1830's Bustle, aka "The Butt Ruffle"

Previous posts in completing an 1830's ensemble.
Introduction
1830's Shifts

After having an underpetticoat and a corded petticoat complete (post to come), the next step was a bustle.  Yes, women wore bustles in the 1830's.  They're even called bustles in the Workwoman's Guide as opposed to the 'bum pads' of the 18th century.

Private collection, early 19th century.  One of blonde crinoline and the others of black sateen.

Manchester Galleries, 1833.

National Trust, 1820's.

In fact, the Workwoman's Guide has instructions for three bustles.  One is the more typical bustle of the 1850's and 1860's, sort of a half moon crescent shape, stuffed with down, and then had ties to tie in the front.  The Workwoman's Guide calls this kind of bustle a 'down bustle'.  The text reads, "Some persons wear down bustles (See Fig. 33), which are made of glazed lining muslin.  A flat half circle or oval is cut out, about two nails and a half wide by two nails deep, and another piece, of an oblong shape, rounded at the corners, much longer and deeper, say three-quarters of a yard long by four nails and a half deep, is fulled into the smaller piece on one side, and into a tape on the other or top, thus making a bag to contain the down, which should be either swans or the best goose down."

Another option is similar to the one I did but instead of cording them hems, they Van Dyked them (triangular pinking) similar to the National Trust extant bustle.

Having no down in my stash and no will to actually draw out a draft half circles and oblong pieces, I opted for the other bustle, the ruffled one.  The text about bustles reads, "Bustles are worn by those whose shape requires something to set off the skirt of the gown.  They should not be too large, or they look indelicate, and in bad taste.  They are made of jean, strong calico, and sometimes of glazed calico.  Fig 30 represents a simple bustle of strong calico.  It is composed of one piece the width of the calico, say a yard, and eight nails deep.  This piece is doubled in two, so as to make two flounces, the one four nails and a half long, and the other three and a half.  At one nail from the doubled top make a narrow case to admit of tapes.  The bottoms of the flounces are hemmed with a very thick cord in them.  When worn, the bustle is turned inside out, by which means the frill falls between the other two flounces (see Fig. 32)."

I ended up using canton flannel flat lined with cotton muslin to hide the fuzzy flannel side of the fabric as I had no jean or heavy fabric.  It worked really well.  Fortunately, when making up the bustle, I had more than the Workwoman's Guide to help with the sewing.  Abby Cox from American Duchess had a video blog up on Youtube of her making an 1830's bustle-this exact pattern.  Yay for being able to see someone make it up so that I didn't have to figure out what was going on without detailed illustrations!

I didn't have any thick cord so I used my normal piping cord but three thicknesses of it through each channel.  I did three channels on each end then hemmed it up.  I will say I am not a fan of doing piping channels by hand.  I'm glad there wasn't a lot of it to do!  The pleats were knife pleats (1" pleat with 1 1/2" folded into the pleats) with an inverted box pleat in the center.  I then used cotton twill tape as ties.  Super easy, quick afternoon project!

Enjoy!