Weddings and Lace

Artful 'T' 2....

June.  The season of Graduations and Weddings.  This year I have a wedding.  It's been awhile since I have been to one so I am looking forward to it.  It will be the first of two that I will attend this year.  

I have also been noticing that lace is EVERYWHERE!  Every store I go into, every catalog I open...lace, lace and more lace.  SO....

           Weddings & Lace

...were the inspirations for my second go at an artful T-shirt.

(It also turned out to be my second go at "refashioning.") 

I found this really lovely 'fabric' in the form of an not so lovely top at Marshall's.  It is a sheer rayon and silk blend with an all over silk embroidered design.  It's hard to tell here, but it is a very, very pale pink color.  

I started by taking the entire top apart.  I don't know how I managed it, but I didn't make any holes in the delicate fabric.  (Good thing since there wasn't very much of it)  Whew!  

I piled through my scraps and ended up with some pink linen-look rayon, a green and cream gingham, a cotton lawn print and a couple of embroidered hankies.  I got a yard of a silk twill at Fabrications because it was the perfect shade of pink!  I washed it and it turned out soft and wonderful!

Nice pile!  No clue what to do with it.  It sat in the corner of my cutting table, for a couple of weeks...

I tried the sheer over the silk, then over the rayon/linen...I tried the linen as a yoke with the sheer hooked to the bottom over the pink silk, I put it back in the corner of my cutting table!!!  (I thought about putting it away all together, but it kept nudging me...)

I finally realized that the sheer over the pink fabrics made it look too 'fancy.'  This was, after all, supposed to be a T-shirt!  I tried the sheer over the gingham...YES!  It gave the lace detail something to play against and had a much more casual feel.  

(of course I didn't have enough of the check to do the whole top, so the linen was added as the hem of the under layer and looked good peaking out from the scalloped hem of the sheer.)

I kept the basic shape of the original top to get the most out of the fabric.  The silk twill made a gorgeous bias collar and binding for the back detail and I found a rick rack trim in the same shade of green as the gingham.  I added it to make a kind of picot edging at the hems and down the center back.  (the lawn and hankies are back in inventory for another project!)

To make the 'tie collar' I attached a 4 inch bias tube to the neckline and left a small 'hole' where I wanted the tie.  I then made a 3 inch 'scarf' of the silk and tied it through the hole and around the collar.  It looks like the collar is tied, but it stays in place and I could wear the shirt without the tie if I wanted to, the little hole is covered by the fold of the collar.

Weddings and Lace 

Artful T 2....

Riley wanted to help with the photo shoot!