Embellishing a Holiday Sale Sweater

Our Christmas celebration here in SW Florida was low-key, enjoyable and I also loved seeing the variety of celebrations among blogging friends around the globe.  Mr. Lucky and I went out for brunch on Christmas Eve and wandered a beautiful mall afterwards.  After buying a new saute pan on sale at William Sonoma,  he sat in Barnes and Noble while I cruised the stores doing some snoop shopping and ultimately some real world shopping.  I was eyeing jackets in Saks Fifth Avenue to get some ideas for what I want to work on for the 2011 jacket sew along.  Then I stopped at Ann Taylor for their 40% off everything sale.  Ended up with three sweater which you will be seeing over the next few weeks.  It's been so cold here in Florida (no, I understand, not as cold as elsewhere!) that I was looking for sweaters with real warmth.  I wear mostly rayon nylon blend sweaters and knit tops because they are cooler in warm weather.  But wow, this morning there was frost on the golf course and on our cars and I was COLD.  So I was excited to find a few silk, rayon cashmere blends, perfect for some real warmth but still lightweight.  I've been so inspired by the blog Grosgrainfabulous this past month.  Grosgrain blog  Every day in December (!!!) she bought a thrift store sweater and embellished it, very Anthopologie without the price. Anthropologie sweaters Now, at my age I have to be careful with that Anthropologie thing....too much and I don't look hip, I look like the Carol Burnett washerwoman mix wardrobe.

I don't wear solid black too frequently so wanted to embellish it with something softer.  Luckily I had yards and yards of this lace, I believe inherited from my mother when she was on a yard sale binge in the 80's.  Measured the neckline to the first button, tripled it and gathered the lace then hand stitched it around the neckline.  Did the same at the pocket area and I'm quite happy with the result.

In addition to this fashion project I did get some home dec sewing done over the past few days.   Recovered my dirty ironing board cover and then made pillows as requested for the great friends who watch our condo for us in the summer.  I'm not even a fan of blue in decorating but I love the indoor outdoor fabric she chose.
It's good to be back blogging and sewing.  I love holidays, festivities and fun but I also like my solitude and quiet time.  That's what easy projects like these give me, time to think and regroup.