Mermaid - Panne' Problems

As it turns out, the velvet panne' that I used for the mermaid skirt is NOT 4-way stretch.  When I had the actress try it on last night she couldn't get it up past her hips.  I suggested that it was upside down (it could happen) but no.  She didn't like that, understandably.  It was more like wishful thinking that I hadn't spent the day sewing a bunch of sequins (onto a now unusable tail) than lack of confidence in her ability to pull on a skirt. 

When sewing stretch fabrics into a garment that will be skin tight, it's important to test the amount of stretch you have to work with.  Pam had tested one of the other fabrics and I wrongly assumed that this panne' had the same properties.   The other fabrics are 4-way (you can be sure I've now tested them!) and they have six more inches of give than the velvet panne'.  Fortunately there's a lot of the panne' left so I was able to cut another tail adding six inches to the original measurement around the hips.  I had her try it on and it fit fine.