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Pls suggest budget friendly sources - online only as I'm in Australia (Moderated by Deepika, Sharon1952)
Posted on: 5/16/12 4:21 AM ET
Hi all,
I'm making my best friends wedding dress and she has her heart set on fine Chantilly lace - ideally in a VERY pale grey/ pale blue or pale mauve colour.
The colour isnt so much of an issue - it's the price of said Chantilly lace in Australia - starting at $90, with the bulk of the nice laces at around the $150-$250 mark. I need 4m for her gown and I have a total dress budget of $600...
I'm dearly hoping they'll be cheaper in the US, or at least have a better range.
Hence the request for online sources only - I can't check out the lace in person! International shipping isn't an issue as I have a US shipping address.
Thanks a heap in advance
I'm making my best friends wedding dress and she has her heart set on fine Chantilly lace - ideally in a VERY pale grey/ pale blue or pale mauve colour.
The colour isnt so much of an issue - it's the price of said Chantilly lace in Australia - starting at $90, with the bulk of the nice laces at around the $150-$250 mark. I need 4m for her gown and I have a total dress budget of $600...
I'm dearly hoping they'll be cheaper in the US, or at least have a better range.
Hence the request for online sources only - I can't check out the lace in person! International shipping isn't an issue as I have a US shipping address.
Thanks a heap in advance
Posted on: 5/16/12 1:31 PM ET
I looked all around for a source too, and have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as an inexpensive chantilly and coloured lace is extremely difficult to find.
That being said, McCullough and Wallis had a beautiful selection and the prices were not out of line.
.McCullough and Wallis
I did buy lace in Vancouver at Fabricana at $45 per meter. The salesperson had worked with it a lot and recommended dying it. I'm a bit scared!
I also ordered swatches from an ebay vendor called Outso
Ebay Outso
These were much nicer than I expected for the low price.
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That being said, McCullough and Wallis had a beautiful selection and the prices were not out of line.
.McCullough and Wallis
I did buy lace in Vancouver at Fabricana at $45 per meter. The salesperson had worked with it a lot and recommended dying it. I'm a bit scared!
I also ordered swatches from an ebay vendor called Outso
Ebay Outso
These were much nicer than I expected for the low price.
------
Cheap fabrics, like cheap shoes, are a false economy.
Posted on: 5/16/12 1:38 PM ET
In reply to miss slingshot
I also loved the ones here:
House Fabric
The one I bought in Vancouver is there! I love it.
And one more Ebay:
BridalGal55 lace
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House Fabric
The one I bought in Vancouver is there! I love it.
And one more Ebay:
BridalGal55 lace
------
Cheap fabrics, like cheap shoes, are a false economy.
Posted on: 5/16/12 6:16 PM ET
One last one - a very pretty lace from gorgeous fabrics at $20 per yard!
Gorgeous Fabrics
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Gorgeous Fabrics
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Cheap fabrics, like cheap shoes, are a false economy.
Posted on: 5/16/12 7:25 PM ET
Thank you Vivienne- you're a star :)
Sadly I was starting to cone to the same conclusion, but you've given me fresh hope!
I've accepted that I may just need to take a big gulp and be prepared to dye the lace from white to grey - me thinks there will be many a sample piece dyed!
Sadly I was starting to cone to the same conclusion, but you've given me fresh hope!
I've accepted that I may just need to take a big gulp and be prepared to dye the lace from white to grey - me thinks there will be many a sample piece dyed!
Posted on: 5/19/12 4:52 PM ET
In reply to Vivienne
Quote: Vivienne
That being said, McCullough and Wallis had a beautiful selection and the prices were not out of line.
.McCullough and Wallis
That being said, McCullough and Wallis had a beautiful selection and the prices were not out of line.
.McCullough and Wallis
I have never heard of McCullough and Wallis before-- what gorgeous fabrics!


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“Guilty feelings about clothes are totally unnecessary. A lot of people earn their living by making clothes, so you should never feel bad.” --Karl Lagerfeld (this counts for fabric too, right?)
Posted on: 5/24/12 1:15 AM ET
Posted on: 8/18/12 9:17 PM ET
Well...I was unsuccessful today trying to dye a swatch of lace.
My grey dye turned the swatch MAUVE which was ok but I had my heart set on grey. I dyed some fishnets afterward to do something productive with the dye. I needed new mauve tights!
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My grey dye turned the swatch MAUVE which was ok but I had my heart set on grey. I dyed some fishnets afterward to do something productive with the dye. I needed new mauve tights!
------
Cheap fabrics, like cheap shoes, are a false economy.
Posted on: 8/19/12 3:07 PM ET
In reply to Vivienne
Real Chantilly Lace would be hand made bobbin lace from France and have over embellished cording on it, and just horribly expensive, even though lots of stuff on the internet that is called the same, looks like it is not really, and looks to me instead made pretty cheaply and still seems to be horribly expensive.
Maybe you can "steal and borrow" some lace off some older used wedding dresses and combine then together on the new wedding dress?
If you want to dye the lace grey, I think if it was all real nylon, or all real cotton, or all real rayon, it would dye grey. I don't think polyester,or some thing with any polyester in it, is going to take any dye good at all.
You could (if you had enough time and skill) make something that just sort of looked like Chantilly Lace though, and probably would not cost a horrible lot, but be more time intensive instead. Also if you had several people doing that, and not just one, all at the same time, it would get done a lot quicker.
To do that you could find some more affordable lace you liked, maybe even more like at $15 to $20 per yard someplace if you were lucky, and in a dye-able fiber. Get a little swatch and try that first. I'm thinking if you want the dress to last for decades, cotton lace might be good. Then dye the whole yardage to your grey.
After that, to make it just look more like the corded real Chantilly Lace, you could even embroider and cord it, even just with some cording and a zig zag stitch holding that down, around just some of the lace motifs on it, in only certain spots of it. And you would not need to do that with the whole yardage piece either.
If you marked and cut the dress out, leaving a large extra allowance of fabric around each piece, then you could just over cord and embellish just some particular places on it that way, and sort of get the same effect, without having to really do that just everywhere at all. After that re-cut the dress to the real pattern, taking off any extra fabric around the edges, possibly. Also done that way, your cording and thread used to do that, could be gray and of any fiber you wished, and you would not have to worry if that would dye or not, or even dye the same as the base fabric.
I think done that way (way more time intensive) you could probably sort of re-make some less expensive lace, into something that would really be selling some place for more like hundreds of dollars per yard, for more like under $20 or $25 a yard cost to you even. Just that then, you would probably have a few hundred hours of time into it, instead.
Maybe you can "steal and borrow" some lace off some older used wedding dresses and combine then together on the new wedding dress?
If you want to dye the lace grey, I think if it was all real nylon, or all real cotton, or all real rayon, it would dye grey. I don't think polyester,or some thing with any polyester in it, is going to take any dye good at all.
You could (if you had enough time and skill) make something that just sort of looked like Chantilly Lace though, and probably would not cost a horrible lot, but be more time intensive instead. Also if you had several people doing that, and not just one, all at the same time, it would get done a lot quicker.
To do that you could find some more affordable lace you liked, maybe even more like at $15 to $20 per yard someplace if you were lucky, and in a dye-able fiber. Get a little swatch and try that first. I'm thinking if you want the dress to last for decades, cotton lace might be good. Then dye the whole yardage to your grey.
After that, to make it just look more like the corded real Chantilly Lace, you could even embroider and cord it, even just with some cording and a zig zag stitch holding that down, around just some of the lace motifs on it, in only certain spots of it. And you would not need to do that with the whole yardage piece either.
If you marked and cut the dress out, leaving a large extra allowance of fabric around each piece, then you could just over cord and embellish just some particular places on it that way, and sort of get the same effect, without having to really do that just everywhere at all. After that re-cut the dress to the real pattern, taking off any extra fabric around the edges, possibly. Also done that way, your cording and thread used to do that, could be gray and of any fiber you wished, and you would not have to worry if that would dye or not, or even dye the same as the base fabric.
I think done that way (way more time intensive) you could probably sort of re-make some less expensive lace, into something that would really be selling some place for more like hundreds of dollars per yard, for more like under $20 or $25 a yard cost to you even. Just that then, you would probably have a few hundred hours of time into it, instead.
Posted on: 8/24/12 4:53 PM ET
I tried adding more dye to the bath and ended up with dark purple!
I will either try a different type of dye or just buy some grey lace (now that I have some sources hahah).
I'm definitely not a "hundreds of hours" of sweat-equity kind of girl. I just want a cute little lace jacket to throw on and dress up some jeans, not an elegant special occassion dress.
There is a company called Intimate Dyeing in NC which will do small batches for $49 including return US shipping.
ETA -I bought new dark grey lace which is casual wear type, not couture grade. I will save my beautiful Chantilly for another project.
-- Edited on 8/24/12 11:30 PM --
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I will either try a different type of dye or just buy some grey lace (now that I have some sources hahah).
I'm definitely not a "hundreds of hours" of sweat-equity kind of girl. I just want a cute little lace jacket to throw on and dress up some jeans, not an elegant special occassion dress.
There is a company called Intimate Dyeing in NC which will do small batches for $49 including return US shipping.
ETA -I bought new dark grey lace which is casual wear type, not couture grade. I will save my beautiful Chantilly for another project.
-- Edited on 8/24/12 11:30 PM --
------
Cheap fabrics, like cheap shoes, are a false economy.
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