Erdem Margot Red Lace inspired formal dress


Here she is. Looking lovely and oh so grown up!
For Gabby’s formal dress our style and colour inspiration came after seeing the beautiful Erdem Margot red lace dress on Pinterest. Soon after, we received a delivery of this stunning red chantilly French lace and that was it – Gabby’s mind was definitely made up.
Making the whole dress in chantilly lace was going to be costly so fortunately we had the perfect colour match for the lace in our 100% silk faille ‘Cromwell Red’ (available at Tessuti Surry Hills and Melbourne only), which I used to bind the neckline, line the lace bodice and for the circular skirt.
We searched high and low for a suitable pattern to recreate the dress, settling on Butterick 5520 for the bodice and sleeves (view A). The raglan sleeves were tapered down at the shoulder seam edge (the pattern has an allowance for shoulder pads) and the bodice was altered for better fit as well as changing the waist dart to a princess seam. For the bottom part of the dress, a 3/4 circle skirt was drafted using the circle skirt calculator. This was so flattering as there were no side seams – just the one seam at centre back. 
She looked beautiful and was happy and I’m one proud Mamma!