Lace + Shirt

I'm not a big fan of shopping. I suppose it would be more fun if I could reliably find what I want or like in things that fits that worked for me, but that rarely happens. It's been a problem most of my life for one reason or another and I suppose I've kind of given up on spending too much time hunting for things. Now days I tend to settle for what I can find in a few minutes - especially since I rarely do more than work or run errands in it anyway. So, I have a drawer full of fairly basic shirts. Usually, that's all I need. But sometimes, I want to be a little dressier than jeans and basic shirts without going for the performance/event/church section of the closet.

I've recently been given a stash of laces and other trims, so it seemed like an obvious solution to use one of the pieces to dress up my plain shirt.

I often find it easier to make decisions from pictures rather than the actual samples, so I took a few photos of my favorite pieces auditioning against the chosen shirt:

I actually wound up going with the very first piece I tried (the upper left side image). Some of the others seemed too large (lower right image), and I knew I was going to have to sew along the top and bottom of the lace, so the less straight lined ones (like the top on the right) were thrown out as well.

I wanted the lace to wrap all the way around the neck, so I chose a spot in the back to be my start/stop point, where the two ends of the lace overlapped a little, then pinned the lace in place.

Stitching along the top line was easy - I had a very straight line to follow both in the lace and the line of the shirt's collar.

Stitching the other edge of the lace was a bit more time consuming - but absolutely necessary to keep the lace against the shirt. Again, I used a lot of pins, and just did my best to keep the line of stitching hidden in thicker trim near the edge.

Fortunately, this is a shirt that goes over my head with no need for any stretch, so all I needed to think about was a straight stitch. There were a few places, especially on the outer edge of the lace, when I had to allow the lace to 'gather' under itself in order to make the curve nicely. These areas were a little trickier to sew, but nothing going slowly couldn't handle.

It's not a huge difference, but I think it made the shirt a little less basic than it was before. I certainly enjoyed wearing it more than I did before - and while I think it could still be layered or worn with accessories, it felt more 'finished' without them than it did before.

My husband likes it, but my brother's first comment was 'ew, grandma shirt.' So, outside opinions are tied, but I like it, and since I'm the one wearing it, I figure my vote carries the most weight!