I'm a Winner! Also, Inspiration and Ruminations on Time Spent Sewing

I just won a giveaway! All right, not really "just," but I've been letting it simmer in my head for a couple of days. I almost never win things, and usually when I do, they're things like books about possible career options. So I'm obviously pretty excited about this one.

What is it, you ask? It's a half meter of the same gorgeous black guipure lace that Julia Bobbin used to make this gorgeous dress. Thank you so much, Julia!

If for some reason you don't yet follow Julia's blog, you really should. I want to live in her closet, or at least have her quickly-gained sewing skills. :) I only discovered her blog through BurdaStyle, and I'm glad I found her just a few months after she started blogging. I'm so excited to see what she does next!

I've also been pondering exactly what to do with this beautiful lace when it arrives on my doorstep. I'm not the kind of girl who likes to hold on to beautiful things because I'm afraid I'll screw them up. I firmly believe that beautiful, expensive fabrics are meant to be sewn up, worn, and appreciated. I'm actually working on a blouse right now that will use the most expensive, luxurious fabric (silk) in my tiny stash, which I just bought in December.

Most of my inspiration for this lace has been wedding inspired. Lace seems to be such a wedding-y kind of thing still, even though it's been breaking out of those confines. I've been thinking about using it to make a jacket/top, inspired by a company called Aire Barcelona, that makes just beautiful things.

This is the first one I found. It's a lovely bare-shoulder top that goes over a strapless dress. Exactly what I'm thinking. If it's just the top, I'll be able to wear it more frequently than if it were attached to a dress. It could dress up anything strapless and make it more modest. The only problem with this one is that it would need a stretch lace or some sort of back closure. If I did something like this, the sleeves would also be much smaller, like only the top quarter.

The second one I found has a front button closure and is extremely modest. I like the general idea, but high necklines don't look the greatest on me, so I was thinking I would lower/widen the neckline and possibly raise the hem.

And that's when I saw this last one. It's just beautiful, it would be more versatile, since it could be used over a spaghetti-strap dress as well, and it's fun because you can wear it with a dress that has a midriff detail like the gorgeous beading on the dress the model's wearing. Imagine this in that black lace over a black strapless dress, or over nude, white, pink... Pretty much anything. :) Love.

We'll see. Lots of inspiration. For now, I'm going to keep working on that silk blouse, which I'm hoping to be able to show you soon. My sewing is not getting any speedier, but I'm learning a whole lot about fitting and my body. I apparently have to make tiny forward and narrow shoulder adjustments in addition to the swayback and FBA adjustments.

Random question of the day: when you're adding up the time it took you to sew something, what do you count? Just the sewing of the final garment? The cutting of your fashion fabric? The muslin and/or fitting/altering? The tracing from the original pattern (if you do that)? I count everything except that original tracing, since I know so many people skip that part, and I'll never have to do it again for that particular pattern. It's the fitting that takes me the longest, though. What's the most time-intensive part of sewing for you?