Wedding Dress Bustle

If you wondered how to make a simple Wedding Dress Bustle or Make a Pick Up Bustle for a wedding Dress Train, This page gives instructions with pictures on how to sew the bustle on a wedding dress with a simple pick up style bustle. Some wedding dresses will be more suited to an underbustle or a French Bustle Wedding Dress, where the wedding dress train has been tied up underneath the wedding dress to shorten the wedding dress train into puffed layers.

Sometimes a bride can save some money if she has a relative or friend who is handy with a needle to help her by sewing the bustle on her wedding dress for her. We hope the bustle instructions and the pictures on how to sew a bustle below can help guide others on how to bustle a wedding dress with a simple pick up style bustle.

Choosing how to make the bustle on the wedding gown is a matter of the bride's personal preference and in keeping with the appearance of the style of wedding dress.

Example of Wedding Dress Bustle

The wedding dress train pictured had a beautifully beaded train. The pick up style bustle fit in well with the design of this wedding dress and would emphasize the bead work when the wedding dress is bustled. Naturally the bride wants her wedding dress to be just as beautiful when the wedding dress is bustled as it is when the full train is shown.

By having a bustle on her wedding dress, a bride can have the flowing train for the wedding ceremony itself and then be able to dance at her wedding reception with the train of her wedding dress lifted off the floor.

No bride wants to have the back of her wedding dress ripping apart on the dance floor because someone stepped on the train of her wedding dress!

Sewing the simple pick up style wedding dress bustle pictured here in these instructions was for a friend of the family.

To make this style of wedding dress bustle, which is often called a pick up bustle, that is sewing a hook that will be attached to the wedding dress train to lift the train to the back of the wedding dress.

The bride needed to put on the wedding dress in order for us to mark by pin where the hook for the pick up style bustle would be sewn to the wedding dress.

Remember to have the bride wear the shoes she will be wearing for her wedding for her fitting so the bustle is picked up to the right height for her! Just think about the difference bridal slipper flats to three inch heels are going to make for the placement of that pick up bustle.

Tip - To tone down a silver hook from showing up and help the hook blend into the wedding gown, paint it with white nail polish before attaching the hook to the wedding dress.

The hook used in this pick up style bustle was securely attached to the wedding dress by sewing the hook to the wedding dress with woven beading cord as it is stronger than regular thread. Wedding dresses tend to be heavy and the hook for a simple pick up bustle on a wedding dress needs to be secure since all the weight is at one point. (Click on image to enlarge for closer view.)

Once the pick up bustle hook was attached to the wedding dress, then some spangles and beads were added to make it similar to other beaded areas on the train of the wedding dress.

A small cluster of tiny pearls were sewn near the hook of the bustle so that when the wedding dress train is brought up to bustle that is the point to show.

There were tiers on each side of the skirt of the wedding dress that came to points that would also be joined to the pick up style bustle. So technically this pick up style bustle was a three point lift for the wedding dress train.

Thread loops were added to the points so the side tiers lifted also by hooking the loops over the hook before catching the thread bar at the lower back with this particular pick up style wedding dress bustle.

This wedding dress already had a thread bar that had been made at the base of the back opening that the hook would catch onto for the pick up style bustle. (Click on image to enlarge for closer view.)

Thread bar is made by making buttonhole stitches over several strands of of looped thread. This thread bar or thread loop can be used instead of the metal eye of a hook and eye. You can use waxed thread or even dental floss to increase strength in addition to having the thread less likely to tangle.

After the wedding ceremony, the bride could go into the ladies room and have a bridesmaid lift up the train of the wedding dress and hook the bustle in place. Then the bridesmaid can tuck the points of the tiers from the sides in behind the bustle on the wedding dress.

An important side point, always choose undergarments that are skin toned or off white. Bright white undergarments will show up under the wedding dress. Colored undergarments will show under the wedding dress even more so.

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