small (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter) tubing and will be in coils around the bottom of the racks somewhere...
My friends have used this with no problem (3 layers uphostery velvet... and still knocking people over with the hoop
~LP

[Dayna]

WOW,Thanks everyone!  One question about the rust colored small (maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter) tubing and will be in coils around the bottom of the racks somewhere...

Will it uncoil easily or will I be having to put plastic covered cable inside it to keep it from deforming?

I guess it's off to Menards tonight, luckily it's only two blocks from Home Depot so if one place can't supply my needs, I'll try the other.

Dayna

[LordPaulet]

ummm
we never put anything inside of it:D
I dont know if they had to stretch it prior (i dont think they did)
just dont smash it down when you shove the hoop into your car to take a trip
Do you live in soo foo Dayna?

[Dayna]

I ended up buying 5 foot lengths of flexible yet sturdy tubing, there was Nothing at Menards that would do at all, the best they had was the very flexible soft tubing like people use at parties to string little twinkle lights through.

I tried it before I left, I can connect the ends with tape to make it long enough, and overlap at the other end so that they can be easily removed yet do not come loose.

I live in Richfield MN, just south of Minneapolis.

Dayna