The Victorian Bustle Coat

Well, I had a blast with last weeks "A Flower in Your Hair" challenge on Project Toddler Runway.  I had this beautiful flower accessory as my inspiration piece.

Isn't it gorgeous?  You can find it and
lots of other pretty hair accessories at Addison Renee

But to tell you the truth I was pretty bummed when I first saw it.

All I could think was wedding and I didn't really want to design anything inspired by a wedding for a toddler.  It just seemed a bit predictable and boring.

So I started thinking outside the box.

I realized the flower was elegant and classy and sophisticated but then there was this handful of rhinestones that were poured inside screaming diva and super glam!

I went shopping with my little girl for some inspiration and right before I left the house I reached into the back of my closet to pull out my old coat.  It was a bit heavier and it was so cold that day!  This coat was a Christmas present from my husband.  A pretty winter white trench coat.  Over the course of a couple of years, I wore that poor coat out.  It was starting to look dingy and I lost a button and wore it thin in a couple of places but somehow while running around that day I still felt so classy and even a bit glamorous.

Nothing like a white coat... every woman should have one.

And so I started dreaming of a coat I could make for Olivia.

I had never made a coat before and I was feeling very intimidated.  They seemed so structured and it made sense to leave the pattern making to the professionals on this one.  So I started pattern shopping.  I found some that I almost liked on Etsy but the cheapskate in me wouldn't allow me to spend even $5 on a pattern that I knew I was only going to use as a starting point for my own design.

So I grabbed a coat of hers and my winter white coat and got to work.


I used some crummy old fabric that I've been hanging onto just for pattern making and cut pieces that matched the size of Olivia's coat and the general shapes in my coat.

I sewed my pattern pieces together and adjusted where needed and then cut the entire coat apart again.  Now I had a perfect pattern!

I traced my pattern onto a simple winter white fleece I found at Hancocks for only $2.99 a yard!  I doubled it all up so it would look a bit stiff and look more like wool then fleece.

And when I finished it I was happy.

Until I looked my inspiration flower again.

It looked like that beautiful simple white flower 

but it was missing the handful of rhinestones dumped in the center.

And so I cut the back of my dress apart and decided to do something drastic.  Something I have never seen done before.  I decided to bustle the back of that little coat!

I searched high and low for a bustle tutorial I understood and finally found something I thought I could work with here.

I basically ended up cutting out a long rectangle from the back of my coat.  Then I cut a new rectangle to replace it... but the new rectangle was 2x as big.  It was double the width and double the height of the old rectangle!  Then I pleated the rectangle and sewed it back in.

 

 Really it was that simple!!

I had so much fun making this coat and figuring it all out on my own.  That would have been enough for me even if it didn't turn out looking as good as it did.

So when I showed it to my 18 month old, Olivia and she dropped every one of her princess dolls and the sippy cup so she could run to me and back herself into the coat, it was the icing on the cake.  She seriously loves this coat and it just makes me grin.

Every girl should have a white coat... with a bustle of course.

 

NOTE:  Want to make your own Victorian Bustle Coat?  I'm in the process of writing a pattern and tutorial (FOR FREE!!) for this but the process looks super lengthy so it could be a while.  But if you've got your heart set on making one for your little girl let me know and as soon as I finish it I can shoot you an email and let you know I've finished it... or I guess you could just become a follower!  Or better yet do both!