Another post, another cocktail dress

I assure you readers, my life is really not fancy enough to warrant two consecutive cocktail dresses, but you never know when Don rolls in drunk on Scotch and expects me to seal the deal with Burger Chef. Don, you know I’m veggie!!!

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!