As I explained in my previous post, all of the lace appliques were from a vintage battenburg lace tablecloth. Most of the pieces took longer to cut out than to sew, as I had to use a small embroidery scissors and cut carefully to make sure nothing important unraveled or frayed.
It was a fun challenge to separate the different designs and rework them together onto the chiffon of the overdress.
The lace was very supple to work with. It was worked into designs on the tablecloth, but once unsnipped, I could straighten out or recurve the different pieces as desired. I used three pieces from circular motifs to create the border on the train.
Given more time, I would have separated and spread out the patterns on the oversleeves more, as keeping them so connected meant they ended up with less of a drape. Hopefully if I ever recreate this costume again I'll get an even bigger budget so I can be even more nitpicky! ;)
It was way too cool to see the overdress start to take shape.
AHHHH!!! Even though I was the one making it, it still freaked me out to see it actually come to life!
The front of the dress was a bit tricky for me, as I didn't want to continue the straight border pattern. I think what I did works okay.
A look at how I attached the appliques. I sewed very close to the edge of all the designs, and on the larger ones I also ran one or two seams on the inside at appropriate places.
Of course I had to make sure everything was as perfectly symmetrical as possible...
...thank goodness I have a large floor to spread these sorts of projects out on!
I attached the sleeves last, meaning that the final piece of the ensemble was sewing down a final flower chain over the armhole seam.
How did it all work? See the wedding photos in the final post...
This is really amazing, Elizabeth! I love seeing how much thought went into this. :)
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