Pirate Wedding - Skirt 4 DONE

I can't believe it's been more than a month since my last update! Actually, I can. I got married, had a weekend off, went to my sister's bachelorette party in Galveston the next weekend, continued working like mad on my costume, and then went to her actual wedding last weekend. It was glorious!

So the bustling with ribbons actually didn't work out very well in practice. I finally did what one of my coworkers suggested, and cut the waist hole bigger so that the front would be the length I needed it, and then I knife-pleated the back to the waist tape, sewed in a zipper and some hooks, and was done.

Step 1: Cut the hole bigger. I had to cut it like an oval so that I could keep the length in the back.

Step 2: Pleat it onto waist tape.

Step 3: Sew double-fold bias tape onto waistband to keep fabric from fraying. Install zipper. Try on skirt and discover that even though you were SURE the center back seam was... centered, it and the zipper are now off-center by a couple of inches. Sigh. OH WELL. Try on and decide nobody will notice.

Next post, my full costume!!!

Pirate Wedding - Skirt 4 BUSTLING

Man, there's a lot of stuff to do in the last few weekends before a wedding. Fortunately, that gave me time to mull over my overskirt and toss around bustling ideas in my head. It's almost done! I've worked it out!

What I finally ended up doing was:

1) sewed twill tape inside of the waist to stabilize the fabric.
2) sort of folded the fabric up to shorten it and laid it flat against the waist and sewed it in place.
3) pinched enough fabric on both sides to draw it to the back as a sort of bustle.
4) put a safety pin in place where I will sew ribbons to tie the bustle back.

I think it'll look good! It's longer in the front than I wanted, but I actually don't think it will look disproportionate, especially when I have the corset on. You can see the hem of my petticoat showing underneath the underskirt. I will need to buy some lace to trim it with so it doesn't look so weird.

I was also fretting about the small panel of goldish fabric on the overskirt, and how it looks so different from the more ivory colored fabric. And then I realized... JUST TURN THE SKIRT AROUND SO THAT THE GOLD FABRIC IS IN THE BACK AND COVERED BY THE BUSTLE.

So I just need to sew on the bustle ribbons and then a couple of hooks on the waistband. I should really learn how to install a zipper but my progress on this project has slowed down so much that I can't be bothered with that right now. The opening is on the side but tying back the sides into a bustle hides the opening, which is convenient. I also should put a proper waistband on, but the twill tape will do for now, and the corset will hide the unfinished edges.

I've finished my corset completely... The last part was putting the grommets in for the straps, which I have done!

Last thing to do is make the chemise. Which I really hope I can get done because after my wedding next weekend I will only have two weeks until my sister's wedding, and one of those weeks will be my honeymoon project of putting in a 144-sq ft garden in my backyard with my soon-to-be husband. So likely no sewing that week.

WAIT I just checked the calendar and I will have THREE weeks until my sister's wedding. No problem!

Ways to Bustle a Skirt

So I'm still hemming and hawing about my overskirt. It makes me nervous and anxious. I'm sure I'm thinking it's way more complicated than it actually is. This morning, I remembered that Google is my friend and decided to explore ways to bustle a skirt.

This etsy vendor makes circle skirt bustles and uses drawstring ribbons inside the skirt to hike it up. She also has one with a strap from the waist that can be used to draw up the fabric. Wow, $95 for that? Maybe I should set up an etsy store.

 This one uses ribbon ties on the OUTside of the skirt.

This tutorial uses drawstrings on the sides and pleated & pinned folds in the back.

That looks pretty darn good.

This one uses drapery tape. It looks a little too complicated, but starts out looking simple. But I like the idea of using drapery tape--I bet there's a simpler way to use it for bustling.

This isn't a tutorial on how to bustle a pre-existing skirt, it's how to create a bustle skirt from scratch, but it's so cool I have to include it here.

Here's a page showing all the different ways you can bustle a skirt. Very interesting! The Austrian bustle sounds like it might work for my skirt and looks like this.

That's all I have time for right now, but I have lots of food for thought.