A Sequined Bolero

So what is the perfect match for a sarong dress?  A bolero, of course!

I made a Dorothy Bolero not too long ago in cotton pique, and it worked as a wonderful coverup for my checkered sundress.

I was really hoping that I would have enough of this fabulous novelty print to make myself a matching coverup for McCalls 4425, and it turns out, I did!  Not only that, I managed to do a pretty good job matching those oversized motifs to the actual dress, which will be more obvious when I get the post of the dress construction finished.

I knew that I wanted to add sequins to this piece to match the embellished dress, and initially, I planned to stitch the embellishments on the collar prior to construction.  But as I was thinking things through, I realized that it was not an ideal solution with such a narrow collar.  I ended up applying the sequins to the already constructed and lined collar.  Some of the threads show through on the back side, but it really was the only way to go, so I will just have to get over the visible stitching.

There are a few sequins on the front and back pieces as well, but those stitches were easily hidden since there were multiple openings through the sleeves and the lower center back lining.

I love the look of layered sequins, and although I am going to put the bling away for the time being, it has been a lot of fun playing with shiny things this year in my sewing adventures.

The actual construction of the bolero is fairly simple, and everything went together smoothly.

The only issue was how to iron the garment once the sequins were attached (the cotton does wrinkle, and it's impossible not to scrunch things up a bit while stitching the embellishments in place).  

But I did remember a silly little iron from the quilting section of the fabric store that I picked up many years ago.  It never got much use for quilting as I didn't see the point, but that tiny little iron was just the thing to get into the small spaces between the sequins.

This is what makes it so challenging to get rid of any of my sewing stuff - it always ends up coming in handy years later.

And it now appears that I will be hoarding sequins of all shapes and sizes for some future project that I feel needs to be encrusted with sparkly bits and beads, so that has to be added to the extensive list of sewing accoutrements stashed away in my home.