I need help from anyone who makes anything with large pieces of lace
 

I am in process of making a baptismal dress for my granddaughter. It consists of a basic short sleeved dress and a sleeveless coat. The coat is cut with a round bottom, resembling the train of a wedding gown. My daughter bought lace that was about 12" wide, but the pattern allowed us to cut it in half. I now have pieces that are about 6" tall, with areas dipping down to about 3.5". When I pin the bottom edge to the coat edge, because of the curved edge it creates ripples along the top. My question is how best to deal with this. I think I can clip away the extra netting along the edge of the lace, but not sure if that will weaken the lace? I am including a pic to help where my description is lacking. I've never worked with this big of a lace and am not sure how to sew it to the dress, so I need help there too. What type of thread? Transparent? Cotton? Can I sew with machine? Just the edges?

Have made approximately 100 wedding gowns in the last 30 years, so I hope I can help. You can carefully snip the netting close to one side of an appliqué, then "ease" the lace appliqué over the released netting. Meaning, if you trim down the right side of the lace appliqué, gently slide the lace over the netting you just realeased. You would "fit" the lace on the hem, as needed, then ease the top do the lace into the skirt area. I have had some that needed to be eased deep into the lace, almost to the scallop. Good luck, you can pm me if you would like. I can try to walk you through it.

Yes, you can machine sew it - a narrow zigzag with fine white thread or clear poly thread, but the white won't show if you use a narrow ZZ. Do you have an embroidery foot for your machine? It allows a little more room for the lace under the presser foot that a regular 1/4" foot does so it won't push the motifs around.