m_of_disguise | (no subject)

The lace for the red 1890s gown came in today, and while it's gorgeous it's also...problematic. First, it's ivory and not white. This bothered me for a bit before I looked at the original fashion plate again and realized that ivory won't look so stark against such a vibrant red, so now I'm okay with the color. The only problem is that ivory is way harder to match than white, so if I need to find another style of lace for the sleeves and dickie, then I may have a hard time of it. My hopes right now is that I can stitch the lace together, width-wise, to create some larger pieces that I can use for the bodice parts. I just don't know if I'll have enough yardage, as they only had 24 yards and I bought it all. Hmmm.

This lace is also suuuuper slippery. It wriggles all over the place, which means I'm going to have one hell of a time stitching it down. I already knew that I was going to have to hand-sew it down to keep my lines even, but now I'm thinking I may have to make a quadrillion stitches to keep it from flopping around and creeping. I'm hoping that I can starch the living daylights out of it and it will behave better.

Third problem is that the lace didn't come in a continuous length. I guess the seller cut it into two pieces to make it easier to ship in a flat envelope, but it's in two 12-yard pieces which were wrapped around their own pieces of cardboard, which really pissed me off when I unpacked it. I hope that doesn't affect things, but I already know that it probably will. Still pissed about that.

It's lucky it's gorgeous, or I would have returned it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I had very good luck using dye remover on a similar type of chemical lace once. (It was a bit I used for my 1690s court gown... I think around the neckline.) It started ecru or ivory and came out brilliantly white. Use a pot you're not going to use for food and try it!

Oh, I hadn't thought of that! I always forget about that color remover stuff. XD Thank you!