How About Another Peek?

I've made a little progress on the contest dress and thought I would share, here. You still don't get to see much more than a peek here or there - but isn't anticipation half the fun?!

The dress has a single skirt godet of cream and pink beaded lace -

There will also be a lace bodice, with some pleating -

After draping the lace onto the bodice, and pinning and tacking the pleats, the lace came back off, so I can attach a layer of netting to the back of it for added strength and stability -

                                                         

 Using a long running stitch in a random zig-zag pattern, all across the entire piece, I hand sewed the netting to the back of the lace. This will help the lace to keep it's intended shape,and will also add strength the beaded lace.

Here you can see the pleats that have been tacked down. As this is the wrong side of the lace, the beading is not visible.

            Yes, I know,this is a very strange shape! It isn't really representative of the shape of the bodice. It was draped on to the dress, and because of the beading and having to tack everything to the netting before attaching it to the bodice, some of the lace around the edge will be trimmed and cut as I sew it onto the bodice. Each bead left with in 1" of the edge will have to be re-enforced, so as to prevent a horrible disaster of bead droppings!