Dress With Lace

How to Dress up a Plain Shirt with a little Lace

My sister bought some plain t-shirts and needed to dress them up a little in order to wear them for work. One of the things she had done with the tax refund was to stock up on some appliques and lace from Angel Trim (http://www.angeltrim.com/). They have some gorgeous items for low prices.

Anyway I decided to add an applique to the front. The trick is to trying the different ones to find a neckline that would fit close to what I had. I did not want to put a v-neck applique on a scoop neck shirt. Why make extra work. This is the one I ended up with.

You will notice that there is a small cutting mat on the inside of the shirt this is to make it easier to line up the piece with the existing neck and shoulder line. I can then pin it easily. I decided the easiest way to do this was to use some of the Tacky glue to hold it in place then hand sew around the larger pieces. I used the sewing machine and a zigzag stitch on the shoulders and neckline.

I used one pin to hold up a section and put glue on another pin to put underneath easier. You can use anything a flat toothpick would work very well but I was stuck with what I had.

Now I wanted to add something to the bottom and to make the shirt a little looser so it would not roll up on the bottom. I folded the shirt and I cut up both sides around 6 inches.(If the shirt does not have seams on the side then iron a crease into the shirt and use that as the guide for cutting.)

 This is another one of the laces she bought it was 6" x 3 Yds

Almost a perfect match for the shirt isn't it. I wanted it to gather so I cut each piece around 8 inches long then sewed it to each side staying 1/2 inch from the top. To get a clean edge I ironed the seam flat towards the lace first.

 The folded it back ironed again to form a crease and sewed it flat again staying away from the top edge.

I used a decorative stitch to add some detail when I topstitched it.

Now for the top. I turned the shirt inside out and gathered the top end of the lace and hand sewed it shut.

Now to get a nice clean look on the top I pin it from the sewn edge up to nothing.

You can see how it went from a nice but plain shirt to something suitable for work.

Very simple re-do and with the number of inserts out there you can have many different looks for very little money and time. The neck applique runs around 3 dollars and the lace on the bottom even less, remember I only used enough to make an insert.

Lace butterfly

Since I seem to be on a broomstick skirt run here's another. My sister for some strange reasons loves orange so when she saw this one at the thrift store she fell in love.

I did like the touches of brown it added depth to the skirt. This one was a 2X so there was plenty of material. I did the usual removing the waist band and opening the sides up. 

Now I could have just hemmed the armhole and closed the shoulder seam but I wanted something different. We are going to a family reunion at the end of may and definitely needed some comfortable but stylish traveling clothes. I decided that the front neckline needed something to take away from all that orange and to give a focal point. My sister went a little nuts on a site that had lace appliques and there was this pretty brown butterfly that just went perfectly.

I have never sewn on this type of applique. first I pinned then tacked with colored thread to remove easily. I thought at first of using a zizzag stitch over the ends to attach it. That didn't work mainly because the fabric is too gauzy. Next time I know to use a stabilizer. I ended up sewing on the thicker middle with a small stitch 1.5 following along the edge. Then I did a blanket stitch all around the edge to keep it flat. I think it turned out pretty good.

Its perfect for summer and for casual wear. For work she uses a brown belt to give it more shape and make it look professional. Either way the butterfly serves as a great focal point. It works so well on her because she has a large bust otherwise I would have used a small focal.