Lace & Pearls

Add lace, beading or pearls

This is the change that makes a plain store dress look like nobody else's. It's slow, but it isn't hard, and you can do it a little at a time, an evening here and there.

Plan it on the dress first

Put the dress on a dress form or a patient friend and pin the appliqués where you think they should go. Then step across the room and take a photo. Placement that looks right up close often looks busy from where your guests will be. Work out from the center so both sides match.

Sew it on

Most seamstresses hand-sew appliqués with tiny stitches around the edge of the motif, so the lace looks like it grew there. Fabric glue is quicker, but it can stiffen and show through tulle, so save it for small fixes. For pearls and beads, use a thin beading needle and thread that matches the dress, and knot every few beads: if a thread ever breaks, you lose a few pearls, not a whole row.

How other brides did it

• Hand beading a wedding gown (Mary Corbet, Needle 'n Thread): an embroiderer sews tiny pearls onto the lace of her niece's gown, with close-up photos.
• Wedding Dress Wednesday: hand beading (BonnieProjects): the bride's mother beads Chantilly lace across a bodice and adds 3D lace flowers.
• Wedding Bells (Refashioning History): an old gown's lace re-beaded with the bride's grandmother's pearls.
• Reusing appliqués from the train (Julann Blake, sewcreatelive): lace and beaded motifs unpicked from the train and placed on new shoulders.
• Matching new lace to an old dress (Kristina J.): new lace and bead work added to a bride's existing gown.
• Adding lace appliqué to a bridal gown (video, MB Bridal Couture).
• Adding beading to your wedding dress (video, Ava's Bridal + Alterations).

Want someone to do it?

Choose the appliqués yourself and take them, with the dress, to a bridal alterations shop. Placing and sewing is work they do every week, and it costs far less than a custom gown.

What you'll need

• Bridal lace appliqués: buy a few more than you think you need. They're hard to match later.
• Small ivory pearls or seed beads: hold them against the dress in daylight, because "white" pearls come in many whites.
• Beading needles and beading thread.
• A dress form: makes placing lace much easier than pinning onto yourself.
• Fine silk pins and a thimble.

Sew a test patch on a scrap of the hem allowance or a hidden seam first. You'll find out how the needle goes through your fabric before it matters.

More ways to make the dress yours: adding sleeves or straps, adding a bustle, or start from all the projects.