Hello, friends!
I’m super excited to share this dress with all of you! It’s one that I’ve been dreaming of making ever since I set eyes on it’s inspiration and put a plan together to sew it! I call this my “birthday” dress as I bought the fabric with bday money back in May 2014. Yes…. it has taken me THAT long to make this dress!
When I first saw Kate wearing the Zimmermann Roamer Day Dress while on tour in Australia in April 2014, I knew that I wanted to make a “copy Kate” and sew my own version of this dress. The Zimmermann dress is a floral broderie anglaise (aka cotton eyelet), but I used a paisley cotton eyelet I found at Joann’s.
Taking a closer look at the Zimmerman dress, it looks like insertion lace is sewn into the eyelet fabric. This was the first time that I considered using an heirloom technique like insertion lace for a modern dress. It’s now a technique that I’ve sewn into three recent garments, but this is the original dress that inspired it. Everyday heirloom sewing!
The bulk of the lace for this dress is a geometric patterned lace that I purchased at Britex Fabrics in San Francisco last year. I also used this for my Sutton blouse. I looked at a lot of laces at the Britex lace counter and finally chose this one as I liked the contrast to the paisley.
To contrast even more, I used a vintage insertion lace that I had in my stash on the sleeves and waistband. I’m not sure where that lace came from, but I believe it was a gift from my MIL a few years ago.
No, it doesn’t match, but I like the juxtaposition of the two laces together with the backdrop of the paisley eyelet.
I am very proud of my work on this dress, so yes, this post is going to be picture heavy with details. I spent about a week working on this dress, which is quite a while for me, when it comes to such a simple garment. I usually spend about 1-3 days making a dress with similar design details.
For this dress, I used Vogue 8766 View F as the base for my bodice. Granted, I modified it quite a bit. When the Colette Dahlia came out, I thought about using that pattern for this dress, but I wasn’t fully enamored with the fit of that dress, so I opted to alter a pattern instead. I did plan to take a pattern drafting class in a nearby town that was supposed to start this month, but I was apparently the only one who signed up for it, and they needed four students. There isn’t another one scheduled, so I guess I’ll have to wait to see if there’s more interest. If I had a chance to take that class, I may have drafted this dress myself, but instead I used my trusty Vogue 8766 as a starting point and went from there.
I made an unblogged version of this pattern a couple of years ago in silk dupioni with a lace overlay, so I was familiar with how this dress fit before I cut into my fabric. I started out by grading the pattern up a couple of sizes to fit me, and then separated the bodice pieces to make a midriff. I also did a slight swayback adjustment on the back bodice piece. I omitted the pattern’s darts and instead gathered the bottom of the front bodice similar to the Zimmermann dress. I then pinned and sewed some side darts to fit my bust shape and alleviate the gaping. The back bodice has the darts from the original pattern.
The sleeves are widened using the cut and spread method and shortened from the pattern’s 3/4 version. I also cut the midriff piece shorter to make a fitted waistband and cut it straight. I didn’t lengthen the midriff piece, but instead sewed a 3/8″ seam allowance between the bodice pieces and the midriff pieces. There’s a 5/8″ seam between the midriff and skirt pieces.
The skirt is just a simple gathered rectangle, a little smaller than the 44/45″ width of the yardage as the eyelet doesn’t go to the selvedge.
The bodice is lined with white cotton voile, whilst I left the sleeves unlined. The skirt is lined with cotton muslin. I had both pieces in my stash which were leftovers from other projects. I used an invisible zip on the back.
I hand sewed the bodice lining at the sleeves for a clean finish and tried to make sure that everything was flush so neither the lining nor the understitching along the neckline would show.
Although I do like the high neckline on the Zimmermann inspiration dress, it doesn’t work for me, so I chose the lower scoop neck of V8766. It’s more comfortable for me to wear and more my style.
I really enjoyed inserting the lace into this dress. It takes a while to plan and sew, but it’s such a beautiful and interesting detail. I followed some of the design on my inspiration dress, while taking into account how much insertion lace I had. I used two techniques for sewing the lace — one is pinning it to the fabric, sewing it and cutting the fabric. The other is sewing the lace to the fabric (on the hem) and then sewing another piece of fabric to that. If you’d like me to share how I did this in a tutorial, I’ll be glad to. I’m planning on making a blouse with insertion lace at some point.
I’ll be honest with you — I almost f***ed up this dress and almost dyed it black. The geometric insertion lace was white whereas my paisley fabric was light ivory. Together, there was just barely a difference in color and it appeared so slight under my Ott light, that I assumed it would meld together. Well…. I started sewing the insertion lace on the bodice and saw how much the white was a contrast to the ivory and it just didn’t look right. My original plan was to tea stain the lace to match the fabric and I suppose I was too lazy to do that in the first place as I was probably a bit too antsy to get started on this project. I kept on inserting lace and moving on and figured I could spot stain it later. Well…. I did try that with my finished dress and that DID NOT WORK. I then tried to tea stain the whole dress. Well that looked even more spotty. So I ended up mixing bleach and water in the bathtub and laying my dress in that for a few hours and VOILA, IT ALL MATCHED! The vintage lace on the sleeves and waistband was also originally a dark ivory and that is white now, too. I also thought this was a dress meant to be dry cleaned, but it really is not the delicate. It withstood the dying and bleaching and washing with no issues. The fabric and the laces are tough fabrics, my friend. I washed this dress in cold water on the delicate cycle and hung it on the line in the shade to dry.
This dress just makes me really happy. 🙂 It’s been a long time in the making and I just love it so much. I wore it to an event last night and it’s been laundered again today to worn to the City tomorrow. Such a simple looking dress at first glance, but it’s more intricate than it looks. And no, I don’t think I look like Kate wearing it. Aside from being a tall brunette with British ancestry, I don’t have anything physically in common with the lithe Duchess. I just love her style and many of her dresses inspire me. She also has excellent taste in shoes. I even have on a lower heeled style similar to the Stuart Weitzman Minx espadrilles she wore with her Zimmermann dress in Australia.
P.S. Check me out. I’ve been learning to how to up my eye game. In movie star cinemascope of course. 😉
Happy Sewing!
- Dress: modified Vogue 8766 with gathered skirt in cotton eyelet, made by me
- Shoes: Stuart Weitzman Barbados
- Earrings: Bauble Bar
Such a beautiful dress. Excited for a lace insertion tutorial
I love this dress. I only just discovered your blog by a link on Cashmerette. You’re totally on my regular rotation now. Gorgeous. Can’t wait for a lace insertion tutorial!
Oh, WOW. I am so impressed. I’m just starting to make my own curvy clothes, and dang, lady, you are awesome – and that dress is ADORABLE!
I love that you used The Duchess as a style inspiration. I admire the looks I see her in and love to see a sewist’s interpretation – that helps inspire me!
Just wondering -how much lace do you think went into the dress?
It was about 7-8 yards of insertion lace. You could use other types of lace, too, it doesn’t need to be insertion, but cotton lace will work better with the cotton eyelet and blend in really well. I would have put another row of lace on the hem if I had more.
Jist lovely, I have 5 yards of black eyelet and have been wanting to make a dress. This is the one. Wish me luck. I love the addition of lace and the sleeves are a perfect length. They say a copy is the highest form of compliment.
Thanks, Bonnie! I’d love to see what you make with your black eyelet!
This is so insanely beautiful!! I’m so glad it turned out okay after all that drama!
Thank you, Kelly! I’m so pleased with how it turned out!
I love this dress! The details, the lace insertions, how beautiful you look in it…….magnificent.
Thanks, Angela! It’s definitely a favorite!
OMG your dress is beautiful, you’ve done such a great job. I think I would have lost interest the moment tea dying didn’t work – maybe just sat in a corner and cried! So go you for trying the bleaching, and it worked! I’m inspired!
Thank you, Sandra! Well, I didn’t exactly cry, but I was certainly mad at myself! I will not make that mistake in the future!
This is an absolutely stunning dress and I love how you used the bleach to make all the pieces work together. You are doing such amazing and inspiring work lately, I am in awe!
Thanks, Carolyn! I’m really trying to improve more with every make and add some little details. Incorporating different techniques and learning new things is certainly fun and makes garments more interesting. 🙂
You look beautiful in that dress. It looks great in white, really one of your colours. I am in awe of the amount of detail in your work and just how skilled that lace insertion is. The combination of the fabrics is lovely. The textures/patterns work together so well. Stunning. Xx
Thank you!! I’ve been trying to spend more time on “fancier” garments and taking extra steps to make each garment I sew just a little bit better every time. This one was definitely a labor of love as I really admired my inspiration dress and I was so happy to make this one work for me! 🙂
Absolutely beautiful work on the insertion lace Tanya! I love the diagonal lines you used with it on the back–so cool! And I totally agree–why not use heirloom techniques for everyday wear? Some of those details are so lovely, and it’s a bit sad we’ve lost some of them.
Why can’t you do the heart eyes emoticon here?? This is so AMAZING Tanya!
Thanks, Abbey! <3
Please do a tutorial of the lace insertion method you used.
You look as lovely as the Duchess! And she looks amazing.
Fantastic dress – I always coveted it but doubted it would look good on me – you’ve proved me wrong.
Do you think lining the dress in a skin tone would give a similar effect to the Kate dress? Thanks.
Thanks – I’ll definitely do a tutorial in the future.
I don’t think the Zimmermann dress is lined. It looks she’s wearing a nude slip with it.
This dress is amazing. I REALLY love the style lines of the lace in the back bodice! I feel like I want to copy you a little, but it just took me a week to sew a much simpler dress and it was driving me nuts at how long it took- I don’t know if I have the patience for such details, lol! And the white if phenomenal, you are right, it would have been such a mistake to dye it black!
Thanks, Michelle! Yes – the back really shows off the design! Sewing on the insertion lace is so fun, I’m sure you’d enjoy doing it when you have more patience!
Tanya, this dress is just gorgeous! You’ve done such an amazing job. It fits perfectly, too. <3 <3 I'd love to see the tutorial for the lace. I think I need lace trim in everything now. 😉
Thanks, Andie! I’ll definitely do a tutorial for a future post. Lace trim is the best!
It’s so beautiful! LOVE IT.
Thank you, Natasha!
I freaking love this dress! You look fantastic and confident – congrats!
Thanks, Heather! I love it. too! 🙂
Oh, I LOVE this. The insertion of the lace is GENIUS. I have a lot of trims at home that I bet would be perfect for this type of technique. I’ve never even considered it before falling in love with this dress. ;-D
Thanks, Michelle! Think of how interesting it would look on a shirt dress!
Your dress is gorgeous! I really love your interpretation of Kate’s dress.
Thanks, Michelle! 🙂
OMG, Tayna, this is AMAZING! I just love it, you wear white really well! I like your version better than Kate’s 😉
Thanks, Megan! I have a couple more white/ivory dresses in my queue. I spilled coffee on this when I wore it yesterday though. 🙁 At least I can bleach it again! It sucks as I rarely ever spill anything on me and I hardly ever drink coffee!
Tanya, this dress is just gorgeous! You radiate happiness with it on. I am so happy that you didn’t try to dye it black. If we ever meet in person, you better put this one in the vault, because it may disappear!
Thanks, Alicia! I’ll be sure not to wear it around you! lol 🙂
So pretty! Love the lace inserts and you look stunning!
Thanks, Marianne!
Tanya, this is BEAUTIFUL! (And you look killer in white, for reals!) I first learned about lace insertion from your blog, and the more things I see you do with it, the more I want to try it myself! Which of the two methods do you prefer?
Thank you, Nicole! I do like wearing white. Definitely going to make another white/ivory dress or two! Sewing the seam allowance of the insertion lace to the fabric is definitely easier and gives a really clean result, but pinning the lace on the fabric, sewing and cutting the fabric away makes me feel all artsy and fun. You can also use regular lace when you use that technique.
Very flattering on you, and the lace inserts are beautiful!
Thank you, Jo!
I LOVE Kate’s dress and your version! I recently did a “Princess Kate” sewing inspiration blog post and I didn’t include this dress only because I knew I wouldn’t make it this season but this is one of my favorites on her and you’ve done a really great job of modifying it to be uniquely yours! If I end up making a version, I’ll be asking you for insertion tips! 😉
Thank you, Allie! 🙂 I loved your Kate post and actually just picked up some navy wool suiting to make a blazer after seeing how well she pairs hers with dresses and jeans. You could totally make a version of this dress! It would look so gorgeous on you!
oh so pretty and such great details.
Thank you, Sarah! 🙂
This dress is absolutely fabulous. I love all the detail and you look great in it. Now I’m inspired to try the insertion technique too! Thanks!!
Thanks, Liz! It’s such an easy and cool technique to do. It would look lovely on some of your dresses!
What an absolutely gorgeous dress! I love how much detail it has. Very good you managed to keep it white, it’s lovely!
Thanks, Marije! The good thing about having a white dress in a sturdy cotton fabric is that you can bleach it!
That dress of Kate’s is one of my favourites. You look wonderful in your version, and I love the details, you should be very proud of this make.
Thanks, Kaitlyn! I really do love it and look forward to wearing it often in warmer weather. That’s probably the last summer dress I’ll be making this year.
Gorgeous!! So many cool details! And you look so happy in it!
Thanks, Meg! I just love it immensely! 🙂