Lace Up Back

Last week I worked on the back closure of the bridal gown. I was so dreading the loops. I kept finding excuses not to go into the atelier. Well I had to bite the bullet eventually. All in all, it really wasn't as bad as I feared. After getting the hang of the first tube, it went fairly quickly.



I started out with cutting one inch bias stripes with the satin. After stitching out, the tubes were about an 1/8 of an inch wide. That's the part I was dreading, turning the suckers right side out when they are so narrow. However, with a lot of internet research, I was able to figure the best way to accomplish this task.


I needed to draw out a template. I wanted the loops to be one inch apart and I wanted the loops to stick out 1/4 of an inch. The opening on the bridal gown is 20 inches. I decided to make the loop strip 17 inches on both sides. After the loops were pinned, they were basted right onto the paper. The paper strip was then taken to the gown and basted onto the bridal gown. I have to say, it looked pretty perfect. Looked you say? Ya. I decided to reinforce the edge with horsehair braid after the fact. The braid was a tad too wide. It did not look right. So out it came. And with that, the ripping out of the horsehair braid, the loops started to not be so perfect. The final stitch out with the lining, the loops holes are a tad larger than I wanted.


















I took the gown back to the dress form to take a trial run. At this point, everything is just basted, no permanent stitching. I grabbed some ribbon to check the look. So far, so good. Now on to the making of the satin lacing.