Lace Tape Wedding Ring Dress

After the Everything-Wrong Birthday Suit post, writing about this dress is very soothing. It does not give me an absolute sigh of satisfaction, but I am pretty pleased with it.

There is a lot to love about the dress: Chery Williams Wedding Ring Dress pattern, Capitol Imports champagne Swiss batiste, champagne Swiss beading, peach lace tape, miles of hemstitching, both pinstitch and entredeux, and a nylon French lace which requires almost no ironing. There will be more about the lace later.

The pattern calls for lace insertion and is beautiful when made up with lace. But my infatuation with lace tape led me to use this product rather than lace. There are several advantages of this substitution.

I was especially pleased by the addition of soft color to the monochromatic palette of the champagne fabric, beading and lace edging. Because the foundation fabric need not be cut away behind the lace tape, the structural integrity is not compromised. This makes the garment much less likely to tear when there is stress on the fragile lace.

I did have some trouble with the collar pattern. Mine is an old version and it may have been revised by now. But placing the lace or lace tape on the line indicated allowed no space whatsoever where the rings overlapped. So I redrafted the collar pattern and then all was well.

pinstitch below featherstitch, entredeux stitch above lace edging

This dress shows quite clearly the difference between the pinstitch and the entredeux stitch. The top of the lace tape ovals or “footballs” at the hem and the rings on the collar were pinstitched. At the bottom of skirt, which was straight with the footballs hovering above, the entredeux stitch was worked. Then the fabric was cut right to the edge of the entredeux, just as is done with commercially made entredeux. The gathered lace was then butted up against it and joined with a tiny zig zag. The collar was worked in the same manner, with entredeux worked only on the bottom where lace edging would be joined.

The lace is one of my dearest treasures. Mr. Russell, owner of the renowned lace wholesaler M.E.Feld Co., always generously shared his wealth of knowledge about the kinds of lace and its history. He always patiently answered my many questions when we spoke on the phone as I placed my order. It was his practice to send his customers a huge box of lace from which to choose. The unwanted, or in my case, over budget items were then returned.

In one of these boxes, which usually put me into a state of hyperventilation, there was a bolt of lace, wrapped on a blue card and marked “Made in France,” just like the others. But this one said “100% nylon.” Mr. Russell explained that these were called “levers” lace (though I have since seen it spelled “leavers”) and were just as fine as the cottons, but intended for lingerie or other items which would be subjected to heavy and/or frequent laundering.

I have a few pieces of such lace, but this is my favorite. It is technically a galloon, with a decorative edge on both sides. But the pattern is straight enough that it also can be used as edging or insertion. The color is a true ivory and works just as well with white as it does with the champagne color.

When the dress was new, there were no hand embroidered bullions. I didn’t have time and put it off. But the dress cried out for something more and I was much happier with it after I had done this. Now, I wish I had used more knots to make a prettier rose, but the effect of these bullions is certainly is better than nothing.

As I begin planning Easter outfits, I find myself hoping that I am as well pleased with them as I am with this dress. I hope the same for your Easter sewing.