Inspiration Anthro : Vintage Lace Dress : Steps 31-36

Today we finish up the dress with the hem.

31 - Try your dress on and mark where you want your hem to hit. (I did mine at middle knee)

32- Take off dress and mark 1 1/2 " down from hem mark. Cut off excess fabric.



33- fold up the bottom edge of the skirt 1/2" and press.


34- fold up the edge another 1" all the way around and press.


35- On the right side of the fabric stitch all the way around the bottom edge of your skirt 3/4" from the edge. Backstitch at both ends.


36- Iron your dress. Try it on and enjoy!

front

back

Inspiration Anthro : Vintage Lace Dress : Steps 21-30

Now that we have the top and bottom ready, it's time to connect the dots with the belt portion of the dress.

21- Take your 1 1/2 inch wide black elastic and fit it around your high waist (wherever you want the two portions of your dress to intersect). Mark where it fits comfortably. Add 2 inches for overlap and cut. Pin with 2 inches of overlap.



22- With black thread securely stitch the overlap down so that it now forms a permanent circle. Stitch a box and then and x in the middle as shown below.



23- With pins or chalk mark center front, center back, and the two sides. Do the same on your skirt.


24- Match the markings up with those on your skirt, with the overlap being center back of your elastic. Pin at all points with the skirt tucked about 1 inch under the elastic. (There will be a lot of excess skirt fabric inbetween each marking as the skirt portion will be gathered.)



25- Put your machine on it's longest stitch -basting- and stitch around your skirt about 1/2" from bottom of elastic on the inside of your garment. Do not backstitch either end as this will later be taken out. While stitching, pull the elastic with your right hand so that the top fabric is not gathered (once your let go of the elastic it will gather the skirt fabric). This can be a bit tricky, but go slow and remember this is just a basting stitch so it doesnt matter what it looks like.


26- Press the skirt gathers.

27- Change your stitch length back to normal. On the top side of your elastic and dress, stitch 1/4" from the bottom edge of the elastic all the way around. While stitching, pull on the elastic so that the skirt fabric is no longer gathered like before. (this is important otherwise you will snap your threads the first time you try to put the dress on) Backstitch both ends. Trim any excess seam allowance on the inside of the skirt.




28- Now let's do the same thing to the top of the dress. First mark the CF, CB and sideseams, and match with the same on the elastic.


29- Basting stitch all the way around on the inside of the garment. Stretch both the elastic and tanktop while doing so.

30- Top stitch around the elastic 1/4" from the top edge on the top of the garment. Stretch both the elastic and tanktop while doing so. Remove all basting stitches from elastic.



*we are almost done. tomorrow we will hem the dress.

Inspiration Anthro : Vintage Lace Dress : Steps 17-20

Now that the top of our dress is finished, it is time to make the skirt portion.

17- Measure your hips (or the widest portion of your lower section). We will call this number (A).
Measure the desired length of your skirt by measuring from your bellybutton to where you want your skirt to end. We will call this number (B).

18 - Cut two rectangles out of your preshrunk skirt fabric using the following formula.

width = A /2 + 2 inches (ease) + 2 inches (seam allowance).
height = B + 1 inch (top seam allowance) + 2 inches (hem)

example :

hips = 38" (A)
length = 22" (B)

width = 38" /2 + 2 + 2 = 23"
length = 22 + 1 + 2 = 25"

*always error on the side of larger. You can always take it in/up more, but you can't replace what you cut off.

19- With right sides together, pin two side seams. Stitch, backstitching at both ends.


20 - Press open seam allowance on inside. Try it on and make sure that you like width of the hips. You can always take it in a bit at this point if you need to.


Tomorrow we will make the belt portion and connect them all together.

Inspiration Anthro : Vintage Lace Dress : Steps 11-16

Now that we have most of the top portion of the dress completed we are going to finish the top off with the embelishment.

11 - Cut 2 pieces of lace, both the length of your centerfront plus about 2 inches.

12 - Place the pieces of lace with the straight side of each one facing the inside. Pin in place.

13- Edgestitch about 1/8 " inside of each piece of lace.

14 - Fold over the top ends of the lace over the neckline. Iron and pin.

15 - Stitch around the center portion of the neckline at about 1/4" to secure the neckline lace in place.
It should look like this after stitching.
16 - Trim the bottom of the lace so that it is even with the bottom of the tanktop. The top portion of your dress is now finished and should look something like this:


Come back in a couple of days and we will make the skirt portion of the dress.

Inspiration Anthro : Vintage Lace Dress : Steps 1-11

Today we are going to put together most of the tank top portion of the dress.

1 - Try on your tanktop and use chalk or a washable pen to mark approximately where you want the tanktop portion of your dress to end. Usually this is most flattering right around your bellybutton as this is where it is the skinniest. Mark Centerfront, Centerback and both sides at this place. (it helps to stretch the elastic over it to help visualize)

2- Measure down about 3 inches from your marking and cut all the way around the tanktop.

3 - fold the tanktop in half at centerfront. Cut about 1 1/2 inches off the front (totaling about 3 inches once unfolded)



4- Put the tanktop aside and grab your white cotton fabric. Cut a piece that is about 3 inches wide and double the length of the center front of your tanktop (about 30 inches).

5- Fold in about 1/2" on both lengths of the cotton strip - Press. Fold in half so the so dont see the presses edges.


6- Put cotton aside and grab your tanktop again. Using a long basting stitch, stitch down both sides of the cut center front right at the edge. Do not backstitch at either end.

7- Pull on one thread to gather the centerfront up about 2 inches on both sides.

8- Open cotton strip and lay the gathered edge of the tanktop within the folded edge of the strip. Overlap by about 1/2 inch.
9 - Fold top down and pin in place.

10 - Top stitch about 1/4 " from the edge on both sides.




11- Try on. Trim bottom so that all edges are about 1 inch below where your marking are. (in the front this will now be different since you gathered it. Make a new marking for cf before trimming).
Tomorrow we will finish the top by adding the lace.