After taking a little detour in my last post on the meaning of "Handmade", this is the second post showing how I constructed a new lace top for my Spring Collection.
In Part 1, I had just finished creating the front/back panel and the side panels, and hemming the sleeves. The next step is finishing the armholes and the neckline with bias tape, to keep everything nice and strong so the curves don't get distorted over time with wear. I hand basted the lace and lining together to keep everything stable:
Next I attached the bias tape and pinned to perfection!
Another round of hand sewing to keep the bias tape in place:
Then I machine stitched the bias tape to the lace and lining, trimmed it, flipped it over, understitched it (to help it lay flat) and then finally topstitched, and it’s finished! Now I just have to do it all over again for the other armhole 😂
Here’s a picture of the finished armhole – Mmmm delicious!
The next step was to finished the neckline, which took some skill to get everything to lay perfectly flat as the curves were tight. The process was basically the same as for the armholes - hand sew lace and lining, hand sew the bias tape on, and then finish the rest of the process with my sewing machine.
Now the fun part - the sleeves! I made 2 designs of sleeves for the top, one is longer and more drape-y, the other is shorter and a bit more modern.
I finally got to insert the sleeves into the front/back and side panels sandwich, and the only thing left to do was the hem. When I did this with the 2 different sleeves, I decided I actually didn't really like the longer sleeve, so it looks like the shorter sleeve is the winner and is going to be on the final top.
I had a few options for the hem, and decided to go with a couture finished hem using hand stitching, so it could not be seen from the outside. I could have used a machine stitched blind hem as well for this, but there wasn't enough fabric at the bottom to do it.
Here it is from the front, no stitches to be seen!
And now, after more hand sewing than I have ever done in my life, is the final lace top! I'd love to know what you think.
I'm going to pair it with a pale grey chiffon skirt for a photo shoot with a model in the next few weeks. Now I've perfected the process and know what I'm in for, I can plan to make it in other fabrics and colors. I do need to get started on the pink-mauve version, which was the whole point of even making this sample in the first place!
I hope getting a glimpse into my process has helped to show how my clothing is made. If you enjoyed this, please consider subscribing at the bottom of the page to the newsletter ⬇️ and follow me on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks for reading!
