A while back, my boss informed me that I had an industry
awards event to attend. Wait. What? Cue, I have nothing to wear panic. At the
same time I was due to think about a July make for the Minerva Blogger Network,
so I decided to marriage the two and make a little cocktail dress using some
gorgeous lace I had been hoarding in my stash from Minerva.
I always wanted this lace to have a chic life, transformed
into some sort of slim fitting evening wear with sheer lace features on the arms.
Racking my brains for the pattern I decided on Vogue 8766. You may recognise
this from the Great British Sewing Bee when Ann made a very elegant navy lace
version in one of the final rounds.
For my version I used Minerva’s super cool mesh lace. It
appealed to me as it made me remember Michelle in Project Runway Season
11, when she painted a kind of sooty, Manhattan-inspired ombre effect on some wool, which turned into a big full skirt. Although
pretty, this lace has a more contemporary, edgy look to it and I love the
combination of traditional lace with the almost paint-splattered effect.
For the pattern I made a muslin cutting the size 10 for
bodice and grading out to the 12 on the skirt. The fit was spot on and I didn’t
have to tweak anything. Thank you Vogue!
The pattern itself is really straightforward, however, you
may want to take extra steps in the construction process. If you’re using a
combo of lace and lining (also provided by Minerva) as I have you’ll want to
tack the bodice fabric and lining together so they are treated as one piece. To
do this, tack around the edges and then a couple of lines down each bodice
front. This helps to keep everything stable when it comes to pinning and sewing
your darts.
When it comes to machining, the lining provides enough
support to use a straight stitch. However, any stitching on purely lace should
use a narrow zig zag.
The skirt, is treated as two separate pieces as you want the
lining to hang free from the lace and also to be able to hem it. I let my
lining hem sit flush with the raw edge of the lace (no need to hem this mesh
lace). I tried shortening the lining but I didn’t like the effect.
I used French Seams throughout to finish the dress
(including waist seam), working with a 5/8” SA. So that’s a 3/8” seam trimmed
and then stitched at ¼”.
This guy didn't care that I was in a middle of an important photo shoot!
The sleeves have a nice dart feature on the cap, giving a
little height and structure. I would imagine on a firmer lace, they would sit
even more proud, but you can still see the effect here.
Personally, I found the size 10 sleeves far too wide for my
liking. For this sort of look, I like a very slim fitted sleeve. It looks
younger and more chic. With the sleeve folded in half, I simply measured 1 ¼”
in at the sleeve hem and then using a ruler, pinned a line to the edge of the
armhole. I then cut this straight with my rotary cutter. The mesh lace has
enough stretch in it for you to be able to get it over your hand. I finished
the sleeve seam with a French seam as seen here.
I used a regular zipper for the dress and chose to handsew
it in. I prefer using a prickstitch as it’s nice and hidden, and gives you more
control with the lace.
I felt really good in this dress and completely unique. I
even got a lovely compliment from my MD’s wife who was really surprised that I had
made the dress myself. Win! It’s definitely going to be a wedding/cocktail
dress staple in my wardrobe!
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