How to Line a Lace Dress
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Learn how to line a dress for modesty and coverage you are comfortable with. Line the bodice of a lace dress or the sleeves of a lace dress.
I love wearing lace and sewing with lace. Lace has such a beautiful texture and can be so feminine. And there are so many different styles of lace!
Often dresses made from lace have parts that are lined and parts that are unlined. I’ll teach you how to line a lace dress so that it looks complete!
The hardest part of this project is finding the right fabric that closely matches the lining in color, weight, and type of fabric.
I usually take my dress to the closest big box fabric store and hold up the lining to lots of different fabric. I check for stretch or no stretch, weight, drape, hand, and color.
Do you love to alter and refashion? Try some of these sewing projects:
- How to add sleeves to a strapless dress
- Refashion dress ideas
- How to make a dress longer
- How to add sleeves to a dress
- How to add back darts to a dress
- How to line a lace dress
How to Line Lace
Supplies
- Dress with unlined lace parts
- 1/2 a yard or more of fabric that closely matches the lining in color, weight, and type of fabric
- Sewing tools
Do the best you can to trace the unlined lace to make a pattern piece. I usually fold the unlined lace and then trace half.
Make sure to add seam allowance where there will be seams.
Do the front and the back.
Fold the sleeve in half to trace the lace sleeve.
Sew the side seams and shoulder seams together with the decided seam allowance. Finish the edges.
Sew the sleeves into the bodice and finish the edges.
Finish the edges of the outer edge (like the neckline, center back, and bottom edge) of the new lining piece.
Pin the new lining into the unlined section. Decide if you can topstitch it in or if it needs to be hand stitched.
This dress had topstitching around the neckline so I machine stitched around the neckline following the original stitching.
Once the neckline is sewn in pin the bottom edge to the original dress lining and hand stitch in place.
My dress had a center back invisible zipper so I folded my lining in and hand sewed the fold to the zipper tape.
Topstitch the sleeve lining in place by sewing over the original hem.
Give it a good press to keep everything in place.
If you make something using this sewing project, I’d love to see! Please share it on social media with the hashtag #heatherhandmade and tag me!
I believe small sewing moments can create great joy. Find your own “right” way to sew. -Heather
I cannot thank you enough for sharing this tute. I have always wanted to make a skirt, top or dress with an overlay of lace but terrified to do so. I will make it first out of a fabric that is inexpensive this way I will learn from my mistakes and not carry them over to the real thing. I can’t wait to make something (top) and see if I can really handle the task but I will do so with more confidence since you are mentoring me. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being there for me once again.
You can do it!
Hello Heather! Thank you for this. I love your info. Can you suggest how I might go about making a dress with simple lines, say a sheath, with a lace fabric and a lining? Do I line it as if I were making a lined dress from a non-lace fabric? Or can I just treat the two fabrics as one during construction?
I think it depends on the lace but I usually see these dresses attached at the neckline and sometimes the sleeves. Then the side seams and hems are done separately. You would have to do a French seam on the lace.