(Free Standing Lace) for BEGINNERS!
Many of us who are now old pro's with Machine Embroidery forget that there are people out there who have just started to learn how to do Machine Embroidery and don't even know what FSL stands for, never mind what to do with it.
FSL stands for Free Standing Lace! Many beginners are very intimidated by FSL and feel they must wait until they have some more experience under their belt before attempting it. This whole way of thinking is so wrong. As long as your FSL Design has been digitized by a professional, then your laughing. If something goes wrong with your design, odds are in your favor that the particular design has not been digitized properly. The other possibility is that you try to put too many sections of you FSL design into a large hoop. Doing this could ruin your stitch out. You could put you tension out and suddenly your stitches in the design are not lining up correctly, which will distort the entire design. People will try to get away with this to save on the cost of water soluable stabilizer. In reality they have just wasted their money and time because your FSL won't turn out looking to nice. Trust me on this one...I'll try anything, at least once, to save a dime.
My absolute passion is FSL, especially doilies. I can't seem to make enough of them. The following lesson that I am sharing with you is the way I was taught how to do FSL by a wonderfully talented lady, Kerrin Brookes from SeamsSewSpecial http://www.sewspecial.com. Kerrin teaches specialty techniques in machine embroidery as well as being the Canadian Distributor for Criswell Designs.
Kerrin got me hooked on Aurifil's 50wt Cotton Mako for stitching out lace designs. This may be a little more expensive that using Rayon, but the end result is well worth it.
Aurifil's Cotton Mako is 100% Egyptian Cotton and has a much nicer sheen to it than most other cotton's. All cotton thread will produce lint in your machine, but the Cotton Mako seems to produce much less than others. I've managed to match the Mako colour and the 100% Egyptian Clear-Quilt prewound bobbin by Fil-tec, which is great because there is a savings by using the Fil-tec bobbin and you can't tell the difference between the top and bottom of your finished FSL. The colour and quality matched perfect.
I prefer Aqua Magic Dissolvable Stabilizer over any other Stabilizer on the market so far. With Aqua Magic you will only need to use one layer, not two. The secret to using Aqua Magic is take your time and let your finished product soak in water overnight (at least 8 hours) This way you are guaranteed that there will be no residue left. By all means if your doing a FSL project that you would like a little stiffer rinse out your FSL sooner. For example I only leave snowflakes in for 3 - 4 hours because I want the snowflake to have some stiffness to it.
Here's a list of what you need for your FSL project:
-FSL Machine Embroidery Design
-Aqua Magic Dissolvable Stabilizer
-Aurifil's 50wt. Cotton Mako or
40wt. Admelody Rayon Thread
-Fil-Tec Clear-Quilt bobbin (matching colour) or
Wind your own bobbins with the same colour of thread your using in your needle for your design.
This is so simple that all the beginners who were intimidated by doing FSL will feel silly and wonder why they didn't try this sooner.
1. Send the design of your choice to your machine.
2. Hoop the appropriate size hoop with one layer of Aqua Magic Dissolvable Stabilizer. (use the hoop size the design is calling for for best results.
3. Make sure to use a bobbin that matches the colour and type of top thread you are using. Regular filament bobbin thread is not recommended because it is too fine for the FSL.
4. Put your hoop on your machine.
5. Thread your machine with either Aurifil's 50wt. Cotton Mako or Admelody's 40 wt. Rayon Machine Embroidery Thread.
6. Start your stitch out.
7. The only thing you are required to do at this point is change the bobbin thread when needed. I put my baby monitor on and walk away to do something else.
8. When your design has finished stitching out, remove it from the hoop, trim away the excess stabilizer. Always save those little scraps of stabilizer. They come in handy for many other things, which will cover another time.
9. Soak your finished FSL in a bowl of warm water (8 hours recommended).
10. Rinse your design and pat off the excess water between a towel, then let dry. Iron.
You now have your first beautiful stitch out of Free Standing Lace!
Some FSL designs need further assembly. The angel doily pictured has 8 angels that are hand stitched to the center piece. Sounds like a lot of work, but it's not. This is a Criswell Design that is one of my favorites. It was stitched out with Aurifil's 50wt. Mako Cotton #4649 Variegated Thread.
To purchase this design online go to
http://www.criswell-emb.com/frontpage/samplers/samplers1.html
Article Written By: Michele Potter