Irish Crochet Dress - Laying Out the Design & Crocheting The Lace

Hello, my Steemit crochet friends!

Can't believe it's @needleworkmonday again and I haven't advanced much with my Irish Crochet project...

I blame the good weather and the holiday season :D

So as you may remember, I am still working on a dress in Irish Crochet technique.

I am now at the stage where I have finished crocheting all separate elements for the dress - flowers, leaves, stems, etc., you can see all of them HERE and now have to lay out the design of the dress and start crocheting the lace.

How does the process work?

Normally, according to all the Irish crochet experts, I was supposed to cut separate parts of the dress from a fabric in order to create a sort of platform for modeling the crochet dress, so as the finished product would suit the wearer perfectly.

I decided I wasn't going to go into all that trouble, and simply took an old but well-fitting dress that I no longer wear and started using it as my model (sorry, I don't know the dress-making terminology for that).

Just in case you are wondering, this purple dress will not be part of the finished project, it's only used here for size/length/shape purposes.

So in my first step I have to lay out the 'picture' using main/brightest elements, which will be immediately noticeable.

^{I don't know what that comb is doing here!}

The challenge here is to place these elements in the right places so as the final picture wouldn't create the undesirable optical effect, e.g. if the bright roses are placed too much on the sides, I think they'll visually expand my waist. So I have placed them slightly towards the middle.

Frankly, I thought this will be the easiest and the most fun part of the whole project, especially considering the fact that I have bought the instructions and know how the finished dress design is supposed to look like.

... but...

... when I starting laying out the picture, I realized it's not as easy as it seems...

For example, when I started laying out the flowers and other elements on the dress, I realized my elements were larger than those of the master crocheter in the handbook (this is because I used a slightly larger hook 0.6 instead of 0.5 and my inferior crochet skills).

What does it mean for me?

It simply means I need fewer of them, which in turn means I have to rethink the design at least in part.

Another thing I realised after walking around that dress for about 2 days is that, in my case, it needs to be longer, so as I wouldn't look too wide. Which means even more adjustements to the design...

At this stage I am somewhat satisfied with the layout of the neck line, so I've started crocheting simple irregular lace, as you can see in the first picture.

The process of crocheting Irish lace is similar to that which I described in my post about the main rose read HERE.
You have to work on a flat surface looking at the 'bad' side of the dress. All elements have to be securely attached to the surface so as they woudn't become displaced in the process.

All of this makes the process really slow and tedious, as I realize now, although I honestly thought it would be a breeze...

When my mom saw me crouching over that dress layed out on her coffee table, she offered me money so as I would simply buy something like that instead of 'killing myself making it'... :D

Get a hobby, enjoy your life!

All photos and text is my original content.

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Thanks @crocheille for #needleworkmonday !