Lacey Shorts

Hand dyed lace shorts!
I only recently acquired a sewing machine (borrowed from my mother-in-law) so this piece is pre-sewing machine for me. This is completely hand sewn, which is why it took me so long to complete.
The crocheted lace fabric was odd, I'm not exactly sure what it was for to begin with. It looked like the edging to a table cloth - with no table cloth inside, and it was white. It is about 4 feet total length, and took a LOT of effort to get full coverage around my booty without cutting it into pieces! To get an idea of what I was working with, take a wide rubber band or a cloth headband and wrap it around your wrist without letting it fold over on itself or twist.
I hand sewed the hem along the waist line in a decorative fashion... just because I guess. I didn't have a machine, so I made up some silly stitch.

I dyed the lace before doing anything with it. I boiled 13 black tea bags of Lipton tea in a soup pot and let the lace steep in it for 2 days. The result is a very nice "coffee with cream" color that is more aparent in the shots without me in them. The overcast day changed the color of the picture quite a bit.

I also made the shorts themselves from scraps of linen cloth that I had lying around. not the best decision for a pair of bottoms you'd want to wear often, but I worked with what I had, and I consider these a novelty anyway. Maybe I'll rip them up and fix them someday.