Whereas the lace appliqué preparation and finishing is an entirely manual process, the actual application is being done using a specialist embroidery machine.
After receiving the French lace in one continuous piece, I individually handpick the areas of the floral patterns that will be sewn onto the sheer base and separate the flower clusters. After cutting the rough patches of lace and carefully placing them on the mesh base on a mannequin to determine the correct position on the body, they can be permanently fixed by machine. This process involves guiding the floral patterns through the free hand foot of a specialist embroidery machine, allowing to contour the exact florals and pattern parts that I wish to sew onto the sheer base. To achieve the clean tattoo-like look of the contrasting florals, all excess fabric and tulle has to be manually cut away without damaging the delicate mesh underneath.
Whereas main sewing operations like seams and elastics are sewn in by machine, there are so many additional manual steps involved in the creation of each single garment. All these steps are so natural to me that I sometimes don’t even consider them as extra they quickly became part of my day to day sewing routines. Read more about the invisible stitches you probably never heard of before in our next article.