The Nightgown Project – Part 5 – Lace

Hi Everyone!

Guess what I decided to use for the lace portion of my project?  Yup, the Jessica McClintock dress.  I cut it apart and just thought oh what the heck, why not!?!

So, I used the skirt portion of the dress to cut out the front and back yoke pieces.  There’s tons of lace, I measured 3-1/2 yards!

After I cut out these pieces I knew I was going to need to figure out how to stabalize the lace in order to sew a correct seam, and actually be sewing on the seam line!  I sure didn’t want to sew by hand so I gave this much thought today and decided to borrow a piece of equipment used in quilting!

Yes!  WAX PAPER!!!

In appliqué  wax paper is ideal because we can trace a design and then iron the fabric to the waxed paper, cut out the design and the fabric will stay attached to the paper as long as the paper gets ironed on to the fabric so the wax has a chance to melt.  Sound interesting huh?  Well, what if I borrowed most of that technique for the purpose of stabilizing this lace and knowing WHERE to stitch?

So that is exactly what I did.  I traced off the pattern pieces, cut out the waxed paper and then layed the lace on top, right side  of the lace up.

I set my iron to a medium setting (don’t want to melt the lace) and ironed away!

Oh my Goodness!!! It Works!!

Look!  I’m actually holding up this front yoke by the waxed paper and the lace is stuck, albeit ever so slightly, to the paper!  Cool!!!

Then, my thought here was to stay stitch the lace along the stitching lines and then trim the paper…

I trim the paper close to the stitching line, but not through, and only on the seam allowance side, not the inside.  I’m going to wait to take off the paper after I have the lace stitched to the garment! Then I stitch the lace yoke to the bodice sections! My stitching to the garment is just next to the stay stitching line.

That’s it for today!  Tomorrow I’ll be sewing the sides together and attaching a lace trim edge around the armscye.

Till then!

~Cathy

 

Related articles

• The Nightgown Project – Part 1, Sketching Some Ideas (sewingforlife.wordpress.com)
• The Nightgown Project – Part 3, The Back Pattern Pieces (sewingforlife.wordpress.com)
• The Nightgown Project – Part 4, Cutting Fabric (sewingforlife.wordpress.com)
• The Nightgown Project – Part 5 – Lace (sewingforlife.wordpress.com)
• The Nightgown Project – Part 6 – Lace Trim Selection (sewingforlife.wordpress.com)