I had 8 yards of black velvet and 8 years of red-black dupioni silk in storage. In addition, my mom gave me 5 inch red bullion fringe. They coordinated remarkably well.
I am not yet finished with the skirt and will post updates, but here is what I have for pictures so far.
Here is the bustle front apron made of red-black dupioni silk, and sewn to the front panels of the black velvet base skirt. The bottom is trimmed with red fringe and hand pleating.
Hand Pleating
To the right is a very poor picture of the pleating trimming the base of the skirt. When possible, I try to hide straight, boring stitches, and the hand pleating hides the stitching that attached the fringe to the apron. I sewed it on by hand while watching a scary ghost movie, and it made the movie far more tolerable.
Here is the bustle back before the waist band and rigging (I will get to the rigging later). I lined the scalloped ruffle on the bottom. The fringe was sewn on between the right fabric and the lining, so there is no visible stitching. The poufy red skirt part is flat-lined in black tulle. I will be stitching the poufs into place once I have sewn the rigging (stay tuned). The red silk is gathered onto a strip of black twill tape, and then the black velvet train is gathered into that as well. There is a lot of black fabric gathered into the train, and its very heavy.
Since the rigging hasn’t been made yet, I have pinned the black twill tape (not visible) to the bustle underneath. Otherwise, it would just sag down.
Here is a side view, showing the length of the black train. It is not finished. I will be making two draped, fringed, and pleated side panels to go between the apron and the skirt back where that black panel is in the middle of the picture. As of this writing, it is already finished, and will be in the next post.
