7.11.13 DIY Friday

Love Lace Sweatshirt With Cut Out Heart

Another Breakfast At Mandy's first, DIY Friday! I decided to post a diy project on Friday's for any of those who have nothing to do over the weekend (Sadly, that includes me). Anyway, here it is-a sweatshirt with love written in lace on the front and a cut out lace heart in the back. 

I picked the sweatshirt up at a local thrift store for 25 cents. Not bad. The lace I used in this project is actually from an old table runner my dad was getting rid of. If you don't have a table runner lying around, you could check you local thrift store or buy some lace fabric at any fabric/craft store. For this project, you'll probably only need a foot or so. 

Materials: 

-sweatshirt

-lace material

-paper and pencil

-marker 

-scissors

-pins

-needle and thread (if doing this by hand) or a sewing machine 

Step 1: Using your pencil, draw out the word "Love" on a piece of paper. I started with regular cursive writing and then drew around those letters to make them into bubble letters. Use the marker to make the lines of your bubble letters more bold. If you want a specific font, it might work better to print out your letters and then trace over it with a marker. Do the same thing with the heart. Remember to make these images the same size you'd like the lace to be on your sweatshirt. Here's what mine looked like:

Step 2: Lay the lace over top of your "Love" stencil and your heart. Pin the lace to the paper. It helps if you put the pins on the "inside" of the stencil. In other words, put the pins in the area in which you are cutting around, if that makes sense. Look at the heart for an example. *note: I made a heart within a heart to allow a seam for sewing. The outside heart is where I cut, but the inside heart was to mark where to cut my sweatshirt. If I did this project all over again, I would definitely make that outside heart a little bigger. It's hard to keep the lace pinned in place, at least for a beginner sewer, so you might want to give yourself more room to work with. 

(this is the "Love" stencil)

(this is the heart stencil)

Step 3: Cut the paper and the lace at the same time. The paper provides a cutting guide and also keeps the lace from moving too much. Be careful when cutting out the inside of the 'o' and 'e' in the "Love" stencil. Don't cut the paper, only cut the lace, and cut conservatively. Make slightly smaller cuts than the stencil has to help the lace keep it's shape. This is what they will look like when you are done:

Step 4: Pin your "Love" lace to your shirt and sew away!

Step 5: Cut a hole for your lace heart to go. Make sure it's smaller than the actual heart, so you have enough room to sew it into the shirt. Pin the lace into place and sew away!

(Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this step. But this is my first blog, so forgive me)

Step 6: Take out your pins and enjoy your new shirt! I'm thinking about adding some lace elbow pads in the shape of a heart! or maybe put some lace in on the sides, in the oblique area. Here's how it turned out!

What I really like about this sweatshirt is that it's perfect for summer nights. The lace in the back actually cools your back down enough so it's not too hot. As you can tell, it goes well with a bathing suit (notice the bikini strings right above the collar ha ha). Let me know what you guys think. Also, let me know if you need any clarification on the directions. I know sometimes it hard to understand someone else's directions. Don't be afraid to ask! Thanks for stopping in!