Bustle experiments

Bustle

When looking into possible underpinnings and bustles that I could use and would be appropriate for my garments I found this and liked how to kept the front of the dress flat, like a traditional Rococo style dress, adding volume else wear.

I liked the fact that it was different from the panniers, showing how the different sisters have their own style and showing individuality between them. This bustle also not being the most recognised or traditional shape for the Rococo style also portrays the character Jos want for more than just being a girl and her perception of society and how she tries to not be involved and indulge in what is expected.I also think that this bustle would work well for her character as it doesn’t restrict movement for her as one of the character who acts more ‘boyish’ it would make sense that this bustle is move practical as it could be during the time for a girl in society. 

For this bustle I did not follow a pattern, blog or video to navigate how to make it. instead I worked on a mannequin and looked at a picture and worked with it physically so I could see the shape that it was creating and adjust to how I thought best suited. This was an interesting way of working as I had to actively figure out how to create the shape of the bustle with the boning and where to add structure as I create a smaller scale bustle compared to what I was following from the picture so I took inspiration from this.

I started by pinning the sides of the boning onto a mannequin, this was difficult as as the boning was too think to pin straight onto the mannequin so I did this onto a piece of fabric on top of the mannequin. When attaching the boning I increased the sizes gradually as I went down so that the largest part of the bustle would be at the bottom of this shape. This would make sure that the created shape is appropriate for the bustle emphasising on the bottom. 

I taped the middle of the boning to try and replicate how it would attach with the fabric tape holding it together. This made me realise that this is not enough support for the structure so that I will need to add more boning or fabric tape in different positions to hold the shape up.To help the structure stay up I added a boning piece in a similar way that I had seen from my reference image, this worked well to keep the boning shape up as it is holding the widest points of the boning out and up where it should hit on the body.

I originally tried to tape the top boning pieces to the mannequin but this distorted the shape and I could tell that it needed more support in the middle of the bustle the whole way down. After deciding that the boning needed fabric tape to support the middle, I numbered the boning pieces from top to bottom to make sure that they would be sewn in order from shortest to longest piece, to ensure that the shape gets bigger as you go down. 

When sewing the fabric tape onto the boning I positioned the boning to be sewn in increments going up to allow the boning to drop downwards to create the shape. Once this was done I have seen other bustles, whilst talking to a colleague, that who made a similar structure that she has made and overlapped the boning so that what seems like boning piece one in the middle is down to position three on the side. This makes the boning more stable and hold the shape as of the doubled strength and being anchored down. When sewing this and then trying to see it on the mannequin was challenging as the ends of the boning did not want to stay in place, this mean tit was hard to see the results of what I had just sewn. To fix this I sewd fabric tape either side of the boning edges to allow it to sit flat on the mannequin and body. 

Hip pads/ Bum roll

When I first made this it was with the intent to be a traditional bum roll with the padding at the top normally sitting over the bottom. This did work as expected but then I thought about if it was over the hips it suggests the same shape as the panniers but in a subtler way with the less harsh structure and amount of volume.

I think this suits the character Beth well as it shows of her characteristics of being shyer the smaller pannier shapes suggests her not wanted to stand out as much. This will also create a shape on the hips without the same shape making each dress have a different shape so that they eahc stand out.

For this pad I drew a shape that I thought suited the shape of the bum roll and cut this out twice for the front and the back. I added fabric tape either side of the rod so that it could be attached round the waist to hold it in place. This shape has worked well as it moulds to the body and sit naturally where it should without looking too much like an introduction.