New Look 6053 View B. Mimmicking a popular trend

You know when you walk by shoe stores and you look at heels and you think "Awh man, those shoes are too pricey!"

I bet I can mimmick that in clothing.   And sure enough I did!  I saw two pairs of shoes that I wish I could own right now.

1. A pair of Valentino heels.  Whoa! Not today...($$$)
2. A pair of Steve Madden heels that were affordable but I tried them on and I swear someone must have yelled "Timber!" (or I did)

What both of these shoes had in common were the off white background -black lace overlay avec jewels.  Well, in the shoe world, I can't make my own shoes...not a chance...but I sure can make jackets or skirts with the same trend.

Hah!

And, if you haven't noticed, I love skirts.  Yep, just add this one to the pile lady!

This is where I love making my own stuff.  I get to choose the embellishments, type of fabric and reduce cost.  And, this number is more or less going to be an evening skirt because I have chosen the type of beads to go with this.
And, be aware that this pattern may be a 2 hour project, but if your going to fancy it up NO WAY...try 3 weeks.

1. I chose Delica, Mill Hill brand sead beads, and regular sead beads. No bi-hexagonal crystals...too heavy! You may experience fabric sag and eventual stress and tearing.
2. Hey, you know what? I could Austrian crystal-ize my scalloped hem line....hmmm... projects get into a life of their own
3. Need black embroidery thread to satin stitch a scalloped bottom edge.  Since the fabric wasn't finished that way...I have to make adjustments.(If I end up doing this)
4. Cotton Polyester mix fabric with polyester black lace fabric.(Find a sexy and eye catching flower scheme)
5. The usual hardware : zipper, threads, serging threads, Nymo beading thread, beading needle.
6. Bead on stable flower motifs in a random colour scheme
7. May need to line this puppy

Now, the plan of action is to bead first then attach it to the main fabric(if you unlined the skirt...hide your beading thread work please!), embroider the scalloped edge last.  I also have to match the motifs of the lace pattern to smoothly blend the front to back so that it doesn't look odd.  The last thing I need is squirelly looks from people

So these are the colours I chose to use in random beading on flower
motifs throughout the front and back

I have so much beads in all types that I could open my own store.  It is really hard to choose colours when you like all of them! (oh dear...)

The next step is to orientate your lace fabric so that the flower designs are running in the correct direction.  This is very important for one way designs, however, I can do this in either both because the look would be completely acceptable but I chose to have my flower motifs to run up-down, not left-right.
This is where the cost of your projects can go up.  Stripes, matching polka-dots, check gingham designs, animal prints or plaids are usually hogs because you have to match them up.  Luckily for me I am not really a fan of polka-dots...

Here I cut the fabric running up-down not left-right
Below the dashed line is my hem allowance I added of 10.16 cm or 4"(not to scale).
I wanted to have the lace below the fashion fabric for flair
Front piece shown here

But throw some natural flair of flowers or chintz and we'll talk.

Next thing to consider is the "Out of bounds" beading areas.  This is common sense, but let's list them anyway:

DO NOT:

1. Bead within a dart area
2. Bead along any hem, seam allowances or stitching lines
3. Bead within a pleat or tuck area
4. Bead within 2 cm of any seam, stitching lines or hem allowances (Machines get stuck or they crush beads).  If you do, you have to resort to hand sewing...only when needed right?
5. Bead in the bum bum area.  This is going to hurt every time you sit down if you bead here.

For these reasons alone this is why I don't really like buying fabric with pre-made beading or machine embroidery.  It gets messy and sooner or later you run into crushing beads or the embroidery starts to unravel because it was cut somewhere along the way.
I could be a fool about the whole thing but I could not make it work right.

Bead work progress in the left side of front...somewhere

Another area on the front with random beading

Next thing to do is decide how to attach your lace overlay to the fashion fabric.  This can be done in 2 ways that I can think of.

1. Can attach the overlay to the fashion fabric by sewing it to the top waist line and zipper seam.  You could sew your darts separtely as well as the side seams.
2. Sew it together as one piece on the side seams, zipper seam and darts as well as the waist line.  This way, your lace overlay will be secured in a couple of more places.

I think the second choice allows for a longer life out of your garment.


Now that I have finished beading the main areas of the front and back piece, I have to first sew my darts.  This was done sewing 2 layers as 1 so that the lace is attached in 4 places at least.

The back piece progress.  I had to bead outside the seat area
so I beaded more in clusters in the back mostly along the sides

Then serge together the lace and the fashion fabric together at the waist line with the darts pressed towards the centre front.
Do this for the back piece as well having the darts pressed towards the centre back.

Serge the bottom of front and back fashion fabric only at this point.  Remember I have an extra 4 inches of lace at the bottom that I added, so I can't serge the sides together yet.

I have to then hem the bottom of the front and back seperately. (3.2 cm or 1.25 inches) (You'll see why)

Here I have hemmed separately both sides of my fashion fabric (cement colour)
Then I serge the entire length of the left and right side to join lace + fabric
Then sew the sides together

I am also planning on doing a scalloped edge at the bottom hem of my lace only so I am actually finishing 2 hems on this skirt (either way, I am doing 2 hems)

Okay, once the fashion fabric hem is done then serge together the sides the whole length down.

Then, sew the sides together leaving the left side open above the notch for the zipper.

I tried drawing out the scalloped edge but my template wasn't working...I'll have to leave it.

When I finished the lace hem, the crystals were just too bulky and I didn't think they looked good for this project.  I do have another dress project in mind that it would work for, but looking at it.... it just wasn't right.

I have tons of beads on this already so I thought anymore then it would start walking over to the gaudy zone.

The finished skirt
(OPI The living daylights and Crabtree & Evelyn Red Shimmer lip gloss)

Alright, this project can now be placed inside a garment bag or whatever.  When out having dinner, just throw on some glitter nail polish  and some glitter lip gloss and away you go!

Bye for now!!!