My old skirt (bottom two pictures) has bad cartridge pleats - not enough turnover to keep up the bulk so the pleats flatten easily; not enough fullness in general so each pleat is a little smaller and a little more widely-spaced than is ideal. Generally it just hangs and doesn't quite sit right, somehow...
My new petticoat (top pictures) has extra advice from Caroline Vincent and other reading - more fabric (4 metres rather than 3 at hem), a bulkier turnover, bigger pleats tighter together...
In these pics both are a bit flattened as I just whipped them out of compressive storage for the pics, and modelled on my mother, rather than me, but you can see the difference - the new petticoat has that 'spring' that you see in contemporary C17th engravings and especially in carvings in churches of common or middle-class women.
