Couture-ish Lace Jacket (aka THE WORST THING)

I have been really out of the loop blogging-wise recently, and instead of being a grown-up and admitting it is because I am busy reading Phryne Fisher mysteries wedding planning, I'm blaming bloglovin'. They changed their setup, and I can NOT figure out how it works! My #1 source of blogging inspiration comes from reading everyone else's gorgeous blogs (jealousy may be a deadly sin but it is such a great motivator).

Speaking of wedding planning--most of my sewing time has been spent working on my wedding dress. When I have a big project looming, it really cuts off my desire to sew, since I get nervous about important projects (um, hello, wedding dress!) and stall but feel guilty about working on anything else. This means I just avoid my sewing room and don't produce anything.

This project--I'm getting to it, I promise--was a nice compromise!

My university, Washington and Lee (seen here) has a crazy-supportive alumni network that would be super useful if I had a job like politician, investment banker, lawyer, etc. etc. There's not so much in the way of networking for public children's librarians, but they do know how to throw a good party. At school, we have a Fancy Dress Ball every year. I think in the UK "fancy dress" means a costume party, but our Fancy Dress isn't costumed, it's basically just 4 more years of prom.  Then, after graduation, alumni groups hold similar events in NYC and various other locations. You could go to prom every year forever.

Obviously, an Event means a Dress, but Wedding Dress Fear/Guilt meant No Dress. I got around this by "muslining" my little lace jacket, the one that goes with my wedding dress.

I'd never sewn with lace like this, and I'd certainly never done a handsewn lace jacket or any hand sewing project this extensive. It took forever and I hated it. I hated every second of it.

I thread traced the pattern in white before slowly (SLOWLY) hand seaming every horrible dart and seam, using Susan Khalje's lapped lace method, making the seams practically invisible:

Find the bust dart! #sewing #lace #couture #coutureish ☺️

A photo posted by @alliemass on Feb 15, 2015 at 2:51pm PST

By the time I got to the sleeves, I had listened to about 7,000 hours of podcasts and was cursing the day I ever thought this was a good project.

WHAT WAS I THINKING #tripledarts #sewing #lace #killme #couture #coutureish

A photo posted by @alliemass on Feb 26, 2015 at 2:29pm PST

See any seams? THE ANSWER IS NO.



NO SEAMS HERE.

In the end though--because YES I FINISHED the darn thing--I was so proud of my work and it looked great and I really think it will be very versatile. I'll definitely wear it again, layered over other dresses for formal events or over a tank top or something on a Saturday night.

I meant to bring my real camera to Richmond, but I totally forgot, so unfortunately, here's the only picture of me wearing it at the event. I really am horrible at taking pictures! Is there an award for worst blogger? It's me!



The best part? Remember when I mentioned waaay up at the top of the post that this was a "muslin" for my wedding jacket?

GUESS WHO IS AT IT AGAIN:

DYING #sewing #lace #coutureish

A photo posted by @alliemass on Apr 4, 2015 at 3:07pm PDT

I get a little melodramatic when it comes to handsewing, ugh.

Wish me luck!

xoxo,
allie