Butterick Bustle Pattern 3737

I NEEDED a bustle to go with my bloomers.  I used Butterick Pattern 3737.  Since I've got a never ending stash of quilting cottons, I used those, plus, the fabric matches the bloomers.  Most of my scraps are a quarter yard or less, so I had to use a different color for each tier.  Unlike the pattern suggested, I actually hemmed all of the flounces.  So many ruffles! Also, I enlarged the pattern significantly to fit all the way around my hips. 

Here you can see the circle flounces cut and ready to be sewn. I made my circles a little larger than the ones in the pattern, both on the inside and outside.

Here's one strand of flounces with the hem pinned.  This is about 4 and a half circles.  You can see how long it is.

Here's a shot of me trying on the unfinished bustle with the first 3 rows of flounces sewn on.  I pinned it to my sweater because there's no waistband yet.  I kind of like the look of 3 rows of flounces.  I think if I do something like this again, I'll just use 3 rows of flounces instead of 7.  More isn't always better, especially when it's more work.

Here you can see how many pins I used to hem each ruffle, pinned about every half inch.  I found that this kind of pinning is a good activity to do while watching TV or hanging out with my friends.  I also learned that I needed fewer pins on the bias than when I hit the straight grain. 

Here's the finished bustle. The shaping fit when I wore it around my waist, but that's not how you wear a bustle.  You wear them on your hips, and there, it didn't fit quite right, and it caused the back to droop in an unsightly way, so I stuffed the lining with some really thick polyester batting, and I quilted it onto the facing with three or four lines of machine stitching.  So, now it doesn't droop when I wear it.  As you can see, the thing stands up completely by itself, and with all that batting, it keeps my bum warm.  What I learned:  I learned that you can make an easy waistband with two layers of grossgrain ribbon.  I learned that you can make ruffles from circles instead of strips.  This way, you don't need to gather, which is nice.

And now for the artsy shot.