Making a bustle out of tulle is a great little sophisticated look and it is easy to do.
Supplies:
- Dance skirt, dance shorts or dance brief
- Tulle
- Thread to match tulle
- Safety pins
- Straight pins
Directions:
1. Choosing the Material
First, pick out the color of tulle you want to use. It could be a matching color, a coordinating color, or a contrasting color. On our sample we used brown dance shorts and ivory tulle.
2.Choosing the placement of the bustle
Place your base piece (in our example, dance shorts) and place it around a pillow to stretch the waist out so you can determine where you want to place the bustle. You want to place it in the center, but if the shorts are not stretched out, you cannot place the bustle where it belongs.
3. Cutting and Gathering the Bustle
Cut a long piece of tulle and then fold it in half vertically. Don’t worry if the edge is a little messy, that can be corrected later. Lay the piece down on a flat surface. Then cut a second layer of tulle. This second piece should be about 2/3 rds the length of the first piece. Lay the second piece on top of the first matching the tops together. Then gather the two pieces together at the top. Just gather the two pieces together in your hand. Next, take a needle with thread that matches the tulle and sew through the gathers. You need to remember that the thread is going to want to pull through the tulle so you need to not let that happen. Leave a portion of the thread hanging out so that the end does not go all the way through. Once you have sewn through the gathers once, go back to the beginning and feed it back through behind the knot and tie it off. Then just weave the needle in and out again making sure you catch all the gathers. You may want to repeat this process to make sure you get all the gathered material. Next, tie the thread it off making sure you catch some of the material in the knot so that it does not come undone.
Next you are going to want to even out the tops and bottoms so the bustle does not end up looking a little funky when it’s on the dance piece. Just lay the bustle down and trim the layers so that they are visually even at the top and bottom of the layers.
4. Pinning and Sewing the Bustle to the Dance Piece
Place the bustle on the dance piece (in this case dance shorts) while it is still stretched around the pillow and position the bustle in the center top. You can either make the bustle narrow or you can stretch it out so that it is a little wider. Then pin the bustle to the dance shorts or skirt leaving approximately three inches of tulle above where the bustle will actually be stitched to the dance shorts or skirt. Watch how the bustle gathers up when you go back and sew it down. Make sure to tie knots every few stitches to ensure that the bustle stays in place if the thread breaks.
5. Trimming the Bustle
Next, smooth and straighten the bustle out and decide what length you want the two layers. Trim the edges of the bottom layer to the length that you want. It is easier if you lay the bustle down on a flat surface when you do the final trimming. Just clean up the edges where necessary. Then do the same with the top layer.
6. Finishing off the Bustle
You will get a fuller look if you just fluff up the layers. You can then take a rhinestone piece and place it across the top of the bustle. Also, you could use a string of pearls or some chains or other fun stuff and put that across the top of the bustle. Just take a look at it, see what you have and play around with everything to create a unique look that you like.
