Victorian Bustle Cage

For all you renactors out there, or any of you who just want a really cool Halloween costume, here is Part One of my tutorial on how to build a victorian bustle cage. I'm using a pattern from Truly Victorian, TV101 Revised. I also bought the precut and pretipped boning from them which was totally worth the $8.00 that I paid for it. You will need the pattern, $14.00 from www.trulyvictoian.com. This pattern went together fairly easily. Even a new sewer could put this together. You could make this out of a solid color cotton, but you could also get a little crazy and experiment with a satin flounce and overlay. Maybe eyelet lace or fancy ruffles on the overlay. You could make different overlays and make them interchangable to match your dresses. The sky's the limit. I would still make the actual cage part, where the bones go, out of cotton just because it needs to be able to keep it's shape, plus it will never be seen. Have fun with this and post any questions you have. Brandie