Adding to the fabric stash

I do love a good fabric sale, and Fabricland had a good one where I picked up a few things for works-in-progress, as well as *ahem* a few things that just jumped out at me…

Here’s hoping that by posting them on here, I’m motivated to find the time to make things with them!

gorgeous satins

First up a trio of gorgeous satins – these are so nice to the touch!  I have two bedroom ‘sets’ of linens – one is blue and white, while the other is red and gold.  The silver satin will be paired with some blue satin I already have for blue and silver pillowcases, while the red and gold will make up another set of pillowcases. I’ve used satin pillowcases for years because they are supposed to be more gentle on your hair and cause less overall hair loss (which happens naturally anyways…)

Shopping: Marshall Fabrics

In the continuing saga of posting old photos while I’m clearing off my computer, I have a super-quick post about Marshall Discount Fabrics in Edmonton.

Quick iPhone photo inside Marshalls

I was up there about a year ago, so who knows what it is like now, but I was actually kind of disapointed.  I had expected something like Dressew in Vancouver, but they had far less selection, and the prices weren’t nearly as good.  They also weren’t as well organized it seemed (which is saying a lot, since Dressew often seems to be a fabric-war-zone!).  Still, I did get some really pretty black and pink striped taffeta (which no, I STILL haven’t done anything with yet…)

Would I go there again – sure.  Would I make a POINT of going there if I wasn’t anywhere in the area or didn’t have a ride? No.  I can see the appeal for the costuming crowd though – lots of fun fur, spandex and other shiny things, though the price point wasn’t as fantastic as I would have hoped for a “discount” fabric store.

They also have Lethbridge and Winnipeg locations – if you’ve been to more than one, leave a comment about how they stack up against one another!

Marshall Fabrics
10003 63rd Ave
Edmonton, AB
T6E 4Z2

Shopping: Estee’s Fabrics and Notions

I have been on a bit of an old-photo binge – and here’s one more post that really should have been written AGES ago, but I never did get around to it.

When I was in Edmonton back last summer, I was checking out fabric stores, and while I was actually heading to a quilting store – we found ourself a block over at Estee’s Fabrics and Notions.

Super-quick interior shot of Estee’s on my iPhone.

They specialize in bridal and formalwear fabrics, but also have a nice selection of very high-end fashion fabrics as well.  With the price points and the quality, it’s not surprising that I found a lot of their fabrics seemed a bit ‘old’. (Not that the fabrics themselves were old or out of date, but rather that they would be more suitable for a more mature client…)

Super-quick button shot of Estee’s on my iPhone.

They also have a small selection of beautiful buttons – really high-quality notions – a bit beyond my price point frankly. (Most of the buttons pictured above are in the $10-20 PER BUTTON range…) I did however end up stalking their clearance/sale section which was actually fairly large considering – and bought some silk that was on sale…

Estee’s Fabrics and Notions
4443 99 Street NW
Edmonton, AB T6E5B6
(888) 468-7159

Grandmother’s fabric sale

Last year I talked about the fabric sale where the proceeds  go to the Stephen Lewis Foundation’s Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign.  This year on April 14 I went again.

This time around I didn’t pick up nearly as much as last year… but I still picked up some lovely things – for next to nothing!  If I wasn’t so specific about what I like, and love to shop for fabric WAY more frequently than once a year…. it would be financially AMAZING to make this sale my one-stop-shop…  Oh..the fact that I can only see about half of what they have because it is so insanely swampped with people in there might also be a bit of a disadvantage…

(This year I didn’t even make it into the yarn area or the quilting area or the crafts area because it was so packed – and because I was dedicated to keep my purchases under 2 bags…)

April 14 "haul" from the charity fabric sale

This year, my ‘haul’ came to the whopping total of $14.50 and I picked up (from bottom up in the photo):

• 4 m of super-soft thin navy blue wool coating
• 3m of striped silvery-blue cotton velvet (which SHOULD match/coordinate with another piece of velvet that I already have)
• 3m of Wedgwood-blue silk noil
• 4m of taupe embroidered cotton (which I will test first, and then likely dye darker)
• 3m of silver fabric striped with dark grey and white. I THINK this is silk, but I need to test it.
• 3m of semi-sheer rose blouse-weight polyester. I picked this one up and put it down three times – and finally grabbed it because it was all of 2$ and how could I deny it? Haha
• 6+/-m of bridal elastic loop trim.

There was also a piece of black, white and grey chunky weave/knit that jumped out at me when I first arrived… but minutes later when I went to claim it – it was gone! That will teach me!

Yep, this time around, unlike last year I mostly kept to my regular colour scheme.  Oh, and I’ve hardly used anything that I bought last year.  *sighs*  (What I did use was for decorations much more than for sewing….. )

This year, I did take a bunch of my OWN de-stashed fabrics to the sale… though doubtfully enough to make room for these new purchases!

If you’re in Calgary – did you get to the sale?  Do you know of others like this one that happen around town?  If you’re not from Calgary – are there similar sales in your area – super low prices for a good cause?  Let me know in the comments below!

Fabric shopping in Maui

Yep, Maui!  As I write this (this is a scheduled post, so it won’t go up until after I get back.. privacy, youknow?) I’m sitting in a hotel room in Maui, Hawaii, and got back today from a shopping trip to Kahului where I visited three different fabric stores, and thought that I’d share my experiences, along with the fabrics I’ll be bringing back home to Calgary to add to the stash.

Sew Special

Fabric from Sew Special

My first stop was Sew Special, located in the Kaahumanu Center.  This is inside a lovely open-air mall, and it’s a regular retail-sized store.  (Rather than one of the big fabric stores that I’ve visited elsewhere.)  It’s very clean and well-organized, with reasonably good space between the aisles.  It’s largely a quilting shop, with patterns, quilting fabrics, some notions, and a small section of dress fabrics in the back.  I found the quilting kits really attractive (especially the sashiko quilting pattern + fabric kits) but on the expensive side.  (The one I was looking at was a beautiful sea turtle, wall hanging, but it was $63.00 so it stayed on the shelf…).  The staff were really friendly and helpful (especially showing us lots of owl-print fabrics when I commented on a few cute ones near the cutting table), but not pushy in any way.

Finished quilted panel from Sew Special (shot with my iPhone). Click for larger photo

However, I did pick up a few OTHER fabrics at Sew Special – a lovely koi fish print on a teal background (it also came on a black background) ($11.99/yard I think) and three panels (also $11.99/panel I think) one a geisha, one cranes, and the third a tidal wave and a koi. They had the last one made up, which I snapped with my iPhone.  I think that if I hadn’t seen it made up, I might not have picked it up.

One of the fabrics I was looking for was a Hawaiian print for a dress.  They did have some (I think priced at $5.99/yard) but very limited selection, and nothing that really appealed to me.

After going to the Kaahumanu Centre, we headed down the same street to the Maui Mall area – where we thought we’d find Fabric Mart – however after having no luck we popped into a shop and found out that they had moved from the location I had found online… Since I had originally looked up shops last year when we were first planning this trip – I had out-of-date information.  So, we headed to the Kanaha Pond Waterfowl Refuge, and then from there to the Discount Fabric Warehouse on the Hana Highway.

Discount Fabric Warehouse

Fabric from Discount Fabric Warehouse

Finding the Discount Fabric Warehouse was the first challenge, since I hadn’t marked our map with the location before leaving the hotel (and my laptop with GoogleMaps…) and we found TOO many buildings that didn’t have address numbers on them.  Or- at least not very visibly.  Also, although the address makes it sound like the building faces the highway, it doesn’t – so we needed a few passes before figuring out where it was.

Upon entry, there was a very friendly shop clerk, but later on when I was shopping, I found the staff less helpful than I really wanted.  I liked the turtle print above – but only found it in orange.  I asked if they had any other colours, and was told that I would need to look through what they had for it.  Their selection of Hawaiian print fabrics wasn’t extensive – but they were all very well displayed and easy to look at.  Most clerks at fabric stores I’m accustomed to have at least some idea of the fabrics they have if they have it in multiple colours, so I didn’t think it was a strange request… but eventually I found mustard yellow, brown, and then finally the green above.  I was really looking for a navy blue, plum, red, or black – something more in my colour scheme, but I couldn’t find any.  The Hawaiian fabric was between $4.99 and $5.99 per yard.

I also picked up a panel of the Mt. Fuji print which I have the sneaking suspicion that I might already have, since I saw it a while back and really liked it….  I also saw a number of Asian prints, mostly priced at $5.99/yard) including some different sushi prints that I really liked.  There was the sushi print with the names above on blue and red, plus the sushi meal print directly below in red, blue, and this grey/black, and the one below it (sushi without names) in black and red.

I ended picking up 4 yards of the one on the very bottom… kind of thinking of the Steampunk In Tokyo costume idea… though I haven’t really fleshed out yet what that will be…

Fabric from Discount Fabric Warehouse

Discount Fabric Warehouse has a fairly large selection of fabric, but at least half are cottons or poly-cotton blends. (So very quilting-friendly.)  There were a lot of dress and costume fabrics as well, but not a lot of colour ways.  The prices were generally slightly better than Sew Special, though there were a few items that I liked, but found a bit too expensive to pick up.  (A nice devore satin for starters…) They also had a few gorgeous colours of spandex velvet ($15.99/yard) which I toyed with… but I’d want at least 4 yards, and that would start getting really heavy and bulky to pack to come home again.  (I only packed my suitcase 2/3 full on the flight here though!)   Although most of the fabrics seemed to be priced just slightly better than Sew Special – I did find some of the same fabric I’d bought earlier – and instead of $11.99/yard, it was $13.99/yard – so ‘discount’ might not be entirely accurate!  It appears from their website that Discount Fabric Warehouse is a chain on several of the islands.  The shop also had a small pattern section and a small notions section too.

Fabric Mart

Fabric from Fabric Mart

Finally, as we were heading out of town, we saw Fabric Mart on the road heading out of town! Such good luck!  This is a shop crammed full of fabric – much of which is in the window (ak! sunshine = sun bleaching!) and much of it on shelves completely out of sight and relatively inaccessible.  There is a HUGE selection of Hawaiian prints – think of a colour, and they’ll have it.  Think of a (typical) motif – they’ll have it! (Mind you, I didn’t see any of the turtle print I had picked up just a few blocks earlier – but Fabric Mart is so stuffed, it’s entirely possible that I just couldn’t see it under all of the others. The Hawaiian print fabrics were also the best price I’ve seen so far – $2.99-$4.99/yard – with plenty of selection at the lower price.

There’s also a decent quilting fabric section – though equally difficult to browse through, and then a fairly decent fashion fabric section including taffeta, sheers, laces, PVC/vinyl, fun fur, and swimsuit knits.  I really liked some of the glitter PVCs (what fun!) but I don’t think it will wear as well as I would want it to for what I have in mind.  I think it was $14.99 (but don’t quote me on that..).  There was also a small notion section which I found kind of difficult to look through unfortunately, but I really wasn’t looking for anything in particular, and there was nothing special there that I wouldn’t find at home anyways.

Wal-mart

Last time we were in Hawaii (on the big island) I ended up actually picking up some fabric from Wal-Mart (they still have a cut fabric section…).  They had lots of cotton poly prints but also lots of rayons, and I found a few things there I liked.  This time in Maui the Wal-Mart seemed to have 3x the number of bolts of fabric, also the poly-cotton and rayon Hawaiian prints – but unfortunately nothing really appealed to me.  The prices were good – but I don’t remember the exact prices – I think most of the poly-cotton was in the $5.49/yard range, though I could be mistaken.

 Maui Quilt Shop

On a different day we also headed into Kihei, Maui, and hit the Maui Quilt Shop.  It certainly is a classic Quilt Shop – very small, and packed tight with lots of ideas, samples, fabrics, and patterns.  I found it a little too tight actually, and know that I missed some things that were hidden under other things.  Also, because it was so tight, having just a few other shoppers in there made it very crowded and difficult to get at things.  I really wanted to get a little bit of a beautiful turtle print – but skipped it just because it seemed like such a hassle.

Another disappointment, I could have sworn that I had seen their kits on their website for a very good price, but when I looked back at the website before going – those prices had been removed.  Once there, I found that the prices were not as good as I had hoped – the same Sashiko kit that I had considered at Sew Special for $63.00 was $70.00 at the Maui Quilt Shop; which was just too dear for me to justify.  I did however, pick up a cute little turtle pattern and fabric kit (for $10.xx and $30.xx respectively) but it was only after I had left that I realized why the pattern looked so familiar.  It’s made by a Calgary company! I could have easily picked it up here I’m sure… but oh well!  Sorry no photos – maybe once I have it made up!

Purple toga-like dress

Every year for a number of years (with one or two times I had to miss it) I attended a convention with a Roman theme.  The Friday evening festivities were particularly themed, with a toga party for the meet-and-great.  Each year I aimed to make a new costume – usually hoping to be somewhat in theme, but departing from the normal “bedsheet” which became a staple for the less ambitious.

I thought I’d share some of the process for the purple toga-like dress I made one year.

Initial sketch for the purple toga-like dress

The initial design sketch.

I wanted something that appeared to be one-shouldered, but wasn’t.  Simply because I can’t often get away with not wearing a bra unless I’m also wearing an overbust corset – so this design would have the impression of being one-shouldered, but was actually two.  I wanted a drape effect over the one arm too, and I wanted to take advantage of being able to bead and trim things as well.  My original design also had a silver waist band – but I thought this would end up being  too much fabric, so I skipped it for the final version.  The dress itself I wanted to make to coordinate with a beautiful purple velvet mask I have.

Purple fabrics for the purple toga-dress

The purple fabrics – the lining is just a plain purple silk, while the overlay fabric is a purple netting with attached clear/silver rhinestones.  Both of these fabrics were from Reena Fabric & Saree Centre – as an aside – I went to school with Reena!

Dress (on a way-to-small dressform)

The finished dress (on a too-small dressform, as usual).  The white fabric is an embroidered chiffon (I think from Fabricland, though I forget), while the arm-scarf is purple chiffon (also from Reena’s).  The silver fabric is dupioni silk – I think it was from an Indian fabric store as well.

Close up of the embroidered fabric

Close up photo of the embroidered chiffon, the netting with it’s lining, and the arm drape.

hand beaded on silver silk

On the silver I hand-sewed on silver bugle beads, silver lined clear seed beads, and purple “oil spill” seed beads – they have the effect of changing colours.

Sleeve-esque

The arm drape is trimmed in the same beads, with the corners of the drape falling with tiny beaded tassels.

So, that was one year, another year I made a sheer white sheath (actually a Greek garment called a Chiton) with gold metallic threads running through it, (which I wore a sheer red, and then a red Indian Sari brocade scarf  - called a Stola) another year I made a similar one in a purple sheer with purple sequins (I had a purple sheer Stola for that one).  I actually loaned out the purple one, and still have to get it back!  I also made a one-shoulder gold silk dress with a gold corset to go over it, and have a steampunk-meets-gladiator costume in the ‘work in progress’ file.  Unfortunately, the event has changed a lot, and the time when it’s hosted I have some challenges to attend because of my current job’s annual schedule, so I don’t think I’ll be attending the next one in February 2012. 

Gala fabrics

Gala Fabrics

I made a point of getting to Gala Fabrics while I was in Victoria.  They have a Vancouver location as well which I’ve never been to (and one in Hong Kong too according to their website), but the Victoria location is central and was easy for me to get to during a recent trip.  It’s jam-packed (and yet doesn’t feel to crammed) with gorgeous fabrics from around the world.  If you’re looking for quilting cotton or home decorating fabrics, they have them, but where they really shine is fine fashion fabrics.  Here is where you are going to find shelf after shelf of Chanel-style wool boucle, beautiful laces, gorgeous silk brocades, and a huge selection of fine knits.  One of the more unusual sections (at least for me) was their “eco” fabrics – fabrics from bamboo, hemp, seaweed, and organically-grown cotton.  I loved the feel of some of the tencel fabrics, and was totally tempted by the huge selection of velvets.

"eco" fabrics at Gala

However, the one thing that I knew I could get here, that is tremendously hard to find locally is Millinery Veil material – often called French or Russian netting.  I purchased some from them when they came to Calgary for an annual sewing show, and that was on my must-get list visiting the shop in Victoria.  I purchased the narrow width in brown, red, black, and navy (leaving only the white and ivory behind) and also got some black in the wider width.

Netting from Gala Fabrics

I also couldn’t resist picking up some of this hook and eye tape – featuring extra-large hooks riveted to grosgrain tape (with a satin cover).  The shop owner suggested that this would be good for corsets – I don’t know how strong this will be – but I’m willing to give it a try on corset-like tops to start out with – though I don’t know if I’d trust my cinching to this.. we’ll see!

Cool hook and eye tape from Gala Fabrics

Have you been to Gala Fabrics before?  Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Gala Fabrics
1483 Douglas Street
Victoria, BC V8W 2G2
(250) 389-1312

Quilter’s Dream in Edmonton

While up in Edmonton I popped into a quilting shop called Quilter’s Dream.  I had just come from Earthly Goods, which was a wonderful shop, so I had high expectations.  However those expectations were tempered with some negative comments about less-than-attentive service that I had read online.

Faces swirled for privacy

My experience – wasn’t bad by any means, but wasn’t exceptional either.  The staff paid more attention to my mother by far than me (even when she told them that I was the shopper and she was just hanging out); in fact I don’t know if my presence was ever acknowledged until I went and asked someone about something. With that being said, I also don’t like to be crowded when I’m just looking around.

Well-stocked shelves

There were a lot of really nice quilts on the walls, and the shelves were well stocked and well organized. However, overall I felt uninspired.  Perhaps it was the way that things were arranged, but there didn’t seem to be a lot that really jumped out to me.  I did think about picking up a jelly roll (strips of fabric in coordinating prints and colours), but I have seen them cheaper elsewhere, so I didn’t.

Newspaper print fabric

The one fabric I did really like was the above newspaper kind of print – mostly because it reminded me of the fabric used in the Lip Service steampunk skirt I saw earlier that day.  However, I’d seen it at a shop in Calgary as well (and I think at a lower price point) so I didn’t bother picking that up either.

Quilter's Dream

I visited Quilter’s Dream’s south location – they have two locations in Edmonton.  Have you visited their shop?  Share your impressions in the comments below!

Quilter’s Dream
4359 99 ST NW
Edmonton AB T6E 5E4

Phone: (780) 496-9375
Tollfree: 1-877-373-9464

 

p.s. sorry for the iPhone photos!

Yo-yo Puff & Freckles Quilt Shop

My latest blog-read has been the Mantua Maker by author Ruth Singer – I’m finding her comments about life as a freelance textile artist humorous and insightful, and her artistic and design work inspiring.  Reading it, I got to thinking about Yo-Yo’s… or as she calls them (across the pond in the UK) Suffolk Puffs (largely due to posts like these). All that thinking just festers though, and wasn’t really becoming anything at all, until I popped into a quilting shop that was going out of business – Freckles.  (Previously at frecklesquiltshop.com, but the url has expired with the closing of the shop).  There was ONE Yo-Yo maker (a Clover product) in size extra-large left on the rack of notions.  I grabbed it, and started thinking…

So, the Clover Yo-Yo Maker… it’s really a super-simple little tool – but it makes all the fuss of turning hems and stitching the circles for yo-yo’s together really fast and easy.  My mum was tossing out some fabric (100% cotton floral print) so I snagged it at least to experiment with.  I also picked up a random 2$ grab bag, and in it was a small container of random stray buttons.

You start out with the plastic discs, snap them with some fabric between, trim away the fabric, then start hand-stitching through the discs – basically the discs help you fold the seam allowance while you make the running stitch which, when you pull out the discs, help gather the outside edge of the fabric into the puff.

I picked out three of the buttons, and made up little puff flower-things…

Work in progress

 

I did a bit of online searching for Freckles, and could only find this rant about their service.  I admit, I didn’t have great service there either, though I suppose when a shop is closing, and you are loosing your job, it’s really hard to be cheery!

From Freckles - greens for landscape quilts

blue and two browns also for landscape quilts.. pink to go with a bag

Fat quarters for landscape quilts

 

Fabric combination one for a bag (the dressform and the stripes are from Essentials in Invermere, while the flowers and damask are from Freckles)

Bag possibilities #2 - with the stripes from Essentials in Invermere, and the remaining fabrics from Freckles

So.. next up… I had some ideas of what to use the yo-yos for… but I’ll get to that in another post.

Steampunk sari bustle

I have been inspired a few times by the Multiculturalism for  Steampunk blog, along with the costumes from Dragonfly Designs by Alisa.   From that, I thought about making a steampunk costume using some purple and gold sari fabric that I picked up a few years ago.

Since I didn’t have a lot of the fabric, I thought that the most interesting (and versatile) item to make would be a detachable bustle.  I thought that it would go well as the shot of colour in an otherwise all-black ensemble (goodness knows I have enough of that!) but I also already have a purple velvet skirt it might work with, and a purple top as well that is in the same colour family so it might be somewhat versatile.  I also have a gold corset that I haven’t yet held the fabric up to that might work as well?  I love some of the looks of bustled skirts – but thought that THIS much purple with a fully bustled skirt might be just Too Much Purple…..

There really isn’t a pattern for this (there are plenty available of course, but I didn’t use one) so if you want to follow along and make your own – feel free!  Leave me a comment if you have any questions!

The first challenge of the fabric is to take advantage of the border print along both sides.  The width of the fabric isn’t wide enough for me to pleat up and use with the borders on each side, and the fabric has a cross-wise stripe, which I’d rather have running lengthwise instead.  Since I wanted to pleat up the waist a bit (but not a LOT) I measured the ‘waist’ to be twice what I wanted the finished width to be – which just happened to be perfect for the amount of fabric I had.  (Hurrah for good guessing when making purchases…)

The main body of the fabric cut apart and sewn back together again to form a large rectangle with a border at one edge.

So, to start out I cut the fabric in half, also removing strips to create the waistband.  Then I removed the borders from both sides of one panel of fabric, and off one end of the other.  The two panels (minus their borders) I sewed together, creating an almost-square fabric panel with one border at one end and a horizontal seam as in the photo above.  The three remaining border print strips of fabric I joined together to make a ruffle for the bottom of the bustle.

The rest of my materials - purple broadcloth for the lining, tulle for the interlining, and drapery notions for the drapes of the bustle.

Next up – the hunt for the lining.  My previous bustle had fallen a bit .. flat. It was nice, simple, but didn’t have the POOF I really wanted out of this one.  So, I knew that I wanted to interline it with tulle, which meant lining it with something so that the tulle wouldn’t catch on my skirt or stockings or whatever else I wanted to wear under the bustle.  I didn’t really want to go with a traditional lining fabric (too slippery) so instead I hunted down some purple broadcloth which is ~almost~ the same colour as the purple of the sari fabric.  While I was at the fabric store I also picked up some drapery notions – a tape that has rings already sewn on it (used for making roman blinds) and some drapery cord (also used for the blinds) although I might just use narrow twill tape for the final version like I did with my previous bustle.

I tore and seamed the lining to match the fashion fabric, and then came the tricky part… with renovations in the house, I don’t have a cutting table.  The floor was too low, the bed too soft and wide, an so I settled for doing the rest on the ironing board.  It really illustrated that I REALLY need a good cutting table to make the things I want to make effectively!

Sewing the ring tape down to the layers of fabric

First I laid out the fashion fabric, wrong side up, then the tulle, then the lining, and then finally the ring tape in five panels down the length of the bustle fabric.  I tried pinning, then basting, and then sewed the top and sides, and returned to pinning again.  This was a really frustrating part of the garment.  I ended up having to unpick things a few times because with all of the layers things shifted a lot.  I think that if I were to do this again, I’d make sure my cutting table was available, and perhaps baste the tulle onto the lining first.  I was glad at least that I didn’t plan to sandwich everything – that would have made the process even more difficult!  The tulle was also in three pieces which probably didn’t help.  (Having been rescued from a petticoat/tutu-esque garment that didn’t really work out…)

I thought a bit about how to put these layers together…. did I want to attach the rings to only the exterior and tulle fabrics – then line it so it would be clean and smooth on the inside?  I discounted this because I thought then the lining would bag if I didn’t secure it to the outer fabrics…. and it would make playing with the rings very, very difficult.  Still, perhaps if I had a good dressform to work things out on, and want to do a non-transformable one in the future – it would be nice not to ever see the tapes.  Of course, I could get super -fussy and cover the tape with matching fabric.. (yeah, not going to happen) or use just rings themselves and hand-stitch them on like I did with my black bustle (also not going to happen) but I think I’ll be happy with this result.  The nylon tape will also self-support some of the poofs as well… (Rather than the cotton tape that these rings also come on.)

The interior with all of the rows of ring tape sewn down.

So once that was all done (and mostly looked good… though there are definitely some flaws….) I hemmed and gathered up the long strip of border print, and first straight stitched it, and then serged it to the bustle at the hem.  Since the bustle has (nylon) tulle in it, it won’t respond well to being pressed, so I considered top-stitching the ruffle down, but think that for the time being I can leave it.  I can always go back and top-stitch it later.  To get a nice full ruffle, you should allow for 2.5-3 times the length of the fabric to be gathered.  I have a ruffle foot for my machine – but it’s hidden by our renovations, so I gathered it with a wide and long zig-zag.

The border-print ruffle added to the edge with the border print

Next I looked at the waist area – figured out how wide I wanted it and added in the back pleats.  I started out with fairly deep pleats, but then had to narrow them a bit.  I just start out with pinning them in place, and then once they were the width I wanted, I straight-stitched them to keep them in place.  I didn’t bother serging them down, since they’ll be inside the waistband.  I wanted the bustle to sort of wrap around my hips a bit, since I felt that my other bustle was a bit too small.  This ended up changing mind you as I proceeded.

Pleating at the waist

So next I could see how it was going.  I started by using thread to tie up some of the rings  on the underside of the bustle, and then when I kept tying them and untying them, I switched to using paper clips to arrange the way I was connecting rings.  Once the bustle is ready to go, I’ll switch those to ties.  I fussed around with the depth of the balloons (I can’t think of a better way to describe them…) and how they connected, and with the depth of the skirt itself.

I found that with different placement of the clips I could get different looks – for instance, with one method of clipping the rings, I got something similar to the Truly Victorian 1880′s Butterfly Detachable bustle, where as with other arrangements of the clips I got something more like Truly Victorian’s Bustled Apron Overskirt (without the apron part!)

I ended up wanting to make the bustle less wide than I had originally planned, and will have the sides tucked in, instead of flat against my  sides.  It was kind of hard to fuss with, without a waistband, but I think it will turn out nicely!

Using string to tie up the rings - these were replaced by paper clips after I fussed some more, and will be replaced by cord when the garment is complete and ready to wear.

So… since the renovations have hidden my interfacing, I’ll be putting this one on hold for the time being!  I think that the end result will look something like GraveRobberGirl’s Steamunk/Victorian bustle – (but longer) though I like the idea of being able to move the ties in the rings to different spots to create different effects.

One view of how the puffs will look - I adjusted more from here, fussing around with it, but it gives the idea of what the final version will look like.