Firstly, I would like to thank the Prada corporation for bringing lace to my attention this season. I had such a great time making this dress! The fabric is from some amazing guipure lace that I bought at B&J when I was in New York last summer. This is a wonderful fabric to work with. Actually, it may not technically be a fabric, as it does not seem to be woven. It’s more like macramé’d. It has an amazing weight to it, and it does not fray when you cut around the motifs. No seam finishes necessary.
I sewed all seams as applique seams, by hand. This sounds sort of extreme, but there really are not that many seams in the dress. Plus, both of my kids were sick last week, so I sat around watching TV with them and hand-sewing my dress. The pattern I used is WOF 10/08, #106. I like the high neck and the cap sleeves.
For the collar, I threaded an elastic thread through so it would hug the neck without choking me.
As a slip, I bought a knit dress at American Apparel. It’s this dress. I stitched the straps down at the back so I won’t have to fiddle with them. I like it because it’s skin-tight, rather than a slip, which will generally hang a little away from the body.
Front
Back
Zipper closed
zipper open
sleeve seam
I put some beading at the neckline. I used glass seed beads and crystal flower-shaped beads. Right at the top of the neckline, there’s some elastic thread to help shape it a bit.
the back dart
the side seam. I fudged a bit to get the bottom motifs to match up at the sides.
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