Stella the Sassy Steampunk Bustle

A good friend, who shows her (amazing!) art wares at steampunk events,  asked me if I would be willing to make her a bustle.   Hmmmmm......   She said she would send me all of the materials, and give me total freedom to do anything I wanted with them - the wilder, funkier, and crazier, the better! With terms like that, how could I resist?  And as she says, she "wanted the bustle to wear at art festivals since a drab artist is no fun at all."  Here is her website, Camryn Forrest Designs - she makes the most unique and intricate and beautiful waterglobes/snowglobes/art creations - each one is an experience!  She has an Etsy Shop as well - Camryn Forrest on Etsy   Check it out!

Since everything I knew about bustles could fit through an eyelet on a corset, I had a bit of research to do.   I had lots of fabulous fantasy pictures rolling around my brain, but construction-wise...hmmmmmm....  I nearly got permanently stalled at step one, how to do the waistband.  Waistband?  Hipband?  Straight?  Curved?  Stretchy material?  Stable?  Would it fit over the corset or under it?  Could I make something that could fit at either the waist or the hip?  What kind of closure?   Once I got through all of that (we decided to do a waistband that would fit over the corset), and I had the band made, the fun began!!!

And oh.  my.  Did I ever have fun with this!

The Evolution:

I wanted to drape a base fabric from the waistband, and figured out how to do this by attaching strips of binding from the band:

There's something just a tad obscene about this pic,
but  you have to start somewhere...

Then attached the base fabric to the waistband

Next I just started draping and pinning and sewing and playing and planning...
and generally staying up way too late having too much fun!  :D

It's starting to take shape..... (everything is just pinned at this point)

In spite of my friend insisting that she would love whatever I did, when you're sewing for someone else....well, you know how it can be....   I was overloading her with pictures, saying, "What about this?  Let me know what you think...too much?  too little?...more of this?   less of that?   She was oohing and ahhing over every little thing I did, and I think that eventually I DID start to believe that she really liked whatever I was doing :D

And.....the completed Stella:  (UPDATE:  Egged on by a comment from Camryn - quote "More is more" /quote, I...welllll....added more :D.   And tweaked a bit here and there, so I'm replacing the formerly finished Stella photos with the really (for now) finished Stella:

Eventually I will (hopefully!) have some pics of Stella being worn in full regalia.  :D

Oh, and I've been talked in to making some more, too.  Twisted my arm, really hard, she did  (not).  ;-D

Hope you're having fun, whatever you're "working" on  in your creative space...... :-)