ABBA Glitter Bell Bottoms

I am lucky enough to be going to the ABBA "concert" in London this summer! ABBA is pretty much my favourite band in the world. Even though they were in the charts before my time, I love almost all their songs and their vibe of sparkly, upbeat, lyrical pop is my thing. 

Of course, their visual imagery is so strong too, and if I'm going to their show, I want to dress up! When I was in my 20s, my mum made my sister and I matching bell bottoms, in turquoise sequins. We wore them to a 70s fancy dress party and I remember how much fun they were to wear, we spent the whole night dancing. Probably to a lot of ABBA!

I couldn't find any turquoise sequins at Fabricana, but I did get this silver-rainbow-shimmer-glitter-stretch fabric. They call it Liquid Lame. I got 2.5 yards, and used it all. I love how it has a holographic rainbow effect, especially in artificial lighting. It is silver, but shows a lot of blue, green, pink and yellow too. It is not sheer, in that you can't see through it, but it is very sheer in that it shows all the lumps and bumps under, it really is like liquid. I might have to wear sports leggings underneath, just for a bit of modesty. (Plus, I wouldn't have to wear them on the London Underground, just pop them on and off at the show!)

For my pattern, I looked through my trousers patterns, and settled on New Look 6057. Considering I have never sewn an actual garment, as designed, from this pattern, it has been one of the most useful patterns I own! That wide, low, scooped waistband is ideal for me and I've used it four times now.

I cut a size 10, even though that does not correspond with my measurements. The fabric is stretch and I wasn't sure I wanted negative ease, but I knew I had room to play with. I cut the pattern to the lengthen/shorten lines at the knee and then, for the bell bottom, flared out to the remaining width of the fabric that I had. I also left the leg hem long so that I could decide after trying them on, ideally with footwear.

I cut the front and back waistband on the fold. There are two pieces each, one for the outer, and one for the lining. I used my own traced pattern piece for these. I made up the waistband and added elastic inside for extra security. I made the whole thing up on my overlocker, with the exception of the back darts. I left the hem unfinished.

I went back and carved out some more ease above the knees. It has messed up the lines of the leg, they are pulling in a funny way now, but they are pretty baggy, and bell bottoms make your legs look so slim that I didn't want to miss out on that effect. I should really make them a whole lot smaller overall, take out all the ease, but the fabric is so sheer that I don't exactly want to dress like that. Any more. 

Supplies:

  Fabric: 2.5 yards, Fabricana, $23.57

  Pattern: New Look, used previously, $0

  Notions: elastic, upcycled, $0

Bloody Angel

This is the inspiration drawing for the Halloween costume of a Bloody Angel. So good! I was hoping to do it justice and not let the artist down.

I decided to go with the dress pattern from Simplicity K1699. The double seam in the sleeve would make it easy to increase them to the bell shape. Based on her measurements, I cut a size 12, which is the same size as I used for my Scuba Dress. It came up pretty small though, I wouldn't make this size again. 

Fabric was just an old sheet, and the blood is fake blood from a Halloween store. All in all, materials for this dress were very cheap! I got fancy and added a panel of Broderie Anglaise fabric to the front bodice. I wanted to make it more angelic and less sheet-like. I got this fabric as a scrap from my mother-in-law.

I decided on a bias binding facing for the neckline. This pattern has a real problem with how high the neckline is. I lowered it after a fitting and it is still very high. 

Fastening is by buttons. Nine buttonholes!! I added a facing for support and modesty. I also reinforced the base of the opening with a little triangle of fabric. I was getting fancy! But I didn't do any seam finishes, and I had to press the life out of the hem to get that curved edge to sit flat.

To finish off the costume, kiddo added wings, a halo and a bloody knife.

Happy Halloween!

🎃 👻 ✞ ☠️ 🧹 🕸 🕷 ⚰️ 👽 🤡 

Cruella de Vil Costume

How appropriate that I sit here writing this while wearing a fur coat. It is so cold today that I dug out this coat that I bought from a junk shop in Italy and have been trying to get up the courage to refashion into a throw and cushion covers. But more on that here.

For now, we are working with faux fur and turning the Vampire Cape into something for Cruella de Vil to wear to school on World Book Day. This cape was particularly suitable for two reasons: one, because it has the red lining so is perfectly in keeping with Cruella's signature colours of black, white and red; and two, because it has a lovely large collar, to which I could add some fur trim.

I cut a piece of faux fur to the top collar pattern and sewed it on by hand. I didn't cut out the bottom curve of the collar at the neckline, but left it straight. This makes the collar stand up more at the back of the neck. Then I sewed the edges of the collar right sides together to make more of a Nehru collar which I thought was more in keeping with the times. Cruella needs to fasten it tight about herself and then she can be warm and cosy about her neck.

I trimmed the cuffs of the shirt with scraps of faux fur and she is wearing a spotted cotton dress to represent the Dalmatian skins that she so badly wants to wear. The wig was bought used from eBay and their school gloves are red, so they are being worn too, the pearls are my old beads.

Walk Like an Egyptian... Mummy!

What better thing to make just after Halloween, than a costume?

We did actually know that Egyptian Day at school was coming up in November, but we went ahead and became a spider for Halloween anyway, knowing that we were going to make a mummy appear in November.

Mummy Costume

The brief was to come in Egyptian costume for a workshop and a feast, but we decided to ignore that and just be a mummy, because it was more fun.

To make the costume, we had to rip up some fabric into strips. I started with a shirt sleeve of M's that he used to strain some red wine, after the cork crumbled. The wine stain had gone a lovely dirty grey colour. The rest of the scraps are from a worn out sheet, and I got to use the worn out parts. The mummy had great fun helping me tear the strips. The long threads and torn edges were so effective in the final costume. 

Then we stained the scraps with tea. For reference, I used 3 tea bags in a mixing bowl of hot water - Earl Grey, if you must know - and then dunked the scraps in the tea with tongs. We had the bowl standing in the bathtub so we could pull them out soaking. The dunking was very quick, just in and out of the tea. I rinsed it a bit, but didn't want to rinse all the tea out of the fabric, so I mostly hung it to dry, all wrinked and messy. The rags looked so cool, hanging on the rack. Made me wonder where the mummy was - every time!

Then I started the labourious process of hand sewing the strips to the wrong side of a pair of white leggings and a t-shirt. I had at least two needles on the go, one on one side seam, and one on the other. I would pass the fabric over to the other side, secure with a few stitches in the top and then run the needle up the seam to wait for the next pass. I had to leave enough ease so the clothing would stretch properly to get it on and off. It was surprisingly difficult to do this. I had to sew the leggings while the child was wearing them to get it right. 

The good part was that I didn't have to sew neatly, nor hide the knots in my thread. The messier the better! While I was working, I left the scraps and the project stuffed in a bag, looking like a bunch of dirty rags and I am quite sure it helped with the final effect! I borrowed a friend's idea and joined bits of fabric by tying knots with exposed ends, in different places  over the costume (that's the friend's costume in the picture above). It looks really good, as do some random bits of rags hanging down here and there. She didn't like how much ease there was in the costume and the bits hanging in swathes, so I joined the rags together through the centre front, which covered more of the t-shirt. I sewed a long rag to the edge of the sleeve so we could wind this around her arms, another rag made a 'necklace' which covered the skin on her neck and instead of a head covering, I twisted a rag around her ponytail and tied it under her chin, which did a for a head bandage.

She wanted Egyptian eye makeup and we added purple under-eye smudges then a liberal dusting of talcum powder. 

Egyptian Costume

While I was working on the mummy, the teacher emailed me to thank me for responding to their request for parent helpers, and to ask if parents could come in costume too! Eeek! But life is more fun if you dress up so I decided to embrace the challenge and go for it. 

First, the mummy had to make a decision on whether I would be a mummy or a person. Thankfully she chose a person, because I thought it might be easier than a second mummy. But it would have been funny for Mummy to be a mummy!

I returned to the last scraps of the sheet to make a straight, white maxi dress. Just two rectangles, sewn at the side seams, with a centre back seam. The top edges are diagonal up to the centre because of the stitching line of the fitted sheet. I created straps for the shoulders. I made a pleat in the front and under each arm and a side slit at each side. The front hem curve is another sheet-made necessity, not a styling choice! For the hem, I zig zagged and turned once. The arm holes and neckline are finished by turning twice.

Then I wanted gold brocade for a belt, necklace and headband. I couldn't find brocade in my 5 minutes of looking in the upholstery section of John Lewis, so bought 1m of the gold-est fabric I could see. It is floral, which is not at all Egyptian, but the flowers were set wide apart with a nice vine pattern and the reverse side was very gold indeed. Plus it was only £14/m. 

For the belt, I used my waistband pattern from New Look 6057, my favourite curved waistband. I added length to exaggerate the sash style, and increased the front sections to overlap for velcro. I used flat felled seams for the side seams and then added strips of black ribbon for decoration. I eyeballed the pattern I wanted for the hanging down part (I'm sure that is the technical name for it) and sewed the ribbon to the front. After I had created a lining for the belt and the front, I attached the belt to the front piece at the top of the belt.

The fabric didn't sew very nicely, especially with the ribbon addition. I interfaced the front of the collar. The whole thing would have been better with interfacing, but I wasn't about to sink that amount of notions into a dressing up project.

I had enough for some half-cuffs, but you can only see the elastic in this photo. They are stiffened with toilet roll cardboard.

I even have gold snake sandals, and the Mummies had fun putting on their makeup in the school bathrooms!

DIY Spider Costume

This costume was so easy to make that it doesn't even really count as a "make".

Thanks so this blog photo for inspiring me, it is just two pairs of tights, stuffed with newspaper, threaded through the large elastic straps and all tied in a bundle. 

I'm not joking, I am planning on wearing these tights in the future, so I wasn't going to cut them up!

I was going to make a little bag/sack to store the middle part of the tights in, but they tied up so well, and black on black, in the dark, is really hard to see anyway. Then I tied two 1m lengths of small elastic around the legs and looped on her wrists.

Here is a picture of all the ugly details in the back:

For her spinarettes, we twisted a pipe cleaner around her black headband. Seriously, this costume was the quickest and easiest I have ever made!

The Refashioners: Child Waistcoat

This is an unexpected, additional contribution to The Refashioners, SuitsYou refashion, going on this October. The Refashioners is a fun challenge which pretty much sounds like what it is: refashion an unwanted garment into something new. 2017's challenge is to use a suit. Luckily for me, M's favourite outfit is a suit and he has plenty of them. He also got two new ones this year, so it was time for a clear out.

This navy beauty is Georgio Armani. The fabric is actually navy, with a tiny grey pinstripe giving an overall effect of a charcoal colour with a subtle stripe.  

My first garment going in to the Refashioners is a dress for me. But this was finished first because it had to jump the queue since the child told me she is going on a school trip and needs a Victorian costume.

Oh dear, there was a lot of drama getting to the right costume! She wasn't hearing of wearing an apron over a dress. No matter how much we Googled, or how many pictures we looked at. No way! But she was willing to dress as a boy, so we solved the drama with this waistcoat.

Here is the suit before refashioning. (You can see I have gone to a lot of trouble with my hair and makeup for this photo shoot.)

I had cut up most of the suit for my dress: trousers, back jacket panel and jacket sleeves. Only the front of the jacket was left. I used half the fronts, and all of the jacket lining (minus sleeves) for this waistcoat.

The pattern is Burda Style 11/2013 which has some great child sized patterns in that issue. This pattern is actually for a fur vest, not a proper waistcoat. I traced the largest size, and added 1 1/4 inch of length.

I cut the two back pieces from the back jacket lining. These have a seam instead of on the fold, but they were already stitched together, so I left them as they were. They just fitted, with no other seams, but I did have to unpick the side backs from the centre backs. They had been taken in there so the seam allowance was large. 

This photo shows the whole lining being used. The pattern was lengthened after I took this. The two backs are going to run down the centre back and the two fronts are taking up the whole front lining, including the welt pocket on the right.

The front pieces were cut from the front of the jacket, with the jacket hem used as the waistcoat hem. The tailors had sewn bias binding around the hem curve and I wanted to make the most of their work. The front jacket is also interfaced with fusible interfacing. After I lengthened the pattern, I could just squeeze out the fronts without running into the buttonhole. It is in the seam allowance, as is the side of the outside welt pocket.

I managed to keep the small welt pocket from the lining that sits high on the inside of the left front jacket. I moved this to the lower inside waistcoat as it was the only pocket where the scale was right for a child's garment. All the other pockets were way too big. The handkerchief pocket would have been cute, but I couldn't get a lower front from it. The care instructions label was just below the welt, so I kept both of those features.

I had a terrible job figuring out the instructions for turning the waistcoat and a quick and simple project turned into a lot of unpicking. I unpicked the shoulder seams to try to get the turn the way Burda instructed. I unpicked the side seams when that didn't work. I sewed them up again, and still it didn't work, so they got unpicked a third time. Gosh, I'm so bored just writing this! I got there in the end, thanks to this tutorial. I was able to sew most of the hem closed from the inside and just hand sewed the last little bit. I wish I had stabilised the back neckline with a bit of ribbon or stay tape, it seems very flimsy.

I didn't add any closures, hanging open is fine, and kept the edge looking clean, preserving the edge that the nice suit tailors put there, stabilised and steamed so beautifully.

We decided that she looks like a farmer's son in Sunday best, rather than a beggar boy. She is going to put some pennies in her pocket and pretend she is a thief!

Disneyland Dressing

I can’t believe that we were in California just one week ago!

We took the kids to Disneyland – M finally talked me into it. While I have wanted to go my whole life, we were not being pestered, and the Disney brand is not, shall we say, beloved here in Europe.  But it was a great age to go, and we had a good time, so I am very glad that we did it.

To get ourselves properly Disney-fied, and to ward off the consumer onslaught I was expecting in the parks, the girls and I prepared some Disney outfits for each day of the trip. It was fun to do, and helped us get in the mood long before our trip started.

We were glad to have the clothes to wear once we were there. The shops were not calling us (easy, if you don’t go in!), but because every single other person  is sporting nothing but Disney. It’s an alternative universe man! Corny, but fun. I loved the family groups wearing matching shirts, especially extended families who seemed to be managing to navigate the parks in a party of at least 8 people. Without tears or tantrums.

I have some other posts, covering the more detailed me made items, so this post covers the main part of dressing ourselves over the 4 days of our visit.

Embroidered Patches

The quickest, cheapest, most sustainable way to wear Disney clothing is to sew a patch on to your existing clothing. I endeavoured to do this for some of my outfits, knowing I’m not into wearing Disney in real life.

There is a huge choice from eBay sellers, you can get almost any character you like and they only cost around £1.50 per patch, including shipping.

I wore the red vest with the vintage Mickey on the first day. I did buy the vest new, I have a similar red top I could have used, but it is a fine fabric and I didn’t want to spoil it by stitching something onto it. I really like the vintage Mickey patch and I’m happy to keep the vest. I might even wear it.

The Thumper patch was not totally necessary, but it was too cute not to get. I hand sewed it over a torn part of my denim shorts, which I wore on 3 out of the 4 days. But I should probably take it off now.

I should have donated the Minnie patch to Little Sis, whose red dress we had to press into service when we forgot to pack one of the planned outfits (oops!). She had said she had so many outfits that we ought to stay another two days! My top is the Sorbetto that I made years ago. At the time, I didn’t like it much. “Too Minnie Mouse” I thought. It was hanging in the cupboard as a way of stashing the fabric until it was needed for other projects. Who knew I would ever want something Minnie Mouse? And Mouse-ify it further! The patch only fitted properly if I placed it under the ruffle. It was too large for the front panel.

I should have got some extra patches to sew onto our baseball caps. I put my ‘First Visit’ badge over my hat logo, but Disney would have been more fun. Mickey’s face or silhouette would have been my choice.

Minnie Ears

Talk about an alternative universe! In no other place would it be completely normal, nay desirable, for almost all females, especially grown women, to wear mouse ears all day, every day. But they sure are cute!

The ears in the parks are extremely seductive, with a huge variety - usually sequinned - but luckily the girls really liked theirs, which I bought in advance from an eBay seller. The “Disneyland Fairy” delivered them on the first night. While simple, these are smaller in size and weight than those sold in the parks - I couldn’t have worn the park ones for more than a couple of hours - and they stashed easily in my backpack. Not to mention the complete lack of sun protection. For an Aussie, it was shocking to witness how 90% of women appeared to be wearing ears or nothing. Certainly not a hat. My girls were only allowed to wear their ears on a shady ride, or in the evening. Mean Mama! I snuck a wear or two on the odd occasion one of the girls was not with me.

Minnie Bows

I planned these bows as something the girls could sew themselves, thinking we might wear them on a ponytail, at the back of a hat.

Big sis decided that she wanted a much smaller bow than I had planned, and it turns out she was right.

The two larger ones didn’t get worn very much/at all, but I did enjoy wearing the smaller one, in lieu of ears.

But they needed more batting and/or strong interfacing. The two larger ones have one layer of batting, running through the centre knot. The wear and tear on the smaller one showed up in a droopy bow by Day 3. If I did it again, I would interface both surfaces with medium weight interfacing and add a layer of batting. Maybe two. I would also not machine gather the centre, but instead run hand stitches loosely through the centre, and finally, I would secure the knot to the bow by hand. This version can be pulled clean out of the centre of the knot, meaning it can be pulled off centre too easily.

Final thoughts

The clothing on sale in the parks was really cute, but honestly, the Disney brand is so tainted by over-licensing to dollar stores everywhere that it sticks in my mind as cheap tat. I did see good quality kids clothes at Gap in Canada (at Disney prices), so perhaps they are working on coming back from the crap they have been allowing. I was pleased to get our few t-shirts from H&M, Primark and Amazon in the UK (two of them found with the sleepwear!) and much prefer the more subtle repeating silhouette to the vinyl graphics.

We equipped ourselves with lanyards and pins, but found no opportunities for trading. One sighting in four days of a “Cast Member” wearing a lanyard, and he was talking on the phone. The girls have given away some of their pins to their friends as souvenirs, but it makes you a bit more picky about those trading grab bags when you know you’ll be going home with the same pins you came with. Skip. They are too heavy and hot to wear in the parks anyway.

I had also arrived armed with glow bracelets for the evening festivities. We had fun with them, and they are a great way to pass the time while you are waiting for a show to start, but I didn’t see anyone else with any. I like the extra visibility it gives my kids, so I’d probably do it again.

The girls hadn't packed a pair of socks for each day but with all the walking we did, the really needed those socks. It was fun to choose some souvenir socks for the fourth day. 

Disneyland itself was both what I expected it to be, and not entirely what I expected. If I listed the bad and the good, I would find far more to complain about than praise, but the good created so many good memories that it was a wonderful trip. (Once every 10-40 years or so!)

The Old Man of Disneyland's house

Yellow Circle Skirt - aka Ukraine Flag - aka Eurovision Costume!

 

And, just like that, my sewing queue gets turned upside down as I embrace a new project.

My problem all started when I decided to repeat my hosting of a Eurovision party. Eurovision is only the most dreadful event on television all year, and the funnest thing I can think of is to have some fun making fun of it. Fun!

Dressing up is not compulsory, but as the host, I like to make an effort. The host country this year is Ukraine, so I am planning on wearing the colours of the national flag. Easy peasy: the Ukrainian flag is just two colours, blue and yellow, and looks very cheerful. Unfortunately, they have gone and put the yellow on the bottom and the blue on the top. Not so easy for us lovers of dressing up. Reverse them and I could have managed it with jeans and a t-shirt. But with this colour arrangement, a yellow lower half was required.

Now, my brother in law does actually own some yellow jeans, but nobody else in real life does. Then, I remembered that solid colour fabrics are super cheap on eBay, polycotton even more so, and I'd been wanting to make a circle skirt for myself for ages. This was my chance! A circle skirt also has other Eurovision associations because the most famous UK entry, Bucks Fizz, had full skirts as their costumes, and yellow was a featured colour. Win!

Faster than you can say tear-off-skirt, I was off to find a circle skirt calculator (used this one:  http://www.nadira037.com/2014/04/diy-circle-skirt-pattern-measurements.html) and calculated that I only needed 3m to scratch this itch. £8.02 later, and my (wafer thin) bright yellow poly poplin was on its way!

For reference, my dimensions were:
B - 12cm
C - 61cm
D - 73cm

I folded the fabric in half, widthways, and then in half (same) again. The two selvedges are running along the top and bottom and the folds are both from selvedge to selvedge.

I drew two curved lines from the folded corner, one at 12cm, the other at 75.5cm. Once cut out, you have two half circles to sew together.

I sewed the two side seams together and stay stitched the waist. I made a 3 inch wide waistband and attached it 2cm further down the waist opening. This is because I didn't add a closure to get it on and off. I didn't have a small zip and didn't want to add bulk at the waist with a gathered waistband. I have to pull the skirt over my head to get it on. It's very undignified. The final skirt hangs from my hips, rather than sitting at my waist. It has space to insert an elastic, but I interfaced it so it is quite bulky. I will add the elastic to bring the size down for a child.

The hem is a small rolled hem. I was going to make bias binding for the hem but it was much faster not to mess about with that. It is very see through, I wearing a full slip underneath. I wish I had a tulle petticoat.

A circle skirt has been on my to-sew list for quite some time. I really enjoyed sewing something without a pattern. I love making marks straight on the fabric, and find pattern cutting out very stressful. This shape however is not very flattering on me. It is not at all my usual silhouette. I think my hips look a bit bulky and I don't have a nipped in waist, but it is fun for a change. I was delighted to know that I can get it all out of 3m of fabric. I would like a black on white design with a black hem band. I think that would look smart-but-fun. I love Gerties fabric at Jo-Anns this season. I think I might be able to get the whole skirt out of 110cm, if that was the width of the fabric. 43cm length would be short, but this skirt style would look better, on me, in a mini length. Of course, you wouldn't get the fun swishy-ness, but a thick, quilted fabric would have a lovely look for winter.

I doubt anyone at my party will know I'm supposed to be the flag of Ukraine, but I'm going to be eating European food and marking off my bingo card, revelling in the cringe-worthy glory of Eurovision!

Doll School Uniform

The dolls are often press ganged into playing school with the girls, they also often go to real school. But like true American children, they wear civvies. The girls wear school uniforms, so naturally the dolls need uniforms. 


The fabric came from a school shirt, which is actually part of the girls' Winter uniform. The red and white stripe is the same fabric that their summer dresses are made from and I know the girls like wearing their Summer dresses more, so that is what I made. 

I used my Simplicity pattern, 1443, View A, with the sleeve from View C. The shirt hem is straight, so I was able to cut that off and use it as the skirt. No need for more seams, or new hems. The girls' dresses button through the front, but I didn't want to mess around with this type of fastening for the doll dresses. Instead, I added a front placket, but I didn't sew it down. It is the buttons that anchor it to the bodice. You can't see it in the photos, but in real life, it is quite realistic. The bodice is self lined but I wanted to save my scraps to try to get a Winter shirt out of them so I lined the bodice with some broderie voile. The collar is quilting cotton.

I used the puff sleeve pattern from View C, and folded out a lot of bulk through the centre. I needed a straight sleeve but it has come out puffy. Still, it is close enough to the real thing, and they need a bit of ease to get them on the doll.

The pockets are too large for the scale of the dress, but I did sew them on at the right height, the same height and in roughly the right place. A huge improvement over my usual patch pocket attempts!

The girls uniforms have two small ties at the back, which meet in a buttonhole. I could have made them, but it would have used a lot of fabric, and would have only been for the satisfaction of making a better copy of the dress. As it is a representation, rather than an exact copy, and would get in the way of dressing the doll, I left them off.

I would love to say that I'll be making loads of these dresses, out of all the discarded uniforms, for all their friends, and the Summer Fete, but it was kind of a joyless sew. I'm not sure why. Did the fabric seem too worn? Was the pattern too much of a fiddle? I'm not sure, but there were a lot of elements that were just a bit of a pain and I don't think another one is on the cards.

But when I look at Emily Bennet, standing there in her pigtails, it is all worth it!

Crochet Ballet Bun Net

I had a tiny scrap of cotton yarn and it was the perfect colour to match the light blue leotard that my girls wear to ballet. I decided to make a bun net.

I searched for a pattern that was extremely net-like. Most of the ones I found were lovely, but had far too high a yarn:hair ratio. They looked too much like tea cosies. Instead, I made up my own version using triple crochet with lots of chain stitches in between.

Here are my notes (terms are US crochet terms):

Row 1: Chain (Ch) 8, join to form ring.

Row 2: Ch 7, *Triple Crochet (Tr) into ring, Ch 3* 5 times, join with slip stitch (sl st) to 4^th Ch at beginning of row. This makes a "wheel" with 6 "spokes".

Row 3: Ch 7, *Triple Crochet (Tr) into row 2, Ch 3* 11 times, join with slip stitch (sl st) to 4^th Ch at beginning of row. One Tr into stitch below, one into Ch between. This doubles the size of the "wheel" and the number of "spokes".  (If a larger diameter net is needed, repeat this row, doubling the stitches again.)
Row 4: Ch 7, *Tr into top of each Tr from row 3, Ch 3 between* 11 times. Join. This turns the corner to start the sides of the net by keeping the number of "spokes" the same.
Row 5: Same as Row 4. To make the net deeper, this row can be repeated as many times as needed.
Row 6: Ch 4, *Double crochet into row 5, ch 1* Once into the top of each "spoke", once in between. Join. This creates an edge for threading the elastic and/or ribbon.
Finishing: Thread elastic and sew into a loop and/or thread ribbon and leave ends loose for ties.

Making this was very fast, but I don't love triple crochet. Maintaining the tension is hard and my stitches were quite loose and loopy. But it is a perfect way to use up those last few scraps of crochet cotton.