Roses and Lace

OMG! I LOVE this dress! I love the fabric, the colors, and I love the lace.

You might recall (if there was anyone actually reading this) last week I gave you a sneak peek of what I was working on. Well here it is, completed.

I used the bodice of Vogue 8789 and the skirt and pockets from another pattern because I don't think I would be comfortable with the super-full 50's skirt. It's not perfect but the fit in the shoulders is better than my first version of this dress. When I first sewed the bodice front together the top edges of the lace came together perfectly but the bottom edges were about 3/8 of an inch off, which caused me a few moments of minor panic but all I had to do to fix it was pick apart about an inch of the center seam and about the same of the lace and just tugged on the lace a little and sewed it back together. So now it's almost perfect.

I haven't used lace very many times and this dress makes me think I should use lace and other embellishments more often. I remember my mother once criticizing someone we knew for not allowing her little girls to have ruffles on their dresses because they were "too hard to iron." What I got out of that is that pretty is worth a little extra effort. It's never been that I mind the effort either in sewing or taking care of the clothes. It's just that I always think, "I never go anywhere to wear anything fancy." But I wore this dress to Atwood's and Walmart yesterday. This is not too much for everyday. There is a lot of territory between plain and fancy. And besides... there are no rules regarding when and where we are allowed to wear lace.