How to Hem and Bustle a Wedding Gown (Under/French Bustle)

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Darann and her gown from Lux Redux. Darann found me from their seamstress list they had. (Which I am grateful for!) Her gown only needed to be hemmed and bustled. Since she lives about 45 minutes away from me, I tried to make it simple for her and just do one fitting which is all we really needed. The gown fit her perfectly except the hem was too long. I took up the hem to the length she wanted. Next step was to take her basic body measurements so I can match them to my dress form.

I used the dress form to bustle the gown as the final step. This way I wouldn’t need her to come back only to the bustle the gown. I also bustled it a few ways to see which style she wanted. I bustled and after each one I sent her some videos. I tried a 3 point over bustle and even a bustle with 10 points, which looked pretty but would be difficult and time consuming to tie up before the reception. We went with the 3 point under bustle. I thought it was a great choice – smart, simple, and elegant.

The following pics are after all of the alterations. She tried the gown on and I took a few pics.

The following pics are final shots of the 3 point under bustle.

At Lux Redux - before alterations side shot

Lux Redux front shot before alterations

Back shot of train at Lux Redux

I pinned up the skirt at the front and past the side seams. Our plan was to keep the train's length.

Before I released the pins in the pic before, I placed small safety pins under the satin at the bottom edge

This is an enclosed hem with hair braid. The lining and satin are attached from the inside along with hair braid. I have to open up a few seams in the lining to do the work from the inside. I chose to open up 4 seams.

Here is the hair braid exposed. This was 3-1/2" wide. My goal was to remove the two rows of stitching on the hair braid, pull it aside and work on the hem.

I used my razor to carefully remove the stitches on the hair braid. This is faster than using a seam ripper for all the stitches. I only use the seam ripper to loosen a couple stitches and the razor takes care of the rest.

Here is the gown fanned out on it's side, so I can examine and even out the length of the new hem. This is good to do so your front and sides are even in length.

The pins at the top are my small safety pins that marked the edge of the hem. This will be my new hem. The straight pins at the bottom will be my cutting line. I prefer not to mark white satin, I like to use pins for marking.

I actually replaced the safety pins with straight pins. Then I started cutting.

Here is where it tapers off past the side seams. I trimmed the excess to a fine point so the new hem blends with the train.

Here's the piece from the front...

Going back past the side seams. I was sure before I cut, that both sides were even.

Here's more of a full view. I had to really stand up high!

I took the hair braid that I pushed aside and started to reattach to the lining. I gave the hem a generous 1" seam allowance in case it needs to be lengthened in the future. I started my first row of stitches near the edge.

When I came to the end, I overlapped the piece to the other one.

I cut the excess hair braid that overlapped.

Here are the overlapped edges up close.

I stitched the other side of the hair braid.

This little jagged edge indicates where the end was cut. I kept it jagged as a marker so I can see where to blend in the seam. After stitching, I trimmed it off.

Here is where I stitched the lining to the satin. This was 1" from the raw edge.

Here is where it tapers to the edge. See the two seams meeting on the right? That is where the new hem meets the original stitching past the side seams.

There is one extra lining underneath attached to a fluffy tulle skirt. During her fitting, the only way I could pin it up was to use safety pins at the top of the tulle and pin the excess lining under. Now that I was ready to shorten all this, I measured the excess which was 4-1/4" all the way around.

My first step was to shorten the lining 4-1/4". I marked this all around with a pencil.

I removed the stitching around the tulle with a razor.

Here is the tulle skirt standing up on it's own.

I flipped the lining (right side up) with the pencil marks 1/4" away from the edge and stitched.

Trimmed excess near the stitching.

Flipped edge over 1/4" wrong side up and stitched.

Since our measurement from the fitting was 4-1/2” that needed hemmed, I hemmed the skirt by the same measurement, and I moved the tulle skirt up the same distance. Sometimes it’s hard to explain in pictures what I’m doing. I thought this little diagram may explain how I planned on reattaching the tulle to the lining skirt.

On the right side is where the old stitching was holding up the tulle. With my gauge, I measured up 4-1/2” and marked with a pencil.

This is where I hand tacked the tulle at the seam points (in my drawn diagram).

I gathered the tulle between the points and stitched.

Now it's time to close up the 4 openings I made in the main lining.

I just pinched the seam closed and sewed close to the edge to close each opening

In order for me to safely press the hem of the satin, I used a press cloth. I set my iron at the lowest steam setting.

The top portion of this button was missing

Fortunately, I had matching buttons on hand in ivory satin. I hand stitched this one with several passes.

The back of the gown had a hook, but the eye was missing. I hand stitched this on.

Now that the hem is finished, it was time for the bustle. I used her measurements and padded my dress form to her size. Then I started playing with a few designs. This is a waterfall under bustle which is 10 points. It looks terrific, but it sure would be a lot of work for the person who will be tying it up.

Here's a side angle. I was still going to send her more pics of a 3 point over and under bustle which is simpler.

Here is a pic of the 3 point over bustle.

Here is the 3 point under bustle. After sending her all the pics, this was the one she wanted. It was a good choice being easier and simpler to tie up before the reception.

side angle....

View further back....

I did another diagram to explain the points and measurements. The anchor points are directly on the back seam. This is where you start pulling up fabric. I first measured from the end of the train at the middle seam to where the gown hits the floor. This is the measurement you will take up at the anchor. I took up more at the anchor because this is a larger train. I wanted the folds to fall in a pleasing way at the sides. Each X at the top is a point. I took the bottom X's and folded the satin and main lining underneath and pinned to the top X point.

This is what it looks like. Here's an up close view of the pins holding the train up. Each bustle point will go through the seam. The stitching will be hidden within the seam.

Next step is to lightly mark each point with a tiny safety pin. I place a pin on top of where the straight pin is.

I went underneath the fold and marked on the straight pin another safety pin.

Now I can release the straight pins and my safety pins remain. Here they are at the top.

....at the bottom anchor left side

...at the bottom anchor right side.

Now it its time to mark another safety pin through the satin and the main lining. The tiny safety pins made handy marks.

Next step was to create ribbons to tie the under bustle. I stitched together two pieces of square felt and made 6 sets total.

I cut six 12" pieces of white grosgrain ribbon and stitched the ends to the middle of the square felt pieces.

Up close look at the pieces. I wanted to make sure and use enough stitches for reinforcement.

Hand tacked the piece at one of the points. I only did this to keep it in place before I machine stitch.

I then used 2 straight pins on the right side to hold the square in place. I made sure the ribbon was not in the way of my stitching and my square was straight. My goal is to stitch between the pins right inside the seam. I did about 11 stitches forward and back stitched the same amount.