I have long admired the feminine touch brought to the foreboding judicial robe by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg . Never embarrassed about her femininity but rather a champion of all things female, Ruth became instantly recognizable in every formal portrait by her ‘jabots’. If you do a Google search on Ginsburg jabots or Ginsburg collars, you’ll learn each one has deep meaning beyond the well-known ‘Dissent’ and ‘Majority Opinion’ jabots. Most are gifts from fellow law professionals, academic colleagues and fans; all are symbols of mentorship and admiration.
Many of us already have garments or accessories that have deep meaning to us plus we have the tools to create statement pieces. Let me show how easy it is to create a lace collar (fit for a Supreme Court Justice) in My Lace Maker software.
You’ll need an image of a judicial robe, so head over to Google and search for judicial robes in Images. Select an image that’s plain, like this one.
Save the image on your hard drive. Open My Lace Maker software, go to File, Load Backdrop. Select the image.
Once on screen, let the software resize the image to actual size. Since we don’t have access to the actual garment, you’ll have to guess the size of the neck opening.* That’s easy to do, just measure a garment in your closet that has a similar neckline. Click on the arrow under the Backdrop tool and select Scale. Drag the cursor from one side of the neckline to the other and enter the measurement in the box. I used 7″. Click OK.
Click on the Lace Library icon, and go to Timeless Necklines. Scroll through the options until you see something you like. I chose Timeless_Neckline_07. Click OK.
Position the collar on the image and resize until it fits. There’s your statement collar!
*When designing collars for actual garments, photograph the garment neckline on a flat surface with a ruler in the image. Save the design as outlined above and when setting the scale, drag the cursor across the ruler to get actual measurements.
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