Bustle Help

[theladyrebecca]

What do you do to keep the sides of a short bustle from collapsing? Since I am poor and can't afford expensive patterns, I was trying to make a wire bustle on my own. It was coming along pretty nicely in it's initial prototype, but I'm having major problems with the sides. At first, I was just using twill tape to attach the hoop wire to (it's just safety pinned right now), but since that kept crumpling up, I decided to make a casing out of the twill tape for a cable tie, thinking that would keep it running straight down. However, with the cable tie in there, it's just bowing out really strangely. I have a couple pieces of twill tape standing in for the ties that will run across inside the bustle, but while they're keeping the wires from spreading out flat, they don't seem to be helping them stay down.


I keep thinking maybe I should just draft out a fabric pattern to encase it all, but I'm not sure that would wind up fixing my problem either. Help please!


This is what it looks like right now.


The side with the cable tie in the casing:






And the side without it. Please ignore the absolute disaster that has exploded in my room.






And here's my sketch for Jane, which is what I will be wearing it under:

Comments

[hharris.livejournal.com]

The Laughing Moon pattern adds 1/4" boning to the edge of the lacing panel, right before the grommets (just like the back of a corset). I think it's necessary as there's quite a bit of of tension once you lace it up.

[theladyrebecca.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I figured it would need some support.