Lace-up back - done!

I have some good news to report (and no, not just about how the sun has finally come out here in the last few days) - after a lot of drama and incidents, and needless to say, unpicking, the lace-up back of my wedding dress is finally completed!

What's more, this also means that the only thing left to do on the dress is the hem!

Incidents first? Well first of all I managed to stick a hand sewing needle through my thumb under my nail! Ouch! That was a week ago and it's still a bit bruised! Lesson learned - trying to attach the fabric covered corset cord to the dress by hand is not easy! After that I've been using a thimble. Much safer.

But hey, I soldiered on, after whinging about it for about half an hour...

Then last Friday, the most gross thing happened. I was happily reinforcing the loops by my machine, and there it was, this gigantic spider that was sat between the dupion and the lining layer, STILL ALIVE! Now I'm not a screamer but I almost screamed. It was huge (especially on reflection) with solid looking legs.

Thankfully my other half came to the rescue. I covered the details of the dress and made sure that he couldn't sneak a peek of course! We found a seam where it was still left open (thank god for that! otherwise he'd have to get through from the bottom of the train to the top of the princess lined dress!) so he managed to get the fast moving creature through that. Bless him, he was worried about not having washed his hands thoroughly before getting into the dress - which was the least of my worries at that time! That's why I'm marrying him.

OK drama over, here are a couple of pictures of the lace-up back finished:

I thought I'd try out different ribbons and see the effects - I preferred the self fabric ribbons (I haven't pressed it yet after turning the spagetti loop out - please bear with me) in the end.

Overall the lace-up back was not the easiest thing to make. I know that I've made a couple of toiles of this already, but I had not given as much attention to those as I did to the real thing. I made sure the fabric covered cords are nice and smooth (to learn how to make them, see tutorial here), all the loops are perfectly aligned and are of the same size and shape, the loops are secured about 10 times to the dress (in addition to the organza selvage which they've been sewn onto), and the modesty panel evenly attached to the back.

For the modesty panel, I did include 4 bits of plastic covered steel boning to make sure that it stays in shape when laced up. Unlike the spiral steel boning which I love using for bodices, I used the covered steel boning because they only bend one way. I also used a couple of longer pieces to stablise the back opening and reduce wrinkling.

I'm really happy with how it's turned out. I think when I put it on the opening is going to look a bit bigger, because I've turned my dress form down to its smallest to over compensate for how much my body would "give". What do you think? If you have any questions on how to make a corset back for your wedding dress, please feel free to ask and I'll try my best to answer!

I'm going off on holiday to Malta shortly (maybe I'll do some fabric shopping when I'm there? although I really don't NEED any more fabric... ) so perhaps I'll put my almost finished dress into a garment bag rather than leaving it out on the dress form...

Wedding dress progress update

Another quick one from me - it's been a while since my last wedding dress progress update... so you must be wondering if I had given up on it already?! Not only because I spent 2.5 days on my shiny new green dress? and a couple of days feeling over the moon with it?


Of course not! I've kept going with it and now I'm pleased to report a couple of milestones!


Milestone 1. April 2012 marks the end of hand sewing of all the seams on ALL layers (yep all 7 of them!) of my wedding dress - so I have now hand overcast all the exposed seams, pressed seams flat where appropriate and catch stitched seam allowances to the fabric/underlining. I haven't got a photo to hand but will be sure to share the world of hand sewing with you when I get a chance!


Milestone 2. I'm ready for the lace-up back! I finally know how to do this!


After I made the covered cord for the loops (see Tutorial), I have altered the fit of the mock-up bodice/corselette and tried out the continuous looping as opposed to the criss-cross method adopted previously. Here's a picture of the new attempt:

I tried it on one side of the mock corselette, with 2 different types of cords. One is from Liberty, the first 7 slightly thinner loops on the left of the picture, and the other a viscose/nylon thicker cord. I preferred the Liberty one (apparently I have expensive taste :o) so will probably go for that for the wedding dress. 


Just in case that the loops still aren't strong enough, I also secured them to a strip of silk organza selvage to help maintain shape too. Now I can sleep tight!


So this is what I have ended up with:

The loops on the left are the new ones - I sewed them in between the 2 layers and simply did a dart for the right hand side. Although I feel able to proceed with the real thing now, without (a lot of) fear, there are still a couple of things that I will do differently for the wedding dress lace-up back:

1) The loops on both sides still stick out too much when pulled so I'm going to made the loops even less deep. 

2) I'm going to insert/move spiral steel boning next to the closure on both sides, in order to have a smoother finish and less wrinkles. 

Other than that, with my chosen fabric (the silk dupion), the strong but skinny cord from Liberty, and V shape that I'm finally happy with, I am ready to move forward! The end is (almost) in sight - get ready to celebrate!

How to make covered cord/loops for a lace-up back

After lots of trial and error (as usual), I think I've figured out the way to make the loops for the lace-up back of my wedding dress. 


So in my previous toiles, I have used various shop bought ribbons and cords but have found that 1) they looked alright but not quite perfect, and 2) I always worried about the strength and the cords fraying from the ends so that a lot of force (oh the price we pay to look slim for the big day!) may pull it apart. Think that for a wedding disaster! So of course I kept trying. 


Then I found it! It's the best of both worlds - using cords covered by the fashion fabric, in my case, the silk dupion used for my dress. This way the colour will of course match, the cord should fray less as it's encased, and the loops will be really strong! 


As I spent ages trying this (and of course looking at the PR discussions and other useful sources), I thought I would share a tutorial in case it does make someone's life easier one day! 


So here we go...
What you will need:

• A bias strip of your fashion fabric - mine was just over an inch wide

• A bit of cord that is just more than twice as long as the bias strip - I tried different cords to find the best one for the real dress

• Some thread, and

• If machine sewing, a piping/zipper foot (alternatively this can of course be done by hand)

Step 1 - Fold the bias strip  
Fold the bias strip lengthwise in half, with right sides together. 

Step 2 - Wrap the bias strip around the cord

Here the position of the bias strip is important. I think the easiest thing to do is to show you a picture first (I have no idea why this has turned itself clockwise when uploaded...)

So the bias tape is placed from one end of the cord, leaving a small tail (end #1), and finishes around the centre of the cord (end #2). We will need to start sewing from end #2 first. 


Step 3 - Sew!
Using a piping foot/presser foot, start from end #2 (centre of the cord) and sew through the fabric and the cord and across until you are just over 1/8 away from the cord. 
Then for the first inch or so of the bias strip, sew along keeping this distance. After that, stitch closely to the cord, just like how you would make piping. Again a couple of pictures should help explain this:







I used my zipper foot to sew close to the cord (only after the first inch or so)

A close up to show the wider gap at the end #2 of the strip. I used a really wide bias strip to try this in fact so your version should have the stitches must closer to the edges. 
I hand sewed the first few stitches across to secure the cord. All this (the securing stitches and the wider gap) is to facilitate the turning out later on.  

Step 4 - trim seam allowances

OK I went a bit overboard with this step so my practice loops had some seams that popped open... but  consider this a lesson learned! At least I will make sure that this won't happen for the real wedding dress! 

As you can see, I did trim very close to the stitching line here. This was because I had made 2 attempts prior to this without being able to turn the fabric out! I would suggest trimming as closely as you can, bearing in mind the fabric you are using for the bias strip. In my case the dupion frays without anyone touching it (honestly!) so no wonder the stitches turned out not to be secure enough. 

Step 5 - crunch time

So from end #2, with the extra gap, you should be able to turn the bias strip out to the right side! If you've left yourself sufficient gap, you should be able to do this fairly easily! Good luck! I didn't use any special tools for this and it only took seconds... so trust me it does work!

There you have it! covered cord ready to be made into the loops for the lace-up back! You could also make this as button loops if your dress has a covered button back. 

I hope this is helpful! Do let me know if you have any questions and I'll try my best to answer them:)

Now I am going to post the progress on my revised mock-up lace-up back in a separate post.