I NEEDED a bustle to go with my bloomers. I used Butterick Pattern 3737. Since I've got a never ending stash of quilting cottons, I used those, plus, the fabric matches the bloomers. Most of my scraps are a quarter yard or less, so I had to use a different color for each tier. Unlike the pattern suggested, I actually hemmed all of the flounces. So many ruffles! Also, I enlarged the pattern significantly to fit all the way around my hips.
Here you can see the circle flounces cut and ready to be sewn. I made my circles a little larger than the ones in the pattern, both on the inside and outside.
Here's one strand of flounces with the hem pinned. This is about 4 and a half circles. You can see how long it is.
Here's a shot of me trying on the unfinished bustle with the first 3 rows of flounces sewn on. I pinned it to my sweater because there's no waistband yet. I kind of like the look of 3 rows of flounces. I think if I do something like this again, I'll just use 3 rows of flounces instead of 7. More isn't always better, especially when it's more work.
Here you can see how many pins I used to hem each ruffle, pinned about every half inch. I found that this kind of pinning is a good activity to do while watching TV or hanging out with my friends. I also learned that I needed fewer pins on the bias than when I hit the straight grain.
Here's the finished bustle. The shaping fit when I wore it around my waist, but that's not how you wear a bustle. You wear them on your hips, and there, it didn't fit quite right, and it caused the back to droop in an unsightly way, so I stuffed the lining with some really thick polyester batting, and I quilted it onto the facing with three or four lines of machine stitching. So, now it doesn't droop when I wear it. As you can see, the thing stands up completely by itself, and with all that batting, it keeps my bum warm. What I learned: I learned that you can make an easy waistband with two layers of grossgrain ribbon. I learned that you can make ruffles from circles instead of strips. This way, you don't need to gather, which is nice.
And now for the artsy shot.
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