In my previous posts (all of which you can find here), I explained cutting out the dress and the lace, as well as explained some basic considerations for working with Guipure lace. At this point I also have the base fabric and the interlining attached and all markings thread traced on the interlining.
The Guipure Lace is attached to the Skirt Base Fabric/Interlining Sandwich by using a back stitch to attach each motif.
It is now time to join the base fabric and the lace! For the skirt this is a very simple process. I laid the lace down on my table, wrong side up and laid my base fabric/interlining sandwich on top of it with the right side of the base fabric next to the wrong side of the lace. I was looking at the interlining.
Here you can see all three layers. The pink stitching is marking my hem line on the interlining. Each motif is simply attached with a back stitch through all 3 layers.
Normally this is done from the front of the lace, but my motifs were thick enough that I could feel them through the layers. It goes much faster if you can work flat and stitch from the back - no need to try to hide your thread! I know the white thread is hard to see - sorry about that! Hopefully you can see that I was working fast, carrying my thread along the back and taking a back stitch at each motif.
Attaching each motif is necessary to prevent the heavy guipure lace from sagging. If the lace is only attached at the waist and sides, the "brides" or "bridges" combined with gravity and the weight of the lace will allow the lace to sag in all sorts of odd ways. No need to worry about the long thread trails between stitches - they will all be covered with the lining.
Here is the final skirt section from the right side. The layers are all attached and you can't see any of my thread from the right side. Attaching the lace to the bodice is a different story and is covered in the next post!