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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

DIY White Lace Cami Top Tutorial

White lace has absolutely entranced me this season - the RAFW catwalks were overflowing with the stuff and this editorial got me all warm inside. When I was at Sham Shui Po fabric market recently (check out my post here) I bought 3 metres of gorgeous white lace. The other metre I decided to use to make a little white cami. It was so easy!
DIY
You need - 1 metre of white lace, scissors, a sewing machine (can be handstitched though too!), tracing paper.
1. Fold the lace in half - this will be the length of the top. Pin the folded sides together.
2. Using a cotton top, trace out the shape for the cami onto the tracing paper (finally the bfs architectural paper makes itself useful!) Cut out the traced shape.
3. Lay and pin the trace over the lace. I only needed to do the shoulder area and then I just extrapolated out the body of the cami.
4. Cut around the pattern.
5. Cut out the neckline too.
6. Sew the top - along the two side seams and the top of the straps. You don't have to sew any hem along the edges or elsewhere because once you tidy the lace up it will have an nice raw edge. Turn the top inside out so the seams are on the inside and there you go - the hard part is over.
7. Finally - you need to tidy up the lace edges and neckline. Because the lace I used was round circles in a grid pattern I was able to create a symmetrical neckline but carefully cutting out the circles.
Voila! This is the final neckline. You could also make this top a crop style by simply cutting it shorter but I wanted to be able to wear it tucked in too. Might cut 3 inches at the bottom off and add buttons on the edge so you can either have it as a crop or a cami top... Versatility is key!
Wearing - DIY lace cami top, DIY pink mini skirt, gap khaki jacket, suede flats.