Making the Dress, part 2

So, what to do with heirloom lace that is 50+ years old? If your mother is an avid quilter, you wash it with the same stuff that quilters use to wash antique quilts. A little goes a long way, I only used the soap left on the protective seal after opening this product and there were plenty of suds. The spoonful that comes with it is enough to do a whole quilt, so don't use a lot or you will be rinsing forever.

Don't worry, we didn't just dunk all of the lace in and keep our fingers crossed, we tested a small piece of it first to make sure it didn't disintegrate. Then we dunked it all in a big soapy pot. We then proceeded to rinse it about 12 times. That much lace got really heavy and with all that 'careful kneading' to make sure we didn't rip it, our arms got tired.

Then we laid it on some old sheets to dry in the evening sunlight. Make sure to shape it as you lay it down. You don't want it to stretch in any weird ways. If you'll notice, that piece of lace is the entire skirt of my Grandmother's/Mother's dress. In the finished product you'll see all of this left intact, in case future brides in the family want to use it.

There were a couple of small stains. I used a soft toothbrush and a stain stick of some sort and gave it a shot.

It made it a little lighter, but a 30-50 year old stain isn't necessarily going anywhere.

And months before the big day, Momma MB sent me the first mockup. Then I proceeded to text her pictures of how it fit.

I thought it was fine, but Momma MB had other ideas and the top was adjusted multiple times from this iteration. She wanted me to look like I had a chest and I didn't want to wear a bra. Because if it was going to work with my backless dress I thought it would have to have boning, be one of those crazy tie around bras or cutlets, and none of those options were appealing.

Luckily we found a solution. Victoria's Secret stick on bra, not the cutlet kind. I think it was this one. I got the nude version and it stayed on the whole night and was totally comfortable. And this is coming from a girl who wears sports just about every day of her life.

Anyway, I'll show you the finished project next time. But at least you didn't have to wait until 2 days before your wedding to see it! Love you Momma MB!