White Lace

I've got another refashion for you all today! Would've had it yesterday, but light is in high demand and it went elsewhere at about 4 pm...yay winter...
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No one else is cheering with me? ;)

Moving on! I found this white linen sweater and a couple of yards of white stretch lace fabric on different thrifting trips sometime last year. I spent no more than $2 on the lace (I have a limit on what I'll pay for fabric depending on size) and I could have spent up to $4 on the sweater but probably less if it was a half-off day.

White sweater meets white lace!

 My first step was to take the lace and make it into a wide trim, which means I had to snip away at a LOT of lace to create a fancy edge. First I made a rough cut across the fabric making sure to not cut across the roses, then I carefully cut along the edges to give it a uniform pattern and stitched up the flat edge with a zigzag stitch. I sewed the ends together of two lengths of lace and made one large loop.

I should totally cut another loop and wear it as an infinity scarf in the spring!!! 

I set the lace aside and started working on reshaping the sweater's hem and neckline. I cut away the back of the neckline (and a little more to lower it slightly), zigzagged it so it wouldn't fray, then chopped off the bottom of the sweater at an angle. I cut the sweater's original hem from the scrap piece, zigzagged its edge, then used it as "bias tape" to finish off the neckline. It was the perfect size, so I didn't have to do anything more than pin it in place and stitch it down.

Cut the neckline, chop off the hem, and reuse it to bind the neckline!

My next step was to grab my lace and get to gathering it. I ended up folding the lace over on itself as it was longer than I wanted and this gave it a little extra body. My method for gathering was more along the lines of pleating or ruffling it as I sewed it to the light blue bias tape. I then sewed my ruffled lace loop to the bottom edge of the sweater. It was a bit thick and you can see on the bias tape that I went over it twice for strength as my machine was missing stitches (all my fault, btw, should have simply changed my needle and thread). I did make one alteration at the side where I folded a section over on itself because it was a bit too voluminous and didn't lay quite right. 

Ruffle, make a quick alteration and voila!

Now, I am constantly trying on my pieces in the process to see how things lay and how or if I should make more changes. At this point, the original cut of the sweater was making this look a bit weird as it narrowed at the hips and was a bit wider up top. So, I stitched down from the armpit out to the hip area, slimming down the silhouette, cut away the excess and zigzagged the edge.

Cut away that extra fabric! Into the scrap bag it goes :)

One last fitting and it passed! The original way to wear the sweater was with the super-low neckline in front (which would have to have been worn over a tank/cami), and this is how it looks worn with the original intentions in mind:

And here's all the lacey goodness!

However, I specifically lowered the back neckline so that I could wear it this way:

Loooooove a low back!

I love how this one turned out and again, though it is not totally my style, I think it is so incredibly pretty! I'll be adding this to my Etsy shop post haste because I've got another one of these in the works! 

Here's one final look at the before and after:

Peace,

Andrea