you have been pinched by the flower fairie for not giving flowers to those who posted on your question!
I´ve used net, left over from a bridal project, stitched it on cotton, hooped and removed the cotton underneath the area to be embroidered. Process might seem a bit tricky, but it worked out very well and the net didn´t have a very noticeble effect on the lace pattern. The odd piece of cotton will no doubt be somewhere around the house, the net is another matter. Good luck.
Well, I've used all sorts of sheer material to stitch out lace, even sheer tricot (very stretchy, and not so easy to do, in case you are wondering. It all depends on the look you want. If you want the real lace look, I would suggest sticking with the WSS. Certain papers (coffee filters, paper towels, etc) may work, but then you are left with the paper fragments inside your lacework. Another possibility is plastic food wrap. You can stitch it out on the plastic wrap (2 layers) and then use a hot iron and place the lace between two sheets of newsprint-type paper. Don't use the actual newspaper or you might transfer over some ink. Ironing over the plastic will melt it to the paper, leaving the lace behind. It will never be as soft and pliable as that stitched on WSS, but sometimes that isn't what you want anyway. Good luck with some experimentation! You never know what might work for you until you try it. =]
My daughter has used coffee filters before. She read about this on another blog. She was satisfied with the results. But, I haven't used the filters yet. So, I cannot guarantee anything. She also told me she read where you can use press'n'seal food wrap. This person said it was easily removed with a warm iron after you cut extra away. Remember, no guarantees. I haven't used the coffee filter or the press 'n'seal. I would test it on something scrap first.
Puppyjo, I don't know if you read my comment to you on bhahn's question, but the gist of it is that I've heard of people using paper as stabiliser, but I don't know what kind and haven't tried it myself. If you do try paper I would be interested in knowing the result. You could buy stabiliser on the net. When you said it was too cold to shop, I didn't realise it was *that* cold. I'm *still* having a meltdown just thinking about it, it's 30C deg here today, approx 86F! Almost too hot to shop hahaha.
I haven't tried it with this heart yet, but I *have* stitched out some FSL designs on regular fabric before with no real problems - just stabilize well since the designs can be dense.
Wow, Puppyjo, I thought it was cold here at 10 degrees. Understand about the heart thing. I think if you're making actual lace, the Water Soluble Stabilizer is a must. But, I think I remember somebody saying that these hearts are not so dense, and could be sewn out on regular material. I THINK. Why don't you try one on maybe a pair of jeans? Hoop stabilizer, stick jeans to stabilizer, then try a heart. Or maybe try one on an old t-shirt, case it doesn't work? Or wait till somebody who actually *knows* something answers you? Good luck, puppyjo.
If you just want a lace look then you would embroider as normal onto the object you are embellishing. However, if you want true stand alone lace you need to have a good stabilizer for the process that can be effectively removed afterwards. I paid a lot of money for my embroidery machine and would Never use food wraps in it. or coffee filters. Never mind that it would probably void your warranty. The purpose of wss (water soluble stabilizer) is two fold. One it is good quality to withstand the very large stitch count but also when you rinse it out a certain amount should be left to stiffen the resulting lace piece for example - ornaments for the xmas tree. Completely rinse out for linens. There is nothing more frustrating than to be stitching out a lovely piece of fsl and see the whole thing ruined because of using an inferior piece of stabilizer. Ask me how I know. I only use Vilene or H2O now. Hope that helps. Fsl is beautiful and makes a classy addition to pillowcases,napkins, table linens etc. and can be very addictive.
Mumra