Starting to come together

Ok, I know that I said that I wouldn't touch my sewing until finals were over.  I really did try; honestly I did.  But, in reward for finishing my Microbial Physiology project a week ahead of time, I gave myself 6 hours to sew this weekend.  And sew I did!

I started by searching through my spare scrap box to see if I had an appropriate lace and I found JUST enough of the beautiful white lace that I used for the Sapphire and Snow gown.  I love this lace because it has a lot of character, enough weight that it hangs nicely, and I know that I can manipulate it without it looking funky.  I started by pinning it onto the dress.  I them looked at a few different options for the top edge of the lace.  The photo has a wide border made from the same fabric as the bodice.  I tried this out... ick!  Too much going on.  It really didn't work since the bodice has that beautiful embroidery; it just made it look very very busy.  I scrapped that idea and decided I needed about a half inch trim, probably somewhere in the off white to beige color range to play off the flowers, and I was originally thinking velvet would be nice.  But, no white-ish velvet trim to be found at JoAnn and I didn't want to scrap my hard earned weekend of sewing in a supply issue.  I did find a nice off-white braided trim that worked perfectly with the lace color, so I went with it.  It melded nicely with the neckline, matched the lace brilliantly, and was nice and easy to work with.  Here it is pinned on the bodice in the dress form.

With that decided I started sewing.  This all had to be done by hand with tiny little invisible stitches so that everything looked natural.  If I had done it by machine it would have been a disaster!  Both the upper and lower portions of the braided trim needed to be secured, but the lower stitches also served to anchor the lace to the bodice so it was sorta a two-for-one.

I found a nice way to finish the back portion when I had to work with this lace for the last gown.  Essentially, I cut out one of the lace pattern pieces and use that as an overlay so that the corner comes together nicely.  Once I had it lined up and pinned properly, using tiny little stitches I meld it to the pattern so that you can't tell that it was a different piece of lace.  It just looks like the pattern itself is more ornate in the back portion and it really does come together nicely as you can see.

 Once the lace around the shoulders was completed, it was time to sew all of the button holes.  I have an aversion to buttonholes mostly because they were a nightmare on my old sewing machine.  And there are 16 on this gown, each spaced an inch apart.  But my new machine, a Brother SE400 does keyhole button holes at a single push of a button.  It is fantastic, truly a life saver!  As you can see, the buttonholes are nearly invisible on the outside fabric of the gown, but there is no need to hide them on the lining fabric.

 See, very lovely little perfect keyholes!  This fabric did have some marks that showed up as I sewed the buttonholes.  I think that they way the fabric pulls caused this.  However, on a little rubbing they disappear.

Here is the gown with the lace secured and the buttons finished. I haven't yet secured the side of the lace on the front left, so it appears a little uneven here.  However, I will secure it so that it is a seamless transition between sides.  I also still have to sew a slightly lighter lace along the petal sleeves, but things are really coming together!  With classes over in 2 weeks I hope to accelerate this project since I have to make a second gown before our cruise early next year among other nifty projects.  It really is coming along though :)