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The Austrian Bustle

This gown is Satin Organza. It is a beautiful and flowing fabric, but does not take well to the regular bustle styles I mostly use. Through much discussion with the bride we tried many creative ways to pick-up the train but could find one she liked. I told the bride I had heard of an Austrian Bustle but had never seen one. We decided to try rigging the train into an Austrian shade effect.

I put the skirt on the dress form inside out and pinned up the Taffeta lining which was the right length already. I carefully sewed metal eyes along the back and princess seamlines at 3" intervals making sure to catch both the Satin Organza and the softer Organza liner layer.

I threaded a length of 1/8" ribbon through the eyes and knotted it at the bottom eye. Pulling on the top of the row of eyes gathers the seams to a point where it created a drape at the hem that I could set to any height I wished by knotting the ribbon to the top eye. I marked the placement of the knot with a red dot on the ribbon.

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  • Lace, trumpet style wedding dress

    added April 2010


    Hello, 

    I have a lace, trumpet style wedding dress. 


    http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplayView?storeId=10052&catalogId=10051&categoryId=3001516¤tIdx=86&subCategory=-49999486%257c3001447%257c3001516&catentryId=6097085&sort=


    I love the photos of the Austrian bustle that I found on your website. I am wondering if that is possible to do with a lace dress. If not, do you have any suggestions for what might work best with my dress.


    Thank you, 

    Brittany 


    Hi Brittany,


    Sure. I think it would look great. The drapings may sit lower on your gown than the one I have pictured on my site because your gown is snugger in the hip area, but I think you will like the result.


    ~Lea

  • Modified Austrian Bustle

    added March 2007


    Hi Leanna,


    I got your DVD yesterday and watched it this morning. I am making my future daughter in law's wedding dress. It is basically pretty simple. It is a princess cut heart shaped strapless. The bodice will be embellished with a bugle bead braid around the top of the bodice and other beaded appliques around the whole top and then coming to a point in the front and in the back to the end of the zipper or just below. The zipper is only nine inches long. The bugle bead braid will be repeated around the entire hem and then there will be clusters of the appliques that I create for the top above the hemline. 


    The dress is pretty plain. In the back we have a center seam; a seam connecting the center back to the side back; a seam connecting the side back to the side front. 


    Sarah would like the tufted bustle. I thought I would have to do the bustle from underneath since there are no appliques in most of the skirt to hide hooks or loops or whatever. When she had her muslin sample on, I just kind of grabbed and tucked the fabric along the seam lines. There were 15 tucks. She really liked how that looked. In fact, it gave the dress a whole different look from when the train is down. 


    My question to you is: what is the best way to get this affect? Should I go from underneath? I'm assuming yes. Any suggestions on how to make this work. The dress is fully lined with the lining being a separate piece of fabric. It is like an attached slip. So I have to pick up both fabrics. She lives in the Seattle area and I'm here in Illinois. She will be in town next weekend for her shower so this will be the first time for her to try on the real dress. I'm planning on having the tufted bustle pinned up so she can see how it will look. But I know I can't do any more until we have the dress hemmed. 


    Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.


    Take care. Fran 


    You could do a modified Austrian Bustle. I just put pictures up of one I did on the Bustle page. You can sew three or four eyes about 2" apart in the areas where you want to create the tufts, thread the ribbons through them and tie each separately to create the tuffs that will look like they are sewn from underneath. It could be very stunning.

    ~Lea


  • "French" or "Austrian"

    added March 2006


    The woman who is doing the alterations on my wedding dress is struggling with how to make my bustle. When I was in the bridal salon where I bought my dress, they showed me an "austrian bustle" with my dress and I thought it looked fantastic! I was hoping to have that type of bustle for my dress, however, my seamstress is not an expert with wedding dress, though she is quite talented. Do you have any advice on how to make an austrian bustle...it reminds me of the french bustle on your website...is it the same one?


    Thank you for your help!


    Lynn


    They could easily be calling a French Bustle Austrian not knowing the difference. You can tell your seamstress about my site and the pictures on it. She can order my DVD if she likes to learn how to do the bustles I do. I can not instruct you on how other people do things. 


    ~Lea


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