THE MAKING OF A BUSTLE

We thought you might enjoy and benefit from seeing how a bustle is made. When you make yours, be in tune with Creator and yourself, and go with what you feel as far as design and colors.

Here is a list of some supplies you will need: feathers, sinew, shoelaces and/or leather stirps, embroidery threads, beads, long skewer sticks, ribbon, board for making back board, clothes hangers, fisherman's Snap Swivel clips for hooking the tops of the feathers to the tops of the stablization sticks as seen in photo above,

long sticks of some type for mounting your talons or decoration, blank CD, leather scraps for making belt loops, drill and bits, scissors, pliers, tacky glue, hot glue gun with glue, talons or decorations of your choice for the top of your bustle.

Now you are ready to get started...

Sometimes you need to cut the tip of the feather off in order to get the stick into the end of the feather:

When inserting the stick into the feather, have a small amount of glue on the stick before inserting.

I usually put a coaster in the middle and use as a temporary place holder to fan the feathers around so I can see how the feathers will look. The spikes go on top. Then you start from long to small as you work your way down to the bottom of the bustle.

Now to make a design, on your bustle, you have to be creative. I usually cut paper patterns, and with a marker I mark the sticks where the different colors of threads should start and end. You can see that I use my own personal Apache Star design. You will use a design that has special meaning to you and that you come up with for yourself.

The supplies you need to start dressing up your feathers are: feathers, scissors, tacky glue, ribbon and embroidery threads in the colors of your choice.

This video shows the best and fastest ways of applying the thread to dress up your feathers.... winding and sliding the thread. Be sure to notice the small loop of ribbon that is attached to the tip of the feather before the starting of the threading. The beginning of the threading, which is started with a bit of the glue, is what holds the ribbon loop to the feather tip, which will be used to slide your shoestring through in order to join all of the feathers at their base later on during assembly.

These are the supplies needed to hold the feathers together near the bottom of the feather, at the top of your sticks, with the bead color of your choice, sinew and scissors.

This photo shows the process of putting the feathers together with the beads.

Make sure you have plenty of sinew before you start, being sure you have a long enough piece to tie one whole side of the bustle feathers. This shows how to line up the beads on the sinew between the feathers, and if you notice at the end of the feather, you tie a knot just before inserting the three or four beads, and going on to add the next feather.

Now it is time to prepare your back board. The next photos show the basic measurements and the placement of the drilled holes.

The length ~ top to bottom:

The width ~ side to side:

Measurement between holes:

The top holes are for connecting the feathers already assembled with a leather strap or shoelace.

This shows the holes for the wire hangers that hold the feather bustle in an upright position. One set of holes for the left, and one for the right.

This photo shows the leather straps position for placing a belt through to hold to your waist.

You can see how the talons or what you chose to have on the top, are held up by heavy wires. These wires are made from clothes hangers. This is the side of the backboard that will go against your body. Your actual board will be the color of your choice, but for demonstration purposes, I have chosen to show both a black and a yellow back board.

This photo shows the assembly of the back board. The back board can be your color of choice. Attach the PVC coupling with holes drilled into it to fit the holes in the back board with sinew. You will need to also drill holes in a CD to match holes you already have in your PVC coupling to attach it at the same time as you attach the PVC pipe to the back board. You then simply glue the rosette onto the CD.

To finish the back board, hot glue the rosette or the decoration of your choice onto the CD. For demonstration purposes, I have used both a peyote rosette and my own personal design of my Apache Star. Your rosette will be one of your choice that is in your colors and has special meaning to you.

This photo shows the front of the back board with the rosette attached.

This photo shows the tying of the two sides together at the bottom of the bustle with using shoelace or leather strap in the color of your choice that goes with your colors of your bustle.

And again, this is the finished bustle, with the two sides put together onto the back board with the beaded rosette and the sticks with spikes, talons, or the topping of your choice.

We wish you enjoyment in the making of your own bustle. If you have any questions, please use the "CONTACT" button in the menu, and fill out the form and hit SEND. We will answer your questions as soon as possible. Thank you for following along in our demonstration.