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.

16 Point Bustle

I can't even begin to count how many bustles I have done over the years. And I do love a pretty bustle! I enjoy experimenting and trying to come up with unusual and inventive, creative ways to hold up the train on a bridal gown.
This gown I worked on yesterday was one of the fun ones! Most of the time, it's the gowns with the huge trains that get the creative bustles. This gown is a lovely Signature Justin Alexander ballgown.

Right away I knew that this beautiful gown deserved an elegant bustle that would only enhance the beauty of the lace and not detract from the fullness of the ballgown skirt.
After playing with the skirt for awhile, I decided to do a tiered french bustle. There are 9 points on the top layer, and 7 points on the bottom layer.  Here is the finished look -

And here is what a 16 point bustle looks like from underneath -

There are 16 sets of different colored ribbons that tie together. I like to use pretty printed ribbons when I can. Some of these are plain, but most have either polka dots, stripes, even tiny little cupcakes on them!
French bustles don't have to be confusing or difficult! I use the colored ribbons not only to make it easy to bustle, but to make it fun!!

Back From the Bunny Hole

Remember my adventures in the bunny hole from a few posts ago? I believe I can safely say I am back from the bunny hole. The gown I was working on at the time is finished and delivered.
To refresh your mind - I had been working on a gown for a bride who had received a completely free wedding. The gown she had picked out was a lovely ivory draped and pleated Pronovious gown. It had a halter neck, very fitted to the hips, where it flared out with gathered godets at the sides, flowing into a huge - HUGE train. The first thing she wanted was to change the neckline to a sweetheart strapless. It needed taking in about 1.5 inches at the back; added padded cups, hem and figure out a bustle for this huge train. Oh - and she wanted a lightly beaded belt that was on a different gown. She also got free bridesmaid dresses, flower girl dresses, 2 mother of the bride dresses, shoes, veil, jewelry, cake, flowers, catering, event center, and yes, honeymoon. It was never mentioned to her that alterations were not included in the package. But it became quite obvious that she assumed they were. Perhaps I should have mentioned it sooner, but in all honesty, I didn't realize she was getting everything free of charge until after our first fitting was done and she was gone. At our second fitting, she was feeling quite sick (almost fainted on me) and it didn't get mentioned again. She was to let me know with in 2 weeks after our 2nd fitting how she was coming on her weight (hopefully she would not have gained or lost anymore and I could then go ahead and do the alterations, again). After 3 weeks, I finally contacted her to find out what she wanted me to do as far as taking the dress in again or not. She insisted she didn't have time to come for another fitting so she told me to just do what ever I thought I should do, but to make it unique and special in a way that would be different than any other gown. Hmmm . . . we had only discussed alterations, not design changes.  She asked me to just drop it off at the bridal shop and she would pick it up this week. The wedding is this coming Friday. And could I take it in just a tiny bit more than what I had pinned?
I did the alterations as we had discussed., but no design changes.  I have no idea whether it will fit or not, because, as I mentioned, she didn't come for further fittings. It was at this point that I became quite, well, irritated. She was expecting me to make her dress into some dream version of a dress that even she wasn't sure of. She expected it to fit perfectly, but wasn't willing, or able, to do her part. And she was expecting me to do all this for free. Hours - and I do mean hours. 22 to be exact. That I could have spent working on other gowns for much more appreciative brides.  Frustration set in as it never has before. And while I sat in my chair by my window with her dress in my lap, I decided to just pray about it. And I immediately found peace. I knew what I had to do. Whether or not I could do it cheerfully was another matter entirely. I finished the alterations and delivered it to the store.  I then sent her a message that I hoped she was feeling better, and I hoped the dress was done the way she wanted, and my blessings for a beautiful wedding and happy marriage. I didn't mention any payment. God helped me to see that as He had gifted me with my business, so I could gift her with my services. It was the least I could do to show Him my gratitude. It may not have been done with the most cheerful of hearts, but it was done in obedience. The cheerfulness will follow, I believe. In the meantime, here is the dress -

Here is the front view, finished; changed neckline, cups added, belt added, hemmed, taken in twice, left unbustled in this photo.

                                         A close-up of the bodice with the confiscated belt.

                                                                 The train full length.

The train is bustled here. There are 6 traditional bustle loops across the back of the skirt going to a single button at the right side, and 4 traditional bustle loops from the center back to the left that go to a single button at the center back.
The heavy satin underskirt is held up with 3 french bustles underneath.
It really is a lovely gown, and she will make a lovely bride. I do hope she is feeling well on her special day, and I pray daily for my own  attitude. It is a work in progress.

Down The Rabbit Hole . . .

There is a line in Alice in Wonderland, where the rabbit is running around tyring to find his way screaming, "No time to stop no time to wait, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date!"  Or atleast it goes something like that. Such is my life the last few weeks. I feel like I've been playing catch-up for about a month now. Nothing has been late, but I feel as though I am right  on the verge. Which is why I haven't been doing much posting.
Let's start with where we left off - remember the bustling I promised? Ok -I now have pictures.

Here is the train bustled fairly loosely.

Here it is bustled tigher.

And here is why it is different than what I have done before. This train is HUGE. Very full. To do individual ties for a french bustle, would take many many ties which would get tedious to do up as well as confusing. so, I attached the ribbons, but they are threaded through thread loops, to gather the fabric together, then the ribbon is tied to the coordinating ribbon on the underskirt.

This is the center bustle. I attached the ribbon at the center, then you can see where each end is threaded through a thread loop.

Here is where the two ribbons come together and tie to a third.

This is a view of one of the side bustles. It is threaded through 5 thread loops spread out over about 2 feet of fabric. It will tie to a coordinating ribbon on the underskirt, pulling all the fabric together.

All together, I attached 5 sets of ribbons. Each set is a different color and or fabric of ribbon, so it is easy to see which ribbons go together.

All this to say that when the bride tried it on, she didn't like it. Here is why -

As you can see, from the front, it looks like the dress has wings. Not very attractive. Together we tried to remember exactly how I had originally done it up. It wasn't until after she left and I was playing  with it again that I think I finally came up with  it. All the fabric was pulled over to the right side, on the outside of the dress, where each fold will be attached to a single button on the side. That will leave one piece (which doesn't quite reach to the side) that will have to be attached at the centerback. I'm not liking the look of it attached here, though. I may see about pulling this last fold up underneath into a french bustle instead.

But it is much more flattering from the front!

I first met with this bride about 6 weeks ago. She was a tiny size, and I had to bring the dress down atleast a size to fit. Hemmed about 6 inches, added padded cups, changed it from a halter to a sweetheart strapless, and of course the bustles.

When I met with her last week, she had lost weight - not that she had any to loose. If a strong wind blows, she will disappear. And I have to take to take the dress in more. About 2 more inches at the back, and now also at the waist through the hip area at the side. She has been on medication that has caused her to completely loose her appetite. I told her I am not touching the dress for 2 weeks, at which time I want to hear from her on whether or not she has gained any of the weight back or (God forbid!) lost more. The wedding is in November, so we still have a bit of time.

Ok - back into the bunny hole. I am off to another fitting. It never stops . . .

Bustles, bustles and more bustles!

I have become an expert - in my own mind - at bustling. Last week I lost count of how many I did. I spent countless hours bustling. I ran out of ribbon at one point. I had 2 (or was it 3) gowns in particular that quite honestly gave me headaches. Usually I can whip out a full set of french bustles (meaning up to 6-7 bustle points) in about 1 1/2 hours. I tend to make pretty good money on bustling. Kind of makes up for some of the other alterations I do that never become money makers! Both of these gowns were needing tiered french bustling, which is probably, in my humble opinion, the loveliest of all bustles. Typically  they are not any more difficult than your regular french bustle. What made these different, was that the first one had layers and layers and layers . . . all of different fullness. Each layer (in order to look pretty and not sloppy) needed to be bustled individually. The dress had a total of 11 bustle points. 3 of these were on the main fabric layer, just to pull it up and out of the way; not so much for the look. The rest of the bustle points were for the outer sheer/lace layers. I started with 3 at the top layer, and 5 across the bottom. I so wish I had taken  the time to take a picture of it. It was really beautiful. But I had so much to do and didn't waste a moment.  And for as much time as this dress took, I had to work double time! The bustling on this gown took almost 4 hours.
The next dress I bustled was even worse. A lovely Matthew Christopher gown, simplistic in style (which is an oxymoron for Matthews gowns!), it was actually a 'mistake' he made, but decided to finish it anyway. It is one of his best sellers. The gown is strapless with a sweetheart neckline, very very fitted to mid thigh, where it flares out quite drastically in to a very full 2-layered skirt. There are 3 - 1" bands of silver sequins at the waist and again at the point where the skirt skirt flares out. Again, we decided on a tiered bustle. When I pinned it up at out first fitting, it was a bit sloppy, but it was only to give the bride an idea of what it will look like. However, when I got it home to work on, well, lets just say that the skirt seemed to swell in volume. And to make it worse, the outer layer had no back seam to line up for accuracy in symmetry. With all that fullness falling all over the place, it was almost impossible to get the layers to lay symmetrically upon each other. So, as with the previous gown, I finally decided to tier each layer individually. 4 hours later . . .Makes for more bustling, but also makes for a truly beautiful fall of fabric. Again - in  a rush - no pictures. So sorry!
This next one, though, I will take pictures. HUGE skirt, draped at the sides into pleats and folds with a huge swoop of fabric across the back. Originally, the bride wanted me to just do a couple traditional bustles, swooping the fabric from the  sides to button at the back. Boring. For the drama this dress presents, it needs a much more dramatic bustle. Yesterday I spent another 5 hours simply playing with it. I think I have it figured out. I came up with an idea I haven't seen in bustling before. This is not to say that I have 'invented' a new bustle! But wouldn't that be cool if I did? I'm sure some one somewhere has done it before. But for me it is a new technique.
But you will have to tune back in tomorrow to see what it is! Pictures - i promise!