sometime back a friend pulled out (dusted off???) her crinoline to use under her Colonial ball grown - the elastic had stretched so I knotted it, leaving a tail about half a metre long!! We were both giggling ... probably not the only ones in the Hall.

I was lucky with a winter velvet skirt a couple of years ago, I was able to thread some thinner elastic over one track of the rotten elastic so didn't need to unpick all the channels, I just needed to use a sharp needle to get over the side seams.