Would like instruction for doing free standing lace.

video on free standing lace..http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elpr...

http://www.advanced-embroidery-de...

If you can find a stablizer called Sulky, then use this to embroider free standing lace. It is thicker than the normal wash away stablizer. Once the embroidery piece is finished cut away most of the Sulky and place the piece in warm water for a few minutes (until the Sulky melts away), dab off the excess water and dry on a flat surface. The lace piece will dry to a hard finish. Any small pieces of left over Sulky can be used to rinse free standing lace pieces after washing - it has the effect of starch. Also larger pieces of left over Sulky can be moistened at the edges and pieced together to make a larger, useable piece to make another project. Hope this helps. Do enjoy your free standing lace. - Margaret

Hi, Wilder, these patterns are free standing lace FSL), meaning no fabric necessary. They won't fall apart without a fabric backing. Just use wash away stabilizer to embroider on and when the design is complete. cut away most of the stabiblizer and then wash away the rest. Happy sewing!

1 comment

by cutiepie 03 Feb 2008

Just wanted to add that cutting away the majority of the stabilizer before you rinse it is pretty important if you don't want to spend an hour getting it all out. WSS is basically a starch, so when you get it wet, it dissolves into the water. You will probably want to leave just a hint of it behind to give "body" to your lace, but you don't want too much left behind. If you leave a bunch behind to rinse out, you will have a hard time getting your lace clean enough (think of 'overstarching' something and the sticky, flaky mess left). Ask me how I know this. *wink*

ruthie pretty much said what I would have said. The site she meantioned has been very helpful to me! It is one of my bookmarked sites. Also by reading past answers you have a wealth of information from a lot of experienced individuals.

Wilder, there is a good free video tutorial for FSL (free standing lace) at http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elpr... Butterflyluvr is right, you do need both threads the same color. You will need to use wss (water soluble stabiliser), and depending on the type/thickness of the stabiliser depends on whether 1 or 2 layers will be required. FSL is lots of fun to make and looks so gorgeous, have fun, flowers to you both. Don't forget to read back over the previous Q&A's, there is a mine of info there.

Wilder, You will enjoy the results of fsl...so beautiful! There's been info given in the past QAs if you read back alittle. You need both bobbin and to thread to be the same colors and use a water soluble stablizer...I used 2 layers and had perfect snowflakes at Christmas. Hope this helps...enjoy!