All About Machine Embroidery Lace

Welcome back to:

Thanks for staying with me throughout this series. You can catch up here.

I will confess, I’ve used my share of doilies. I actually like them because it means I don’t have to dust quite as often.

Never mind my lazy-bones attempt at housekeeping, there are people who love lace because it is lace and lace is bee-youuuu-tteee-fulll.

If you fall into the second category, then I have some good news for you.

Guess what: You can make free-standing lace on an embroidery machine.

{source}

One of the best sources for free-standing lace designs is Hatched in Africa.

These gals must love their lace because they don’t limit themselves to just doilies.

These free-standing butterflies are a great example of a different type of lace from the collection.

Another use for lace are holiday ornaments. Here’s an example from Hatched in Africa.

Or, how about this awesome lace Christmas village from OESD.

Even if lace isn’t your thing, that village is pretty impressive.

The basics of making lace require that you tightly hoop either a Wash-Away or Heat-Away stabilizer. Topper stabilizers would not really work well as the base for this.

Put the hoop on the machine and let the machine stitch out the lace.

Once the lace is complete, then cut away most of the stabilizer and soak the design in a bowl of warm water if using Wash-Away or touch with an iron for Heat-Away.

**A little hint I learned about lace ~ when soaking away the stabilizer, add a bit of fabric softener. It will make your design very soft.

Because many lace designs are usually small, many people can stitch out several in one hooping.

Did I mention there is no lining up the design! That’s the best part ~ you really can’t mess it up.

In my book, this makes lace a simple and fun project.

Tomorrow’s topic: Redwork