Just finished my little black party dress after weeks of hand sewing

I made a knee-length lace cocktail dress last fall and the hem was my nightmare too. Mine had a scalloped border so I got lucky and cut along the scallops instead of hemming at all, but the bodice seams nearly did me in. I learned the same lesson about basting, except in my case it was the neckline. The lace stretched about half an inch while I sewed it and the whole opening went wonky. Tore it out, stayed-stitched the lining first, then basted the lace to it by hand before anything touched the machine. No problems after that. For anyone dreading a hand-rolled hem on the next one, I've had decent results with a narrow rolled hem foot on my Singer on the lining layer only, then leaving the lace layer raw where the scallops let me. Not perfect but way faster than pinning every two inches, which I also did for a while and my hands hated it.

The boning thing is real. My first strapless attempt skipped it and I spent an entire wedding reception tugging the thing up every ten minutes. Never again. I also found the corset back way more forgiving than a zipper, since my weight always shifts a couple pounds between fitting and the actual event.

Wearing it out and getting compliments is the best feeling after all those evenings hunched over the machine.

I admire your patience with that hem, but I gave up hand rolling lace years ago after a floor-length skirt that took me three weekends. Now I finish sheer hems with horsehair braid sewn to the lining instead. You stitch it to the seam allowance, fold it under, and catch it from the right side with a straight stitch. It keeps the edge crisp, stops the swishy skirt from flopping limp, and the lace itself can stay raw on top since it doesn't fray much anyway. On my niece's prom dress last spring that trick saved me at least ten hours.

For stitching lace to lace or lace to lining, I've had better luck with a walking foot and a slightly shorter stitch than with pins alone. The pins-every-two-inches method works, but the two layers still creep on long seams. I also lay tissue paper underneath and tear it away after, which keeps the feed dogs from chewing up the mesh.

One thing I do differently on strapless bodices is skip the boning channels and sandwich the boning between the lining and an underlining layer instead. I used Rigilene on my last one and it sits flatter under lace, no channel seams showing through. Your laced back sounds like the smarter fit solution though, since my zipper dress needed taking in after I lost a few pounds.

That corset back is smart, wish I'd thought of it for my bridesmaid dress a couple years ago. I did the boning channels too but went with spiral steel instead of the plastic stuff and it made a huge difference in how it held shape. Did you use steel or the plastic boning? Also curious how you handled the lacing eyelets, I found hand-working them took ages but the metal ones kept popping off the lace.