Making & Modifying Your Clothes

[Keevan Draco]

excellent work! keep on stitching....

hmmmm.....bustle question. At the moment, I have no references for you...give me a few days to contact my sewing circle, and i'll hope to have at least either a website or book reference you could find to suit your needs.
From memory, there were two types of bustle. one, the under-bustle, was a sort of permanent attachment to the frame of a hoopskirt (an assortment of wooden or whalebone hoops covered in fabric and arranged as a latticed undergarment that held the skirt up and out. This was widley used to keep the skirts out of the muck and mud of the timeperiod), that the skirt itself rested over.
The second, an over-bustle, was a gathering of material (usually pleated with either a set bow, or wide ties that could be tied into a bow) that rested on top of the outer skirt by means of a belt like attachment. One could almost consider the over-bustle a sort of ancestor to the modern belts we wear today.

If pyramid pleat rings any bells for you, then try that. If not, the best description I could give you:

Quick and Dirty Over-bustle

take a large triangle of material ( start small to get a feel for it, use a bandana)
fold in half and crease the fold. (if using a bandana, fold twice, open once. most bandanas are square, you need a triangle for this project.)
open it up.
starting at the crease you now made, fold the material to either side of the crease towards itself, using the crease as the centerpoint for the work. (general rule of thumb is to use the two-finger rule, take the first two finger of either hand and fold the material over/under to set the pleat width) and pin the pleats.
Continue pleating and pinning till you run out of material.
Sew the pleats with either a sewing machine, or hand stich the tops of the pleats.

now for the difficult part:

fold the top 4 inched of your pleated overbustle over and stitch closed (the end result is basically a very large beltloop.
(ok, if you are going to practice on a bandana, use one finger width to set the pleats, and 2 inches to make the beltloop, savvy?)
Build a bow using another piece of fabric and sew it to the top outside of the main bustle.
Find a matching belt and enjoy your new fashion trend...

I built an entire skirt using the pyramid pleat (about 9yards of fabric wide, and at the point about 1 yrd long, but depending on the size and width of the material, one can make a mini bustle that can be worn over another skirt or jeans by means of a belt. (try a triangle of material that is 1 to 2 yards wide, by 1 yard long at the point to make a mini-bustle)

I still think that many are unclear what a pyramid pleat is, in short, you are going to fold the material inwards towards the crease in wider and wider pleats till you run out of material. when securely stitched, the end result is a stack of pleats that look like a stepped pyramid when viewed face up.

enjoy, and happy sewing...