LACE Flowers

I call them “Lace Flowers” but perhaps someone has a better…more creative or original name?  I’d LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!!  (pretty please!?)  Hey… anyone out there???  Hmmm… well as I wait with  baited breath, let me tell you a bit about these little jewels of threadplay….

Quite simple to do… and make them as fun as you’d like with variegated and solid polyesters, rayons, or cotton threads.  Start with:

• 90/14 topstitch needles, or a microtex needle
• bobbin wound with the same thread as your top thread (I love the Bernina 830 with the JUMBO bobbin which holds 40% more thread… add that with the Bottom Line polyester thread, adding an additional 40% more on a bobbin… and you are REALLY SET UP NICELY!!!! Yahoo!
• a free motion foot; for this technique, I love my #9 closed toe, smaller metal foot, as it allows me to get closer to the wooden hoop edges
• wooden hoop 8″ or 9″ that will fit conveniently underneath your foot
• tulle netting
• pattern
• water soluble sticky back stabilizer
• water soluble clear film for topping

Here’s my hand-drawn flower traced onto the sticky backed stabilizer (Aqua Mesh Plus with a sticky back)… (you could use Aqua Bond as well… whatever you choose; it’s sandwiched with a layer of white tulle and the Aqua Film topping which was ever so slight sprayed with temporary adhesive to make it easier to hoop it all.  I also used a sharpie marker in black, but any color will work, just use a fine tip.

No you don’t have to draw flowers… How about a hankerchief? Will post pictures of the one I made in another blog entry… or how about lace edging on a collar?  I’ve done some on jean jackets… but this would be great for dragonfly wings… and lots of other designs…
 Anyone have any other ideas?  And YES… this is the technique I use for “Jamie’s Angel”  wings and lace edging on her dress… see that post here.

You can see here that I have loaded a black thread; my choice is KING TUT 40 weight in solid BLACK, with a bobbin-weight black polyester on the bobbin… I like the King Tut for it’s heavier presence with outlining the flower.  My favorite foot… #9 closed toe, a smaller free motion foot makes it easy to work around a hoop. Drop your feed dogs, GO!  I trace around each line TWICE…. for extra boldness and presence…

Don’t forget to llllllooooooowwwwwerrrrr your top tension!  Lower it at least 1-2 settings.

These are the threads I used to make the flower shown… all of them tri-lobal polyesters from Superior Threads — “Rainbows” in variegated colors… Preetttttyyyyyyy!!!

Just go in circles… small, big, overlapping, and filling in until it pleases you!   Go slow to medium speed, or your threads may frazzzle… as well as you?! 

I like to trace a bunch of them in varying sizes on a large piece of stabilizer fabric and free motion them together, which also makes it easier to hoop them, and getting them all done at once, means you have less thread changes and you also don’t waste as much material product…

Just another shot… some of the black details get covered up by the surface colored threads… but no problem!  I will go over them again when I attach them to my quilting surface, to give the flower dimension, and to attach it in a “no see” way!  That post coming another day!

Here’s a picture of another flower, which was done in blue variegated tri-lobal polyester threads…

There will be a white ‘laced edging’ I’ve added to the outside petals, which was done in a 40 weight white rayon (Sulky) thread, with white Bottom Line polyester thread on the bobbin!  Love it!

And here are a couple pics of the finished lace flowers, trimmed of excess tulle, after washing out all the stabilizer product…

I hope you’ll tell me what you think…?  What other creative ideas does it prompt you to contemplate?!!  Hmmm?

I’d love to hear from you!

EnJOY!