Bustle Action

This is embarrassingly one of those outfits that took years to complete. My attention span was all over the place, and I lost a lot of interest after it was about 80% assembled.

The inspiration was from Kendra Van Cleave's take on a dress from Patterns of Fashion 1. The elaborately ruched skirt front was my main motivation to make the outfit, and I had an iridescent taffeta that would show off the gathering nicely. Another motivation for the outfit was to make a bustle top that I tried to make once before from an old Peterson's magazine, but I misread the pattern, and it turned out differently. Nice, but not what I initially wanted.

From time to time I would get motivated and attach a collar, set in sleeves, or a hook and eye, but for the most part it sat in my "to be completed" pile. A doll meet finally motivated me to finish, so I put in the snaps, and here we are.

Pictures ahoy!

Here we get Anthea sitting down, and an overall impression of the outfit.

A closeup of the skirt ruching.

The aggressive bustle portion of the top.

An image of the fabric under a flash.