I’ve been doing loads of work on laces recently. Here is the latest project: a navy cotton velveteen dress with the upper bodice and sleeves made in a soutache re-embroidered lace.
Front and back views. An invisible zip closes the skirt and tiny self covered buttons with looping close the lace at center back. The bows snap on, concealing the zip stop and finishing the back neckline.
This project was a virtual sampler of lace seaming methods and edge finishes.
The neck edge is bound with a bias strip of velveteen.
The center back lace edges are turned under and finished with a narrow strip of lengthwise silk organza to prevent stretching. Here is the wrong side showing bias binding and organza edge with elastic button looping.
The sleeves were cut with the scalloped lace edge as the hem. This lace was fairly stiff and the soutache cording added thickness. I used a plain seam to close the underarm sleeve seam, trimmed the seams to 1/2 inch width and bound with silk tulle. Loads of steam and a tailors clapper were necessary to get this seam flat.
The armseye seam was trimmed, bound with silk tulle, and pressed towards the sleeve.
This lace was designed so that edging could be cut without cutting through any soutache cording. The cording frayed badly, so cutting through it and leaving it exposed wasn’t an option. The lace edging was hand appliqued along the seam joining the bodice and skirt.
Sewing by hand with tiny applique stitches leaves no trace of the join.
Another view of the lace.
Also, I overlapped the shoulder seams and cut the lace front and back as one piece to eliminate a shoulder seam which would have detracted from the lace pattern. Loads of options for lace seams. Every lace is different and may require multiple techniques to produce the look you want.