Do you love the look of these beautiful lace free standing doilies, but
can't be bothered to stitch them out because of the extra work involved
in putting them together?
I have a passion for FSL and have been stitching out doilies for 10
years now and tried various different techniques to do this. This
technique I've developed myself for a couple of reasons. One...I
don't have the time to hand stitch doilies and don't like to mess with
clue. The other reason is that I am very thrifty and do not like
to throw away perfectly good stabilizer, even though they a scraps.
The breath-taking Butterfly Lace Doily being used for this article has
been created by Janet Criswell. The lady is a true artist!
I've been purchasing Criswell Designs for a number of years now and all
have been digitized to perfection. This beautiful doily has been
stitched out in two tones. The bottom colour is a rich burgundy
and the top colour has been stitched in a soft gold rayon embroidery
thread. This design is also striking in black and gold. To
see more of Janet Criswell Designs, please visit
http://www.criswell-emb.com/.
I promise you will not be disappointed.
Now to get on with the instructions for assembling a FSL Doing the Easy
Way!
One product that I use quite often is Aqua Bond. Love this product,
but there is so much waste and like I said, I really hate to throw anything
away. Save those scraps because they do come in handy! They do a
great repair job if you made an error and end up with a tear in your fabric.
Just apply a patch of Aqua Bond to the top and bottom then carry on with you
machine embroidery. Aqua Bond rinses away and leaves no residue.
Do not rinse the stabilizer out of you doily sections before you assemble.
Instead...trim the stabilizer around the edges of your doily sections,
leaving roughly 1/4" to play with. This particular doily has curved
sides, not straight. If this is the case with your doily, make sure to
cut small snips on the curve in order for your doily section to lie flat.
As you tape your strips of Aqua Bond to your doily sections, you will be
folding the original stabilizer back out of the way.
After you have all the sections, including the center trimmed, lay your
doily out, upside down on a flat surface. Now you are ready to start
taping your doily pieces together with the strips of Aqua Bond. I cut
my strips approximately 1 1/2" wide and as long as you need them for the
length of the sides of the doily sections. Cut a little extra in
length for overlapping. Don't forget to peel of the paper backing from
your strips of Aqua Bond.
I like to assemble my doilies by working two sections at a time and lining
the end of each section up with the center piece first. Work your way
around your doily in this manner until all sections are securely taped down
with Aqua Bond Water Soluable Stabilizer. Please pay close attention
that all the seems on your doily are butting up together tightly. Now
flip your doily ride side up. If you find that there is a section or
two that is very stubborn and doesn't want to lay flat, take a small piece
of scotch tape and secure the stubborn part of the doily section down.
Make sure when you are stitching your doily together that you remove the
scotch tape before you stitch over it. When your doily is securely
taped together and turned right side up, it should look very much like the
finished product with no gabs anywhere.
To finish the assembly of your FSL doily use a two-step zig zag stitch with
a width of 4 and a length of .5 stitch around the center piece to join the
side pieces to the center. Note: If you are making a two-colour
doily, use the top thread colour (in this case, the soft gold) for joining.
With needle in the center position, pivot and stitch toward the edge of the
doily along the curved seam. Follow the contours of the seam all the
way to the edge. Pivot and stitch back over the seam you just
stitched. Pivot and stitch along the base of the side piece till you
reach the next curved seam. Repeat this process till you have stitched
all the seams. Stitch along the base till you reach the beginning of
your stitching. All the seams have been stitched over twice.
Your Free Standing Lace Doily is now ready for soaking. This sounds
like a great length of time, but I like to soak my doilies for at least 8
hours. By soaking this length of time, you are guaranteed to have all
the stabilizer removed. The excellent results are well worth the wait!
After soaking and allowing to dry, steam press with your doily face down
using a pressing cloth.
My stabilizer of choice for all my Free Standing Lace projects is Inspira's
Aqua Magic (you only need one layer). I use Aurifil's 50wt Mako Cotton
Thread whenever possible and Admelody Rayon Machine Embroidery Thread.
My least favorite choice would have to be polyester thread. I find
that because the polyester thread is a bit thicker than the 50wt Cotton or
Rayon Thread that it can distort the shape of a delicate lace design.
This technique for assembling FSL doilies has literally cut the assembly
time in half for me and I have found another great way to use those Aqua
Bond scraps! You can use this method to assemble any FSL, not just
doilies.
Michele Potter
www.not-just-threads.com
