Adventures in Lace insertion.....
There's nothing more romantic than a white lawn dress that is covered in lace insertion. This was a tedious process done by hand during the 1910's. I insert my lace with the sewing machine. It's still tedious, but a lot faster in any case. Lawn or lingerie dresses, as they were known, afforded women a more relaxed look and some excitement because as long as everything underneath was properly covered, one could literally be very daring, as the lace hides little. I opt to make all of my slips colored, to show the lace insertion off better.
This page shows some examples of lace insertion I have done so far.
My first dress. Sideclosure via snaps. The picture shows the front, the roll over the back side.
Download the pics to your desktop and open them in their original size via Picture Viewer for more detail.....
In my next attempt I used wider lace and less of it for a different look. Notice the tucked front bodice inset. This one buttons up the back.
The material used for both of these was a Sheermist broadcloth, which is a cotton poly blend and not as heavy as regular broadcloth. It actually comes very close to the sheerness of cotton lawn, but costs way less.
The same lace in a different medium: Medium weight light blue linen. Zipps up the back, fully lined. Interesting back skirt detail gives an optical "high waist" look.
This dress actually was my very first one experiementing with inserting lace. I have since slightly changed my technique. Zipps up the back, fully lined. Fabric covered buttons, fancy braid trim and vintage glass buttons in the bodice front. Don't show up well.
The main fabric here is a dresden blue rayon material. Lace insertion works well on light weight to almost sheer materials that have no stretch and are not too slippery. The lace insertion adds stiffness to a garment, not a lot, but some.
These are examples of shirt waists I have done using lace insertion. The high stand up collar was popular during the early 1910's. Fashions at the time also knew what we today would call a "Dickey". This was a sleeveless faker blouse to fill in the neckline. Worn under dresses and suit jackets. See the difference below.
The dickey sort of takes it from Daywear to evening...