Why Ms Iris! What A Lovely Bustle You Have!

Ms Iris came to me about a week ago. I had anticipated her coming, and had gotten all in readiness for her stay. We had met previously, so I had certain, shall we say, expectations of how our visit would go. Hmmm . . . little did I know. . .

Ms Iris is a lovely lady from Matthew Christopher's 2010 collection. She is quite charming, sweet and demure, yet sophisticated with elegance and wit.

When Ms Iris first enters the room, all eyes are drawn to her delicately framed decollete', where her petals frame her bodice. Her crisp ivory taffeta announces her arrival with a fresh swish of fabric.

 

One gets a sense that Ms Iris is the perfect lady.

Then, she turns around . . .

and we see her true personality.

Though still quite lovely, and very much a lady, we start to see a certain, well, vanity.

Her petals spread out around her, seemingly in an effort to swallow all within reach. Her stuborn-ness comes alive when I try to fashion her lovely petals into a bustle. She definitely needs taming, and we are now in a battle to see who will win.

Though I would never allow her to hear me say it, she is a bit . . . well, bottom heavy.

So, before I could attack her bustle, I knew she would need a little reinforcement. I added an extra panel of her silk taffeta to her 'underside', where the upper ribbons would be sewn. My goodness! What a stink she put up! You would have thought she'd never had anyone see her underskirts before!

First, I attached 3 heavy grosgrain ribbons to her petal center. She fought me every stitch of the way, until I had bloody fingers, broken needles, broken thread, and sweat dripping down my forehead. She had been hiding a good inch to 1 1/4" of thickness beneath her petal. But I won this first battle, with my trusty weapon - a needle nose pliers. Then, I attached 3 more of the ribbons at the back seam -

where they will hide under her 'secret' panel when her bustle is down.

Here are her ties done up -

and here, I have re-directed a couple of her petals to camouflage my dirty work, as she would call it.

Once this major battle was won, she seemed to calm down a bit and wasn't quite so obstinate about her make over.

She still needed pockets, which she fought me on for awhile, but again, I won. By the time I got to attaching her new buttons . . .

she seemed to have accepted the fact that no matter what I might do to her, she was still going to be the most beautiful lady in the room.

If You Liked the 16 Pt Bustle - How About This!

I love bustles! They can make a wedding gown go from just pretty to fabulous! I especially love tiered french bustles. They look so elegant. They are perfect for very full skirts. The 16 point bustle I did  a few posts ago was just such a bustle. Full skirt that made a beautiful tiered bustle. 

Today I bustled a gown that topped the 16 pointer. This is another Justin Alexander Couture Gown. It is much fuller than the earlier gown, thus needing more bustle points. 

Figuring out where they would all go ended up taking more time than I expected. Lots of measurement taking, marking,  re-measuring, and rechecking. In order to get an even look all the way around, it is important to mark the bustles symmetrically on each side from the center back.
Each bustle is marked with color coordinated pins which are then replaces with matching ribbons.

 I was a little concerned that I would have enough different colored ribbons so I wouldn't have to use any of them more than once. Fortunately I had recently purchased a huge supply of ribbon, and had plenty!

Here is a view of the bustles all tied up -

And here is the finished view -

4 1/2  hours, 32 feet of ribbon, and 24 bustle points later, the bustling is finished on this gown.