Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Lace Angel-Sleeve Top

  Last year, I bought a few yards of a beautiful royal blue stretch lace from LA Finch Fabrics, thinking I'd sew myself something from it. Then, in March, my mother-in-law had a birthday! And of course, being in the habit of using my personal fabrics for gifts, I made her a shirt from said lovely lace.

  I used Jalie 2805, and starting with elbow-length sleeves, flared them to add some interest. I hemmed the lace on the sleeves using some tips from Sew Fearless, and they didn't turn out too badly! I used a single needle for this, as the sleeves have enough fullness that they don't need to stretch.

  I lined the whole shirt with plain white knit, and since I've never seen the recipient wear anything sleeveless, decided she might like the coverage of some cap sleeves under the lace sleeves. I wanted the lining separate from the lace at the underarm seam and side seams, so I sewed both sets of sleeves separately, then set them in the round once the body was sewn.

  I left off the neckband, but didn't raise the neckline to compensate. Since the neckline of this pattern starts out quite high and tight that didn't cause any issues, and I really think the slightly wider and lower neckline looks better with this fabric. A little top-stitching around it would have helped to keep things in place, but clearly I didn't do that!

  I hemmed the white layer just shorter than the lace with a twin needle, and used Wonder Tape and wash-away stabilizer to try to prevent the lace layer from tunneling when I twin-needled it. It worked until I soaked the stabilizer away, then tunneled, so next time I think I'll try to find some sort of sheer knit that I can leave in the seam to stabilize it. It looked a little worse in real life than in these photos, but it still looked better than a lettuce-edge or rolled hem would have.

  I did my best to line up the lace 'stripe' along the side seams.

  I have no idea if this one fit or not... I really hope it did! Isn't that lace pretty?

Thanks for stopping by,

4 comments:

  1. It's gorgeous! I love the lace and the sleeves. Good call on leaving the neckband off. I've done it before on that pattern and it creates a nice neckline, dressier than a crewneck but not too wide and deep.

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    1. Thank you! Since I sewed this I've been seeing this type of sleeve pretty frequently... I just happened to do something on-trend! ;-) I really like the size that the neckline ended up - I'll definitely be doing that again. =)

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  2. Wow. Just wow. I don't think I'm brave enough to sew a lace overlay, though I am in mad mad love with the effect. This is beautiful!!!

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    1. Thank you!! Honestly, this type of lace isn't all that difficult to sew... the only part that feels finicky to me is the hemming. That, and I usually have to sort of weave the pins in so they don't fall out! Just remember to size up a little if you are using a pattern for knits- I usually forget that step and end up with something too small!

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