The Lotta Bustle: Running Around In My Underwear

The tragedy of making period appropriate undergarments is that no one ever gets to see them. All that hard work, and they're always hidden under layers of fabric! Unless you're me, in which case you take every possible opportunity to flaunt your historical skivvies in public. Rather than make a new frock for Friday night at Costume College, I decided to give my "Lotta" bustle its first wearing outside of the sewing room.

Extant "Lotta" bustle from a defunct Ebay sale.

Last year I happened to find a photo of the weirdest, most wonderful extant bustle. I figured it was a strange custom one-off, until I stumbled across a photo of a second surviving example. It had a different number of bones, so it couldn't be the exact same one. Then I noticed the same design hiding in a period print advertisement among several of the more familiar types of bustles. The ad called it the "Lotta" bustle. Intrigued, I dug further and found several patents that described similar contrivances.

Attempting to mock up the Lotta bustle.

This spring I wrote an article for Your Wardrobe Unlocked that involved reproducing and comparing 6 different bustles. (Psst, use my affiliate link to sign up for access!) Of course, one of the six had to be the Lotta bustle, because I am insane.

This is the strangest bustle I have ever made.

Twelve yards of hoop boning, some seventy plus rivets, much frustration, and a pair of very sore hands later- success! I had my New Favorite Bustle. Now if only I had a bustle dress...

Marsh corset worn at Maker Faire, steampunk style.

A fabulous bustle needs some fabulous undies to go along with it, so I paired it with the Marsh Patent Challenge Corset that I made for Foundations Revealed (here's my affiliate link for that site too) and my reproduction of a pair of drawers in my collection. The leather used in the Marsh corset is the same leather I used for the sides of the Lotta bustle, so they match!

That scalloped foxing. That swooping top line. That contrast stitching. YES.

Even better, I got my AMAZEBALLS Balmoral boots from American Duchess just in time to pack them for Coco! (Not an affiliate link; I just really love AD shoes.) What's super comfy all night long, beautiful, and has curves that don't quit? These boots, y'all.
 

Why yes, it is all my hair. I paid for it.

To top it all off, I threw together a Bustle Era updo from a donut, two thick braids, two twists, a few clip in barrel curls, and one of the curly bang clip ins from my crazy Romantic Era hair. If there's interest, I might be able to do a how-to post or video of the process.

Taking it down at the end of the night was... interesting.

I had a blast rocking my undies and hair! I'll be sad to cover them up once I get around to making that dress. Bonus: we discovered that the Lotta bustle has a high carrying capacity, resulting in fits of giggles all night.

A whole "Lotta" junk in that trunk, and absolutely no apologies for that pun.
Photo courtesy of Lauren from American Duchess.

Hey, at least all those snacks were handy when we got hungry.

Romantic Era Confections

Big floofy sleeves? Check. Sari fabric? Check.

Even though sewing errors doomed my attempt to finish the 1890s dress in time for last weekend's ball, I still wanted to go. Trouble is, I didn't have anything from the later end of the Victorian spectrum, so I decided to dig out something from the closet that was similar to what I'd been working on (sari fabric! giant sleeves!) only from the opposite end of the Victorian era. It's a good thing PEERS isn't overly picky about sticking to the costuming theme!

Remember this old pink romantic thing from two years ago? Turns out that it was such a rush job, I never showed you what it looked like after I finished it! I originally threw it together in a week, and it shows. While it will never be anywhere near decent quality, I was able to patch it back together enough for another outing.

They look great before you try to move in them...

The fancy pleated sleeves were one of my early (failed) experiments to recreate those glorious origami confections from that pink romantic era LACMA dress we know and love. These days (and many, many iterations later) I'm much closer to a viable repro sleeve, but at the time this was as close as I could get. They're not full enough, they collapse and pull weirdly, and there's some funkiness with the shape of the underarm portion, but unless you've got your nose in my armpit they look decent for a first wearable try.

Of course, the damn things ripped right out at the underarm during the original wearing, so I sewed in some hasty gussets to give me a little more range of motion. I also mended some other tears, tacked down some bits that never got properly sewed in the first place, and patched the areas where the fabric had frayed so much it had disintegrated.

By range of motion, I mean my right arm can
go about two inches higher that this, tops.

I added a silver silk taffeta sash and bow- something that the original outfit sorely lacked. For whatever reason, the sash takes it from eh-just-some-random-nonspecific-fancy-dress to 1830's hell YEAH.

While the pink dress is fun to wear but is still a bit of a hot mess even with repairs, my hair game for the ball was SPOT ON.

This is the end of night somewhat squashed
version, and it is still EPIC.

Mind you, just before I started my hair, a big storm blew out our power. This was all done by the light of a camp lantern!

To make it even more challenging, I had to find a way to take this towering monstrosity through ferocious rain and wind to get from the house to the car, and car to the venue. The paper bag I used as a shield wasn't quite up to the task, but my hair made it mostly safe and sound. Shoes, not so much...

My front curly sections were quite high and bouncy to start, but after wind, rain, and hours of dancing and sweating, they lost their buoyancy. After the ball I experimented and discovered that I could pin up the bottom-most tails to revive the original look, so that's something I'll keep in mind for next time.

Sad, floof-less curls by the end of the evening.

Floof revived!

All in all, the dress was a sparkly, fun bit of nonsense to wear again, the hair was a great conversation piece, and the night was a success. I love the ridiculous 1830's, so you'll be sure to see more floofy sleeves here in the future!

One last thing before I bail- I've got another bustle article up at Your Wardrobe Unlocked, and this one comes with a free pattern! It's a complete how-to on making a lobster tail bustle with removable bones. Even better, the pattern is not just multi-sized, it's also designed to let you swap out the bustle pattern piece so that you can go bigger or smaller as needed. Go have a look!

Don't sew after midnight

See the mistake?

How about now?

Yeah, that's my combo facing/hem support pinned wrong sides to wrong sides with the skirt. Sewed all the way around before realizing it. 

I'm being an adult and allowing myself to let this one go for a few days. I will not completely drain myself struggling to finish the skirt and the as yet un-started bodice in the very little amount of time left before the ball. I'm going to have a nice bit of dinner, snuggle the cats, and watch a comedy or read a book.

I will wear something else to PEERS on Saturday, and will not bemoan my lack of a train or ginormous poofy sleeves. I'll tackle the gown again starting Monday, and will have time to finish it at a far more leisurely pace before the Rite of Spring Ball.

This is progress, yes?

Trained Skirt in Progress

While I finished my petticoat, you'll have to wait till the weekend to see it as I've gotten completely sideswiped by another large, last minute project!

Quality control by Kitteh

I've only squeaked out this quick break to post because I'm waiting for the fray check vapors to clear out of the sewing room. (There's a reason they card you when you buy that stuff!) With luck, I'll have this dress finished for the PEERS Ball this weekend.

Until then, I've only got a few teaser photos of the skirt and its overlay (another sari, who would have guessed?) in progress. 

Square peg, meet round hole

We'll see if I finish the whole shebang on time, or if the fray check does me in first.

Every Day I'm Bustling

2016 is already shaping up to be FAR more productive than the previous year. If I haven't posted here much yet, it's because I've been busy making SO. MANY. BUSTLES. for a Your Wardrobe Unlocked article.

Now including combination bustle/tea service

If you want to break out of the lobster tail mold, or just see what your other options for increasing the square footage of your rear end are, go have a look! I've constructed 6 unique bustles in order to contrast and compare size, shape and wearability, among other things. Included is this fabulous monstrosity-

Have a gander, and I'll see you here next week for some petticoats to cover up all that glorious badonk-a-donk.

Completed Marsh Corset

Woohoo!  The second article is published!  I think the combo of leather and coutil turned out pretty great.

If you subscribe to Foundations Revealed, go take a look at the making of the final 1878 Marsh Patent Corset.  If not, here's some of my favorite articles on the site; take a look and see if a subscription looks more interesting!  (Some are viewable for free, others you'll need to subscribe to access).  If you'd like to subscribe, please use my affiliate link here!

Y&N Diagonally Seamed Corset, Part 1 and Part 2 
Laura's Jelly Fitting Method (shows how to create realistic squishy boobs for your mannequin)
Matching Stripes in Corsetry (Ah-MAZ-ing)
A whole series of courses on bra making
CAD: Corsets are Digitized
Hats and Bonnets from Modern Hats
Draft Your Own Corset Pattern

1878 Marsh Corest Patent

A few months ago, I responded to a post by Foundations Revealed asking for people to take on corset patent challenges.  Last week, the first of my two articles on the 1878 Marsh Corset Patent was published on their site!

It's subscription only, but I have been a member for years before I started writing for them and highly recommend it!  In addition to weekly articles, you get access to their whole back catalog of articles; quite a steal.  If you'd like to subscribe, please use my affiliate link to sign up- Foundation Revealed: The Corset Maker's Companion.

Take a look and let me know what you think.  I can't wait until part 2 goes live; I really like the way the final corset turned out and can't wait for everyone to see it!

All That Glitters

I realized last month that I didn't have the time/money to really splurge and make the intricate silk Romantic Era dress that's been lurking in my brain, and would have to change my plans a bit.  I still wanted something ridiculous and over the top though, so I raided my stash of saris for something obnoxious and awesome.  Problem is, most of the saris I have are so beautiful I'm still afraid to cut into them!  Luckily I found a pink one that I mostly like, but am not so in love with that can't hack it into bits without too much worry.

The sari was sold as "tissue silk", which sounds soft and lovely, but apparently means a loose, coarse weave with a weird stiff drape.  The weave is open enough that its effectively see-through.  It's got a floral brocade-style design woven into it that you can sometimes see in various lights.  It also looks extremely shiny in a super synthetic way, which was really off-putting when I first saw it in person.  However, it does have the most beautiful metal embroidery work on it, so I've been looking for something to do with it.

It's weirdly shiny and kinda stiff.

Despite the "silk" description I was convinced that it was entirely made out of some weird poly fabric due to the super shine and strange hand, but it turns out I was only half right.  On closer inspection it's a cross weave, with a pink synthetic thread in the warp and a silvery metal thread in the weft, which is what gives it that strange shimmer!

Threads separated

Close up of pink and silver cross weave.

I'm fairly anti-synthetic fabric when sewing for myself, but I figured I'd make an exception this once.  I can always call it my Glinda-the-good-witch-meets-the-1830's dress!  So far it's turning out well, despite the fabric handling oddly and being a general PITA to deal with.

Lining up the embroidery with the neckline.

Since the metal embroidery work is hands down the best part of this sari, I'm making sure it gets featured wherever possible.  I'm placing the bulk of the embroidery at the neckline, which was relatively easy on the back, but a little harder to get to work on the front pieces.  I managed it by criss-crossing the front, but had to change the shape of the neckline and cut the shoulders down a bit to make it work. 

 

 

I'm still working on getting the darts right.  Generally I don't cut them out like above, but I had to here b/c there was actually more of the fashion fabric to dart than the lining, and in order to get the two to play nice together it was easier to just cut it up.  The darts are also waaay too low right now, but I'm still trying to figure out how to raise them when I'm running into the embroidery on the right side.

Dart placement way too low; I've since raised it but still need to go higher.

I've still got to finish tweaking the bodice, figure the skirt out and finish solving the mystery of the pleated sleeves from that pink LACMA dress (nearly there!).  I'm also going to need a corded petticoat and some tucked petticoats, and to figure out how on earth I'm going to make a slightly shaggy mohawk into a proper 1830's hairdo.

The back is looking pretty good though!

I've got a week.  Let's do this...

Undressed

I'm just now getting around to photographing the wrapper I started two months ago, and I figured that while I was posting about an undress garment I should show you my current set of mid-Victorian underwear all together too!

A couple of months ago I volunteered to test Laughing Moon's newest wrapper pattern.

BTW, can I take a moment to say I'm in LOVE with pattern companies that actually take the time to test their patterns and correct errors before unleashing them on the public?  I've seen "completed" patterns sold where the pieces REALLY don't fit together (seriously, how is any seamstress supposed to fit a piece 4" long to a piece 2" long smoothly with edges matching, without any gathering, pleating or magic?), patterns with nonsense instructions, drawings that don't match anything, etc.  I don't expect a pattern to fit me right out of the envelope, but if I pay money for it I do expect that it is at least basically functional.  Anyways, rant over, back to pretty things...

Like I said, I got to test out LM Pattern #118.  I pretty much finished it by the end of February and sent in my feedback, but I wanted to add some trim to it before calling it completely done.  I've really been dragging my feet on handsewing the trim though, so I haven't posted about it.  Right now the black velvet ribbon is still only pinned in place, but I wanted to show the wrapper off anyways.  Perhaps posting about it will light a fire under my ass and I'll finish it.

Please note that the copy of the pattern I was sent was an in-progress work, and that there may be differences between it and the final published version.  That's the entire point of testing it!

To our modern eyes wrappers look like a day dress, but to the Victorians they were undress clothing, so they wouldn't normally have been worn out of the house.   However, that's not to say they weren't worn in public by poorer women, or pregnant ladies, or by frontier folk.  This style has a fitted back and a loose front, comes with three different sleeve and collar choices and can be worn several different ways. 

There's a separate lining that can be left loose or darted to fit.  I chose to dart mine, but I fitted it to my non-corseted measurements so that I could wear it with or without a corset, so it's still a little loose here. 

Fitted with belt

Loose with no belt

The front can also be darted to fit, or it can be left loose and fitted with a belt when needed.  If the front was left unfitted, pregnant women could easily wear this same garment for all 9 months by simply letting the belt out as they grew.  (For those who read into such things, please note that the previous sentence about pregnant women is in no way a hint about any future children.  I'll stick to dressing my future nieces and nephews, thanks)  Leaving it loose allows me to wear it with or without a corset, so that's what I chose to do.  I also decided to leave it open below the belt to reveal my petticoat.  It could be closed all the way down, but I didn't feel like sewing that many buttonholes :)

The back fits awkwardly on my mannequin, but just fine on me.  The skirt is cartridge pleated to the back waistband.

I used the standing collar from View B and the coat sleeves from View C.  One of the things I love about the Laughing Moon patterns I've used is that there's often a lot of mix-and-matching you can do. 

I picked up some beautiful black glass buttons at an antique store in Grass Valley some months ago and decided to use them here.  I've blown out the exposure here so that you can see the intricate detail each button has.  Jet was extremely popular in Victorian times, and black glass was a cheap substitute for those who couldn't afford the real thing, so these are perfect!

There's super tiny piping around the armscye.  I LOVE me some tiny piping!

All in all, I'm very much enamored with my new wrapper.  As soon as I've got the trim finished, it will become my everyday around-the-house robe (so much cooler than modern ones!) as well as something I may wear to more rustic events.  If you're in need of a wrapper, I highly recommend the LM #118 pattern.  For more examples of what wrappers can look like, check out JoAnn's Wrappers Pinterest board.

So now that I've shown you my wrapper, what all do I have under there?  Let us peel away the layers one by one...

I used Truly Victorian's free pattern for my petticoat.  I made it with cotton organdy, which gives it loads of body and floof.  It's a total PITA to iron smooth after washing though!

I'm still getting tons of use out of my custom drafted hoop skirt.  It's survived two seasons of dancing at Dickens Fair, as well as several events.  I love the perfect bell shape it has!  For instructions on how to make your own , see my post on drafting a round hoop skirt to whatever shape and dimensions you wish, as well as the post on how to sew up your custom made hoop pattern.  If you make your own, I'd love to see pictures!

 

And still there's more...  Under all that there's a chemise, drawers and corset.  You've seen the blue corset in previous posts, and in all honesty it looks much better on a body than on my poor mannequin, who doesn't have the shape to fill it out.  The drawers are my reproduction of an antique pair.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten my promise to post the pattern!

The chemise is one I made up based off of a mishmash of patterns.  It has a squarish neckline, underarm gussets and lots of tiny pintucks.  Sometimes I wish I wasn't so in love with pintucks, because they're so difficult to do.

That's all the undies I have to show you today.  But not to worry, the future holds lots of bustles and late Victorian underpinnings, plus some Regency underthings as well!