H & M knockoff dress: finished

Is it perfect?  An exact replica?  Absolutely not.  But does it justify the five dollars and five minutes I spent on it?  

I think so!

The best part was that because the armholes were so small, I had to sew the arm ruffles by hand.  I'd forgotten how enjoyable hand-sewing was.  So much more forgiving than machine-sewing, and you just feel so ... Austenian!

Not crazy about the slight unmatch of the whites?   You can always dunk the whole dress in fabric dye.

I think the picture is sort of self-explanatory, but in case it's not: 

The eyelet/lace is sold by the yard at any fabric store.  You'll want to buy enough to be a bit longer than the circumference of the onesie, ditto the arms.

Draw a line on the onesie with a fabric pen (or pencil) where you want the lace to sit.  The original was more of an empire waist, I made mine a little lower because my lace was shorter.

With right sides together, sew the ends of the lace to make a tube.

Put the tube upside down against the line on the onesie and sew across.  

Instead of gathering, I just made little tucks as I went along.

For the arms, because the edge of the lace comes pre-finished, (and because I'm lazy) I just sewed them right on top of the sleeve, matching the edge of the lace with the shoulder seam.

I didn't do it this way on the waist, because it wouldn't have looked right to me.  The arm already had a seam there anyway, so it doesn't stand out.