Combined with the HSF challenge nr 13 I decided to make a victorian bustle. After all I had about two days to complete both the bustle and the challenge piece before the photoshoot.

And in case you wonder why I’m constantly in a “last minute” rush before the photos is to be taken – it is for a purpose. I deliberately set the dates for the photoshoots a bit too tight for me to finish the intended garnment. If I didn’t, I’d just make something new up and be even more stressed out to get even this new piece finished before the shoot. So a bit stressed and one night of crazy sewing before each shoot is better than super stressed out and several nights of crazy sewing.

To get back on track – I just added a bustle to the pieces to be done in two days time (see – too much time left).

For the pattern I used The American Duchess bustle pattern and tutorial.

Here are the picture of her finished bustle.

I used a “dusty turqouise” cotton twill, and some black ribbons (to match the challenge piece). I quickly sewed it up, put in the steel boning and tried it on my sister…

…and it looked horrible.

It was way too big, and didn’t look neat and pretty at all. I tried to pin away some of the excess fabric at the sides but it didn’t help.

So I picked up my cutting tools and cut off 20 cm off all of the metal boning, then I sewed the bustle together again and made it much smaller than before.

And this time it looked just right.

This picture is from the photoshoot me and my sister had of the HSF challenge 13, which I will tell you more about next time.