How To French Bustle a Lace Applique Wedding Gown – Part 3 of 3 Bridal Alterations

The French bustle also known as an under bustle is a suitable bustle for mermaid or trumpet shaped wedding gowns.  Here is Ivona and Keith on their special day! This cover photo shows off this beautiful style bustle for her gown. 

I find the 2 best ways of holding up the train is either ribbons sewn on, or hook/eye sets sewn on.  It's not just a matter of slapping them on.  There is much work to do when it comes to bustling.  It is kinder to the bride if you can take her measurements, pad up your dress form and take the time to find the bustle placement.  Otherwise, she will so hot and exhausted from standing! 

In this tutorial, I will cover how I created the bustle for this gown.  I’ll go over the marking as well as the sewing process.  I also included my video from Facebook on how to bustle this gown.  It’s important to do a demonstration so the bride can record a video to show whoever will help her bustle the gown before the reception.

This was another wedding gown from Luxe Redux Bridal I altered for the bride, Ivona. The gown is a trumpet shape with a fishtail train.  The entire gown is mesh lace overlay with floral/leaf applique all over.  Two layers of white chiffon are underneath.  
The following video is the bustle demo we put together! Thanks for shooting the video, Ivona! Excellent job! 

Here is the gown on my dress form which is padded to Ivona's measurements. The red x's are the 3 points I'm going to join to the blue x's. I was surprised it only took 3 points, but it was enough, and it worked beautifully!

I pinned the points together to see how it looked at first. After I was satisfied with the look, I sent Ivona a video so she could approve. All was good!

Here's a side view. You can catch a glimpse of my safety pins holding up the points.

Other side angle.

Close up of the back.

Now it was time to release the pins. Before I released, I took an additional safety pin and lightly attached it to each of the 3 pinpoints on the outside as shown. In a sense, this will be my red X.

This is a shot of underneath the bustle. I also lightly marked each of the 3 pinpoints. These are my blue X's.

The pins holding up the train were released and now I have 6 pins marking the points.

Hard to see, but my pins are placed on the train. Those are my blue X's.

Now it was time to create the inner workings of this bustle. I took some grosgrain ribbon and cut into 6 pieces. I folded them in half and stitched so they were a double thickness.

I snipped the ends a bit near the stitching.

I hand stitched a hook and eye on each ribbon piece as shown.

I attached the hooks on the train at the 3 points. (Blue X's) Next, I'll show you a close up of my stitching.

I needed a strong thread and used upholstery thread and hand stitched each piece to the gown at the points.

My piece of square ribbon is visible through the lace. I wanted to cover it with a piece of applique. When I hemmed the gown, I had plenty applique to use.

I used a little leaf which was perfect. I pinned it in place right over the bustle point.

Hand stitched leaf in place with regular white thread.

Next was a very important step. I needed to dab on some clear adhesive on top of my stitch work. During a lot of dancing or someone stepping on the bride's hem, threads can mysteriously break. I bought this clear Gorilla glue from my local Dollar General.

I dabbed some glue onto a toothpick, then I dabbed it carefully around the stitching. I let it air dry keeping the skirt of the gown inside out. I waited until the next day for it to cure.

After the glue was completely dry, I hooked it together and this is what it looks like from underneath.

I let down the bustled train and here is the final look. If you watch my Facebook video at the beginning of this tutorial, I demonstrate how to bustle it together.

The following are some more photos of the wedding for you to view!