All Laced Up

"Operation Stashbust" has resulted in projects of various sizes, shapes, and varieties -- for instance, a toasty top for Rosa to wear this fall and winter. 

This cotton "sweatshirt" fabric has seen many incarnations. Originally it was used for Rosa and Laddie's Christmas pajama pants two years ago, and more recently for pajama pants for Little Man. But it was time to get out of the pajama rut, don't ya think?

I'd been toying with the idea of including lace in a "sweatshirt" design, and decided this was the perfect opportunity! I pulled out some Cluny lace from my stash (I'd actually used the ruffled Cluny lace for a skirt years ago, and then harvested it when the skirt wore out), and got to work. I drafted a pattern sloper for a raglan-sleeve top/dress a while ago (which I've used for everything from nightgowns to dresses), so I used that for this top. And, of course, what's a new top without a matching hair bow?

I had to get creative with the sleeves, because after making Little Man's pajama pants I ended up just short of enough fabric to cut them out -- instead, I divided the sleeve pattern down the middle, attached each sleeve piece with a strip of fusible interfacing, used my widest zig-zag stitch to connect them more permanently, and then topstitched the lace down the center of each sleeve. It worked out quite nicely! Necessity really is the mother of invention, it would seem.

To attach the lace to the hem, I marked my hem and figured out where the lace would need to be to have the proper "clearance." I then stitched the lace right-sides-together to the shirt before hemming, and then hemmed the shirt. The result is a normal hem (rather than attaching the lace at the hem line and ending up with either an awkwardly narrow hem, or very little lace showing). I think my lace was stitched on about half an inch away from the edge of the shirt. I don't know if that makes much sense, but there you go!

I can't wait for the weather to cool down so Rosa can wear her new top -- she's pretty excited about the matching hair bow. And I'm thrilled to have a little less in the stash!