How to turn regular hoops into oval hoops

This week I'm sewing like crazy to get ready for the Feb 23 reenactment. I finished my favorite corset ever, detailed in the previous post, and in this post, I altered my 9 year old, sutler-quality, (probably polyester) 4 hoop cage into a much cooler, more fashionable, custom, oval shape.

This is my dream hoop. At some point when some striped fabric shows up at the thrift store, I'm making this.

http://whitakerauction.smugmug.com/TashaTudorAuction/Tasha-Tudor-Auction/19144959_rS5MJH#!i=1491278148&k=3sWBHVW&lb=1&s=O (I hope it's OK to post this.)

In retrospect, my hoop wasn't really that big before the alteration, but it felt like this:

http://ornamentedbeing.tumblr.com/post/4702059968

It was so annoying that, for the last reenactment, I never got around to putting it on, since I am always either cooking or chasing my one year old.

So, the process:

I took all the bones out and spread out the skirt, casings facing out, on the floor. This was at 1 AM, and I forgot to take pictures. The shape of mine was a slightly rounded isosceles triangle with the top point being chopped of by the drawstring waist. So I just trimmed a sliver off the front edge to make the silhouette more flat in front. OK, it was more than a sliver. It was about 10 inches at the bottom. I just eyeballed it.

You have to remember to distribute the fullness of the drawstring towards the back when you put it on, but look how dramatic the shape is now! I hope it will look less lumpy with all the petticoats on top.

I chopped off several inches of boning when I put the bones back in, so it's a bit smaller than the original circular hoop.

I'm making a very heavy wool skirt to go over this. We'll see how the weight affects the oval-ness of the hoop.