Taffeta, tulle, and the big, BIG dress

Friends, I'm scared.  As you know, my plan for the Cathy Comeback dress is this late Fifties Vogue pattern I purchased on Etsy last week:

I plan to make View C, the black dress in the middle, albeit in a rose print that more closely resembles View B.  Obviously I'm going to have to make some sort of underskirt to give this dress volume.  But once you're poofing up your dress, it's a slippery slope to Harajuku horror, I fear.





If Cathy came out Gothic Lolita she'd never forgive me.  Would you?

Why ever did dresses get so big do you think -- can we blame it all on Christian Dior?  Was it all about re-feminizing the middle class postwar woman, who'd gotten used to working during WWII? Recall that in the late 40s, early 50s, most dresses looked more or less like this.



There might have been a slip under there, maybe even a ruffled petticoat, but certainly nothing you couldn't get through the door in.  Then suddenly skirts got bigger.



And bigger...



And bigger!



The problem with this whole look is that to really pull it off, in addition to a big, BIG petticoat, you need one of these.



Which wouldn't be a bad investment since it is actually becoming a popular men's look.



But even with the corset, you can easily end up looking, I'm sorry, like Sunday morning sausage.



Readers who know about such things or just want to express an opinion, how much of a headache is it going to be to make a crinoline for Cathy's Comeback dress?  I already have the pattern.



But I don't know my tulle from my taffeta; it's going to be a steep learning curve.  My understanding is that one can easily spend an afternoon or two gathering those layers, not to mention trimming them with seam binding and lace.

The alternative, of course, is to purchase a ready made one.  But that's sort of cheating, don't you think?  And a lot of those look cheap to me.  Hence my dilemma.



Readers, in closing, am I going to regret this?  Can I save time with a serger -- can you even serge tulle or net?  (What exactly is the difference between tulle and net?)  We're talking poly and nylon, right?  Nothing in the silk department I hope.

Have you ever made a crinoline?  If you did, can I borrow it?

Someday soon I see Cathy on the dance floor with her own Bobby Burgess.  And it will all be worth it.  (What's Barbara got going on under that dress, in your opinion?)  Cha cha cha!