Finished Sewing Projects: Two Lace Dresses!

I was originally scheduled to post about this a couple of weeks ago, but I was a bit lazy to take the pictures and then I had a few link parties for my birthday.  :)  I think it's well worth the wait!  Also, I have a question for you guys at the end of the post, because I'm not quite sure how to completely finish the blue dress...


Remember waaay back in February when I shared my works in progress?  Well, there was a green lace dress that I hoped would be a wearable muslin for a lace overlay dress that I had in mind.  It wasn't the best, and I detailed a few problems I had in that previous post.

I finally finished the dress AND my final version of the dress because I specifically carved out some time to sew last weekend.  I didn't want this to be a UFO, taunting me by hanging on Lily anymore!

Without further ado, my two new lace dresses!

For those of you who haven't been following from the beginning of my blog, I realized that I've been talking about making this dress from the very beginning!  Let's look back in time to see the evolution of this dress.  :)


1) On January 7th (my 4th post ever!), you can see the fabric when I bought it from the swap meet.

2) The day afterwards, January 8th, I showed how I organize and fold my fabric... and there's the blue lace and the black fabric I used underneath!  See it?

3) On January 24th, I shared my weekend activities, which included cutting out a ton of patterns.  At the very bottom of the post, you can see the fabric for the blue lace dress in a neatly folded pile!

*This doesn't count as progress towards my blue dress, but I shared the green lace dress on February 19th, like I mentioned previously.

4) Then it sat for a long time, until I got my Chakoner!  On my March 8th post (more than a month later!), I marked up all of my dress pieces with ease.



Yep, it hasn't been posted about since then at all!  It was in the works since January 7th (and the green one since Octoberish?), and I finished it on May 18th.  Whew!

That's more than 4 months in the making!  Basically I took my sweet time between each step.

1) Buy fabric & fold
2) Wait 2.5 weeks.
3) Cut fabric.
4) Wait 7 weeks.
5) Mark fabric.
6) Wait 10 weeks.
7) Sew garment!
8) Wonder what took me so long...

Anyways, I love the dress even if it isn't what I had in mind initially.  One of the changes that I made to my original plan included scrapping the sleeves altogether, even though the fabric was already cut.

I think the dark navy blue is so elegant!  And I'm not sure how this is even possible, but I found an invisible zipper in my stash that matched pretty well!

The skirt hem isn't what I initially had in mind.  In fact, I tried making a blind hem, but it made ended up way too short!  I had to rip it out and ended up with a more appropriate length.

All in all, I'm happy with my new party dress!

The green dress got some love too, with the addition of the buttons...

These are the same buttons I used on my Beignet skirt!

...plus the hemming and cutting of the edges of the lace.

I haven't put buttons on my blue dress yet (or finished the neckline/armholes), so I have a question for you.  Do you think I should put them in?  My three options are...

1) Do nothing.
2) Add buttons only on the bodice portion.
3) Add buttons along the entire front, like on the green dress.

This weird angle makes it look like the seam down the center is wonky...  I promise it isn't!

I have an idea of what I prefer, but I'd love to hear what you think.  Thanks!