Pin It Weekly #195

A Jeanneke Quilts + Scrappy House Quilts has an interesting board of scrappy houses and a few other quilts that I just love. Funny how a modern quilter can love traditional quilts so much. Do you find that you're one style and love another? 

Lace Traveler's "beautiful things in lace" board makes my heart cry for the beauty.

And she has 2,500 pins!

 Maria da  Luz  Gonçalves is another new follower who has many boards and  many, many pins. These pins are from her "SHARE your Mixed Media/ Art/Tips/Supplies/Ideas board which has over 10,000 pins. Go check her site out!

And that's this week's Pin It Weekly! Hope you're inspired to visit a few followers and pin a few pins. Oh, do leave a note telling us what you're pinning this week! We're waiting...

#fleurdelisquiltsonpinterest

Embellish a Favorite Tee with Vintage Lace

I love tee shirts.  They are cool and comfortable in our Louisiana heat, and I've found some simple ones at Woman Within that fit.  They are soft, light weight, and long.  Perfect.


Except.  They are kind of plain. Then I accidentally ordered two of the same blue.  After the little discount I applied to my order, returning it cost more than the tee.  Oh well, keep that baby.

Then I wore a different tee to work...it has a pretty lace inset across the shoulder seam and sleeve.  
IDEA!  Use my vintage lace to do something like this. Oh yea!

Want to know how I did my version?  Here's the tut~~
Please note that vintage lace does not photograph well (not for me, anyway, but what does?)  It sometimes looks more muddied than it actually is....sorry.

After auditioning a couple of laces and deciding on the heavier one with the flowers, I decided that I wanted the lace to curve around the neckline.  

Now, let me say that this was all done very foolishly, without so much as a tape measure.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I "eyeballed" the whole thing.  First I eyeballed about where I wanted the lace and then eyeballed the curve that I wanted to create.  I live foolishly at times.

Flat, straight lines have to be manipulated to follow a shape.  One way to do that is to create a curve with small darts along the length of the lace.  Since knits easily lose their shape when stitched, I decided to shape the lace before stitching it onto the tee.  

I decided to split this tutorial into two parts: Making the darts, and applying the lace to the tee.


Making the small darts.  I made the darts between the flowers, but use the main motif in your lace, and this will center the motif between the darts.

1. Match the centers of two side-by-side motifs, in this case the flowers, right sides together.  

2. Pin on the wrong side.

3. Stitch diagonally 1/8th to 1/4th inch at the top (where my finger is) and taper to the opposite edge which has no seam allowance.

It took 10 darts that each started at 1/4th inch to get the shape that I needed.  However, if your curved lace is too wide, you can resew the darts and take a deeper seam--1/3 inch deep at the top tapering to 0 on the opposite end.  

Adding lace to the tee.  Double check that you have the curve you need, especially checking that the shoulder seams are covered and there's about a half inch of lace beyond the seams.

1. Pin in place at least every two inches or so.  Set your machine for a zigzag stitch just wide enough to catch the edges of the lace.  Stitch following the top and bottom edges of the lace.  I straightened and flattened the lace as I sewed. Do not stitch the short edges at the shoulders.

2. Turn the tee wrong side out, and carefully trim away the tee fabric behind the lace.  Pull the fabrics away from each other to make a small hole.  (I was able to insert my finger into the hole to protect the lace.)  Using the seam as a guide, follow the curve of the lace.  Leave about 1/4th inch of the knit fabric.  

3. Now work on the shoulder seam.  Snip the corners of the knit so that you can turn the raw edge at the shoulder seam to the wrong side.

4. Pull the lace to the wrong side and pin, making sure the tee fabric is also in place.

5. Change thread to match the color of the tee shirt, and stitch along the shoulder seam so that the seam catches the lace on the inside, the raw edge from cutting away the fabric and the shoulder seam.

6. The finished seams should look something like this.  I did not stitch all the way across the shoulder because I am afraid that would prevent the tee from moving with me.  (I like comfort.)

 I know that some items look good when on a flat surface for a photo, but when worn, they can show mistakes.  Here is my tee being worn and photographed.  
  

Not exactly easy to snap this pic, but I was able to make it work (sort of). 

Join me for Sunday Quilt Inspiration tomorrow.

Freaked Out

I finished this art quilt last weekend after recovering from Beta Convention.  I was getting close before we left on Wednesday and did not waste any time getting back to it on Saturday.  When I got it down to the handwork, I brought it in to work on while watching TV.  Sunday afternoon our oldest son came in for a few minutes and saw the quilt.  He insisted it is freaky because I included an image of my grandmother on my mom's side.  I had two goals with the image: that it look enough like Ma-ma to be recognized by those who knew her and that it look enough like any little old lady to be a subtle reminder of someone that anyone would know....an "Everyman" character, if you will.

Will found that it's enough like my grandmother to freak him out.  I'm not so sure about that, but when I mentioned it to my sisters last night, they said it would be freaky to them as well. 

Now I'm worried.  I've posted a picture on Facebook and asked friends and family for their opinions.  I can remove the image and replace it with buttons and lace, but I'm not sure I want to do that just yet.  I guess I'll see what the general consensus is.  Definitely feel free to add your voice to the mix.

Happy Quilting,
Mary

Pin It New Year's

Happy New Year’s to you and yours!  Blessings and best wishes for 2014. 

It’s a bit hard to believe that we are already in 2014.  But we are so let’s enjoy it, shall we?  Here are a few vintage cards to begin.

I have been making scarves for the last day or so, which has me thinking of beautiful sheer fabrics.  It’s a short jump to thinking of lace and romance—a beautiful way to close out my very active New Year’s Day.  I love lace.  Not for me to wear, you understand, to appreciate and stitch on non-wear items or for others to wear.  I can really appreciate these.

Again, best wishes for the new year.  May you and yours have a blessed, joyous 2014.

Mary

Pin it Wednesday #33

I found this board on Pinterest and fell in love!  These beautiful whites and off-whites are just so yummy that you'll wish they were in your stash!

And if we're doing white, let's take a look at white art...well, my definition of white art--art with lots of white in it.

So let's wrap it up with a few white quilts, shall we?

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