This cute swishy lace mini dress, a DIY dupe of this eye-wateringly expensive designer alternative, is trending over on TikTok and Instagram! Sister Mag Patterns whipped up a pattern so you can recreate this silhouette at home, and we thought we'd give it a go. Read on for more, kindly modelled by Simone from our Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland store team.

Pattern Details - GIVY Scalloped Lace Mini Dress

Meet Givy, the dress that was made to twirl. It's Sister Mag Patterns' take on the viral scalloped-lace mini that's been all over Instagram and TikTok - reimagined as a pattern you can sew, fit and style entirely your own. We made up a size 34 (8) for Simone, using 3m of our Edged Floral Lace - Black, some black cotton lining and a length of Poly Tulle to give the skirt some volume. We also used 2x spools of black thread, 1x 23cm black invisible zip, 7m black satin bias binding. 

A few modifications were made to the pattern, including omitting the pockets, using satin bias binding for the straps, adding a layer of poly tulle to the skirt, and binding all of the internal seams for structure and a polished finish.

- Instead of cutting the skirt piece along the edge of the fabric, we aligned the edge of the pattern piece to the bottom of the scalloped edge of our lace. Then at the end, once we'd finished the rest of the dress, we trimmed the excess below the scallopping, to give a shapely hem. 

- The lace can be a little tricky to gather. We made two long lines of basting stitches and gathered very slowly and carefully. You could also try doing multiple shorter lengths of basting stitches, which reduces the tension on the thread when gathering, and reduces the chance of it breaking. 

- If you are binding the internal skirt seam as we did, we'd recommend sewing the binding on by hand, as there is a lot of fabric that can easily get caught in your machine. 

The pattern is listed as an intermediate pattern, which we found accurate! The only two notes we made were that the instructions would benefit from a bit more detail throughout, and the pattern links to instructional videos for other garments/projects, which we found a little confusing. Otherwise this was a fun project and what a fabulous end result, the dress definitely reflects the drama of that trending silhouette! 

Looking for lace? Each of our stores has a small selection of designer deadstock lace fabrics, and you'll find a few online here.