The traditional season for weddings, late spring to early summer, brings great joy and new beginnings to many couples and their happy family and friends. Today many bride-to-be’s, as they search for the dress often opt for the sheer elegance and sophistication of the bare neckline look in their choice of wedding gowns.

While the bare neckline and or bared shoulder look adds to the fairy tale elegance of the gown, perhaps the bride-to-be (and others) may feel that there’s a little too much ‘bare’ to display, at least during the solemn ceremony. What to do? Consider a stylish shrug, bolero, caplet, or jacket made out of lace or the sheerest of fabrics as the perfect temporary shoulder cover-up for the strapless or tiny straps gown, or the portrait, v-shaped or sweetheart neckline.

The demure cover-up can be sewn using any of the following patterns:

• McCall’s has a charming shrug , to be made from a lace or sheer fabric such as organza or chiffon, Pattern M4776 in Misses’ sizes 4-18.



• Simplicity has a delightful bolero , lined, pattern number 5561, in sizes 4-18 to make in sateen, crepe, laundered silks-rayons, brocade, satins, shantung, or taffeta.



• Vogue offers a stunning caplet pattern number V2776, unlined, and featured in lace of English netting and beaded medallions that seemingly floats on the shoulders.



• Butterick has a fast and easy
  jacket pattern to make lacy or sheer, number B3345 in Misses’ sizes 6-22, for faille, organza, light weight taffeta and crepe fabrics.

If making the little cover-up wrap out of lace, consider these tips:

Choose a pattern with few seams or darts and lace that is easy to cut around the motifs while keeping them intact for easy piecing together and to conceal any overlapped flat-seamed edges. Use tiny hand-sewn stitches to seam the overlapped lace edges together. Most lace used in garment construction requires some underlying support. Use sheer organza, or organdy for lining and traditional seaming for sheers.

Lace that has a definite raised embroidered look works well such as:

Alencon lace gets its name from a town of the same name in France, southwest of Paris, and dates to the 17th century. It is a very sturdy and beautiful lace with an embroidered look on a sheer net background. It is distinguishable by the silk-like cord that outlines each lace motif.
Galloon lace, with its definite scalloped edges is easy to cut into strips to use as edging.

Guipure or Venice lace has no net background upon which the lace motifs lay, but rather is stitched on a cloth background that is washed away in the finishing process. Easy to piece and cut out the lacey motifs.

Chantilly lace is ephemeral in its delicate beauty. Also named for its city of French origin, it has a net background.

Although lace can come with startling prices, just a little over a yard is all that is needed to make any of the cover-ups. All suggested patterns easily lend themselves to a variety of sheer fabrics as well as lace in creating the demure wrap.

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