Last January I bought a beautiful piece of pink french lace decorated with seed beads and short bugle beads. The bugle beads give a lovely glimmer to the lace rather than the strong glitter you can get from sequins. I’ve been very pleased to use it in a tutu for a Sleeping Beauty variation. I’ve teamed it with a soft pink velvet.

While the tutu will be an all pink affair the skirt does grade down from pink to white. I’m very fond of dyeing net to get customised colours. I’ve used Dharma Trading’s house dye in Flamingo Pink. It was a fairly light dilution. I actually used the rinsing bath as the dye bath for the very pale net.

There’s a lovely subtle grading in the net. I dye the net once it’s cut to length, dry it and then scallop or feather it.

I love the effect of coloured layers when they are al heaped together after being gathered.

The lace has a lovely scalloped edge I will use for the plate but also a number of motifs scattered over it that I can use for the bodice decoration. Unfortunately there are no mirror pairs so I’ll have to be clever in placing them to give the illusion of symmetry.

 

I find it easier to decorate the bodice before I put the net on the skirt, so after I have made the leotard I stretch it onto a body board and pin out the motifs or appliques. This is very important as the appliques I use are non-stretch.

The final placement was a little different and I added some iridescent sequins to fill in the gaps and improve the texture.

The scalloped edge was trimmed from the body of the fabric and any loose beads dabbed with fray check.

The edge is, of course, a linear piece and it needs to be placed in an ellipse around the plate. This meant a bit of fussing around to get it just right and a bit of jiggery pokery to make it sit flat … well flatish. It’s quite a textural lace so ultra flat is not so important.

The lace is hand sewn onto a net plate and then attached to the top of the skirt.

And then she is finished!