Reworked Vintage Off White Lace

I guess I’m not the only one. These are uncertain times and everything has a different rhythm at the moment. Nothing seems like following the plan. That will be my only explanation about the last weeks and why I’ve been going through my whole photo gallery until I found this one.

The story about how I started remaking vintage.

It was a few years ago and I was lucky to have a commission for remaking some vintage pieces into new boho dresses. I was excited, but overall… I was scared. You will never be able to imagine how scared I was by then.

I love vintage clothing since I can remember. But in my mind, the idea of using scissors to cut and modify them was almost a sin. Long story short… Part time minimum wage in London, with a rent and bills to pay. I needed the money if I wanted to survive.

Challenge accepted

I got three pieces to remake for my first job. A long dress made of different scraps, a huge embroidered scarf happy to become a fancy dress,… and in the middle of all those amazing fabrics, a really damaged off white lace appeared.

The challenge wasn’t just to make a new dress of it but fixing the huge amount of holes in the fabric. Happy with the interesting task ahead I put myself into it.

Slowly, slowly I fixed the holes I found and put all the pieces together. They were a mix of lace in different shades of white and some dark brown piece for the front.

You can see in the pictures the technique I was using for mending the holes. Also, in some cases I overlapped some appliques of pieces of lace to cover the damages.
The result was far from perfect because of the damaged fabric. But my client was really happy as the piece was exactly what it was meant to be: Antique lace in a dress.

I realised when I finished (and of course, I couldn’t avoid it, when I tried it)… just loved it! I had fixed a bunch of pieces from ending who knows where but probably in the some landfill. That I gave a new life to some scraps of fabric. I loved the touch of that lace, soft and delicate.

Dreaming…

The job was almost a dream. A dream about fabrics. A dream come true in some ways. Not just making a dress other people would wear, but making it with such amazing materials.

Some other pieces came after this one, but this one was the reason I always keep an eye on wherever I can find some forgotten old lace or a damaged piece of vintage clothing. Not just for sustainability but for respect. Some antique fabrics are such a good quality than mending will give them another decade of life in your wardrobe.

They deserve it. So do you!

Berenice
xx