Last year lace was the rage. I am happy to see it still is since I’m a year late to the party. On one of my visits to Mood I picked up this geometric lace and the perfect backing fabric.Next was deciding what pattern to use.Umm, yeah, I do have quite a collection of patterns.  Simplicity 1425 was my choice for the top of the dress, Yes, McCall’s is also very cute but it calls for boning, and I just wasn’t in the mood for that.I carefully pressed and clipped the neckline on the inner bodice.I also added a waistband to separate the bodice from the skirt.Here you can see clearly the difference between the lined and unlined portion of the bodice.

I ended up using this pattern for the skirt.  In the past I have made this skirt, it is a half circle – so there is fullness but not as much as a full circle skirt – which can be overwhelming.

 I would say this dress is halfway couture.  I had taken the Craftsy class The Couture Dress, a very worth while class by the way.  I have incorporated a lot of hand sewing, not quite as much as a real couture dress, I still love my serger.The inside of the dress is very clean, I did fine hand stitching on the bias tape (made from the lining fabric) binding around the armholes and neckline. I also did a very fine stitch to attach the lace to the lining on the front bodice. don’t want anything moving or sagging.  You can see that I used the serger wherever I could. Combining sewing techniques works for me.Love the clean finish of both the invisible zipper and the bias binding. Since I cut the back pieces on a fold, I did get a very good match of the fabric. I am actually very impressed with the result.

Done, beautiful and very well fitted. No, I didn’t do a muslin, I made corrections as I sewed. The joy of being very proficient – I make modifications as I go along.

Click on the slideshow to see the dress in action.  Me twirling in this dress, it is very comfy. I will wear it the first time at the Rehearsal dinner for the boys, which is less than 2 weeks away! Yikes.