Here, the buttonhole stitch was worked into the fabric on the box, but now I wanted to make a piece of free standing lace. I made a pattern for the design:
The design is drawn on closely woven, fine cotton. This is backed with a piece of craft vilene (pellon) and another piece of cotton on the bottom. This is all machine stitched together around the edges. This method of making needle lace was published in the same book and was written by Eunice Kaiser. I adapted it slightly to make my piece and I used a permanent laundry marker for the outline, so that I can use the pattern again, and wash it if necessary. It remains to be seen if it works!
Foundation threads are stitched along the pattern lines. These tacking stitches are taken out when the work is finished and the lace is lifted from the backing.
This proved to be more time consuming than I had thought and some careful planning is needed in laying these threads to ensure that there is always a support for the filling stitches. By the time I'd laid half the foundation threads I was wishing that I had chosen a smaller and simpler pattern for my first attempt!
3 comments:
So, you're couching the threads down and you'll hang the needle lace on that and the cloth is just the pattern? Do you want it curved like that? Will the curve affect the lace?
Can't wait to see the next photo.
Hi Diane. Yes, the cloth is just the pattern. It's very flexible, so it bends to make it easier to work the filling stitches. I've found that the good thing about working this way is you can easily hold it in your hand.
Beautiful box - lovely stitchery!
Post a Comment