I welcomed in the New Year with this lace dress.

I find working with lace is like a 3-D jigsaw puzzle and I love jigsaw puzzles.

The lace:

Here’s how I layed out the back skirt pieces with the pockets before cutting into the lace.

The lining:

Blue lining was my favourite and lots of you  loved the blue lining too. The blue adds more depth to the green so blue fabric won. 

See what I mean about the blue fabric?

Style:
A fitted bodice was a must with an interesting neckline accentuate the lace so I chose Simplicity 1425 View C.

I chose to balance the lace on the back bodice instead of trying to match the lace at the zipper seam.

I ran out of time to add a sassy, pencil skirt so I added my basic A-line skirt with side seam pockets. 

I wore this dress to the NYE party we went to.

Without making a test dress (not like me) I sewed up this dress with the side seams sewn up last. This made it easy for me to size it down to fit me.

I made the 12 size based on the pattern information but realised I should have made the 8 with a 10 waist. 

I also had to shorten the front bodice pieces, which meant a bit of unpicking and resewing but I was on holidays so I had the time to do this.

I did a full bust adjustment on the bodice and it sits nicely on me.

Here’s my second try at making Simplicity 1425, using Pitt Trading fabric from the stash.

This pin-striped top above is my second attempt and tweaking the pattern. This also gave me a better idea about sizing. Did I mention I took out 10cm out of the side seams on the dress. 

Mr V took these photos way after midnight.

Conclusion: 
It’s all good! 
I’ll be using Simplicity 1425 again for a dress/top this Summer.

Pitt Trading has their Summer sale on and if you can’t get to the store, they have some of their fabrics listed on their website now. From the website sale fabrics, I bought spot dot and cascade.