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Hello! I'm Suzannah, a serious DIYer and mom of two little ones. Follow along with my DIY fixer upper house renovations, sewing and crafty projects, real food recipes, and de-stressing goals.
I believe you can love your home just the way it is, AND have the power to design and make big changes to make it better.
I'm also the author of DIY Wardrobe Makeovers!

Navy with teal lace, texture-blocked dress

I designed this dress ages ago, but finally finished it over the holiday. This amazing bright teal lace, plus some of my fave navy cotton twill (I got like 6+ yards of it years ago and have been slowly using it in pieces), in a colorblock/fabric-blog/texture-block dress. Panels of lace down the center front and back panels of the bodice (anchored in the princess seams), plus a panel hand-sewn down the front.

I used Simplicity 1913, which I've used before even with some piecing, but I've never done a contrast panel with the center front and back, though it's so easy to do with a pattern like this with the princess seams.
I got this incredible emerald/teal chemical lace fabric c/o WholePort, but it's so heavy it didn't really make sense to make an entire dress or skirt out of it. I cut the center front and back panels of the base fabric (navy teal), the lining fabric (navy lightweight cotton, not visible in these pics), AND the teal lace (see my Sewing Circle post on how to sew on lace and some lining options).

I sewed the front and back panel pieces as one with the navy twill, so the lace edges are sewn into the seams and zipper. I matched the centers of the lace in the front panel, but didn't space it out perfectly once the seam allowances were in. Oh, well! Maybe I'll belt it to distract! ;)

On the skirt I tacked the lace down very carefully with relatively methodical hand-stitching in teal thread. You can't see it from the outside at all. Then I hid the top and bottom edges in the seam and hem.

It was fun!! And I love manipulating simple patterns to get a totally different look from the envelope picture, with the same structure.

 I highly recommend it!, and thanks again to WholePort for the lace!

13 comments

  1. Gorgeous dress! Love the colour combo xx

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  2. Pretty! I love the print that you used. And the black panels are very flattering!

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  3. This dress is gorgeous!! Great work!

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  4. That is awesome Lauren! Thanks for sharing :) Love that I just found this blog.

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  5. Such a cute dress! Super flattering on you!
    I love the colours and colour-blocking with the lace was such a brilliant idea! I've been trying to come up with ideas for some lace I have and this just opened up a world of possibilities for me :)

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  6. Beautiful! I love your hair as well.

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  7. I LOVE this dress! I've been wanting something exactly like it!

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  8. I love it! The lace is great and I really like those two colours together!

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  9. Love the pop of teal lace on this piece! I say wear a belt and no one will ever know any mismatching :)

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  10. I love how you paired those colors together! Great job!

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  11. Love the lace and the panelling effect, it looks super sheik on you! Well done lady!

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  12. Very flattering, and these are the colors that I used for my wedding last November. :-)

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