Bustle Skirt Day 1

My friend Colleen (@AssignmentEarth on twitter) got a sewing machine for Christmas. She then decided that we should make Bustle Skirts. What is a bustle skirt you ask? Why, this is a bustle skirt:

(picture © Becca K. on www.cutoutandkeep.net)

Did I mention that neither of us knows how to sew? Yeah...

So, since we're actually doing this whole bustle skirt thing, I thought I'd blog about it and provide instructions on how to make a bustle skirt!

STEP 1:

Realize we don't know what the fuck we're doing

Colleen brought her sewing machine over, and we got it all set up (or at least, plugged in) and then proceeded to stare at it for a good half hour.

"Does it bite?"

"I don't know, it looks like it has teeth..."

We decided that we probably wouldn't need to use the sewing machine for a while anyway, and that we should probably figure out the pattern. 

We stared at the pattern for about half an hour trying to figure out what the heck it said. It's another language, I swear, and neither of us really know how to read it. We then got distracted by looking at pictures of other beautiful bustle skirts that we'll never be able to make.

At that point in the process we realized that we didn't actually have all of the supplies we needed. So we took a trip to Michael's to get thread and tailor's tape.

STEP 2:

Get locked out of the house....

Yeah, this step's pretty self-explanatory...

STEP 3:

Call in the Engineer

At this point in the process my boyfriend came over. He's studying Civil Engineering and approaches problems very differently than I do (I'm an English Major). He suggested that we cut the pattern pieces out of newspaper before actually making any cuts in our precious precious fabric. He helped us set up a system of measuring and cutting, which leads us to....

STEP 4:

Actually get shit done!

We got all of the measurements for my bustle skirt and cut the pattern pieces out of newspaper. We laid everything out and suddenly the pattern made a lot more sense. (We also read over it again more carefully). This is going to be a multi-day project, which we knew to begin with. Though it looks like it's going to take a lot longer than we originally thought. We still have to get the measurements and pattern pieces for Colleen's skirt and cut the fabric and ruffle the pieces and... and a lot. We probably could have gotten a bit more done today, but we ran out of newspaper and decided to skip right ahead to:

STEP 5:

Make french fries!

We made fries! It's a very important and delicious part of any project. We were all a bit tired of cutting up newspaper and fries just sounded like a really good idea. (Which they were).

The bustle skirts will get finished at some point. We have to wait until both Colleen and I have time off at the same time, so that we can work on it. It's probably not the best project for easily distracted beginners, but it's been a lot of fun so far, and if we manage to make something wearable and kind of pretty, I'll be really proud of us.

If you'd like to see the actual instructions for the bustle skirt, check them out here:
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/burlesque_bustle_skirt