I showed you a sneak peek last Friday….and lucklily I finished up the dress early in the weekend and Hannie and I did a fun photoshoot on Saturday afternoon. She was all for getting her hair done, some pink lip gloss and a 15 minute cold photoshoot (not her usual self). And she was a trooper! (I think the pink lip gloss helped her spirits a bit 😉
The inspiration for this dress is a dress my mom wore in a wedding when she was in college (late 60’s — sorry mom for dating you 😉 that my sister and I used to play dress up in. Her dress was a lace bodice and a chocolate brown velvet A-line skirt with a large burnt orage ribbon that tied around the middle.
And I have been dying to make a lace bodice dress (I almost made one when we competed in Project Run and Play), so I was happy to be able to finally get to make one on this dress.
The best part of this dress is that it IS vintage lace, that I bought at a Church Rummage sale late last summer for 50 cents, and there are still a couple of yards of it left. The bottom is a grey-blue satin that I have had in my stash forever. And while I wanted to use that bridesmaid dress as inspiration, I did want it to still feel girly and young and modern. So, I added a gathered skirt instead of an A-line skirt and a much smaller ribbon to just give a hint of color. I also made a bodice with a slight boat neck and lined the whole dress, except for the fitted sleeves, which I finished so they would be pretty from the inside too!
The back has an invisible zipper and I still need to sew the hook and eye on the top (hence the bit of wonky at the top–I was trying to match the lines of the lace). But I can do that this week while decompressing in front of my nightly shows (Downton Abbey this week).
This dress took me a while to sew, much longer than past projects, but it was well worth the efforts (and the unpicking–I kept making the DUMBEST mistakes on this dress….like gathering and sewing the whole skirt on backwards….DUH! That was a massive unpicking session. Whew.)
But seeing my cute girl in vintage lace…is so well worth it!
I can’t wait to see all of your signature looks……
This is beautiful, I love that it is very chic, but also little girl.
The colors, the simplicity. Just lovely. 🙂
Sorry you had to unpick the skirt! I would have shed a quick tear over that.
I really do love that grey,white and yellow combination! It’s a gorgeous dress.
So pretty! I keep thinking about lace covered bodices and dresses, too. It’ll join the million other projects on my “after PR&P” list. 🙂 I don’t think I’d be able to unpick an entire gathered skirt. I’d probably try to figure out a way to turn the bodice back into the front – I guess it’d be kind of hard with that zipper and all, though! Good for you for sticking with it!! The end result certainly paid off!
oh wow – what a gorgeous dress!! The lace is so pretty and it’s perfect paired with the blue and yellow!
It reminds me of the snow white dress. It is so so cute!
PolkaDot
http://www.barefootedintexas.blogspot.com
this is AMAZING!!! I actually have a lace dress as my think pink post for iCandy this Saturday…we must all have lace on the brain – ha!
What I love most about your dress is how I wasn’t expecting it to be a maxi – I love it!!!! Your detail is incredible – as always!
Love the lace and the color combo! 🙂 It turned out beautifully. thanks for keeping it real and telling us about unpicking the skirt, now we can share your pain. 🙂
Beautiful dress!
Love it! I have lace on the brain too. As soon as you announced the signature look for the AHSAL I instantly thought of lace.
LOVE! I love lace and almost used it for my special occasion look for PR&P last week.
LOVE! I love lace and almost used it for my special occasion look for PR&P last week.
This is just beautiful. I love the open lace sleeves. And your model is simply beautiful – such a smile.
Do you have any idea how great it is to hear that you sew things together backwards?! Makes me think there is hope for this sewing hack when I see all the beautiful things you guys come up with. Thanks for keeping it real for the hacks out here. I sewed on a PJ sleeve backwards a few weeks ago.