Pink and Blue Lace Overlay Goodness

** Hi there. :)

Today I wish to take you on a bit of a journey from the start to finish of Ms. N’s Aso-Ebi for a wedding last Saturday (8/15). I had made a dress with overlay before (here) but not one that was fitted and then, bam!!, I had 2 lace overlay dresses in the span of a couple of weeks (see the other one here – yellow and pink). This was new territory as I had never done boning before but I decided this dress needed it.

There was a bit of crying involved but I won’t get ahead of myself. Just enjoy the journey.

Ms. N came by my place with 3 different fabrics for this dress (more on the gold one later; there was another blue fabric that she took back) and a bunch of ideas and Pinterest photos. We finally settled on a mermaid style dress with a sweetheart neckline underneath, cap sleeves and gathered ruffles.

Started with the sweetheart neckline bodice and boning.

Made the lace overlay bodice and attached to the front and back pieces of the main dress.

Started to work on the bottom ruffle and realized it might not be long enough so I sent Ms. N another option: adding the pink lace to the ruffle. She gave me the go-ahead.

Added the lace sleeves and the attached the ruffle (flounce?) to the bodice and it was ready for the first fitting.

After the first fitting, I had to make the following adjustments:

-          Remove the pink lace strip (Ms. N thought it was too much pink and the dress ended up too long; I overestimated her heel height for the day).

-          Add bias binding to all the lace seams (they were too itchy as is).

-          Take in the sides at the hip (the weight-gain plan wasn’t going as planned).

-          Use a longer zipper.

Here’s where the crying (figuratively) came in. I loved this version of the dress and it made me a bit sad to take it apart to make the changes. I wonder if other sewers feel this way sometimes …

We hit a bump when I couldn’t find a longer zipper than what I had used so I sent Ms. N a suggestion on how we could treat the back so that the zipper is lowered: something I used for the back of my lace and ankara peplum top (here).

I stayed up late to make all the alterations and dropped off the finished dress at her home. She wasn't in so I didn't get to see her try it on before the wedding.

Many thanks to Boss for getting a few pictures for me ...

I think she likes the dress :)