Lace Applique Seams - a quick how to

After rushing through the hem of my lace dress - I decided to re-do it properly - and not just properly, full on couture awesomeness.

The dress is already slightly shorter than I'd like, and the original hem much shorter, so I decided to do a band, but as I'm working with the scraps, no section of lace was long enough to cover the whole front without innumerable little patches and joins, which I didn't much like the look of.  So, instead, I decided to try an applique seam, as described in Claire Shaeffer's Couture Sewing Techniques.

lace and underlining + just underlining

I started by sewing together three layers - underlining, lace and underlining.

checking the motifs

Then I laid the new piece of lace on top and matched up the motifs.

cutting out the motifs

 The edge of the overlapping motif was cut out very carefully, about a half an inch from the seam.

 

stealth seam!

The edge of the lace motif was sewn down by hand - resulting it an invisible join.