MACHINE EMBROIDERY
FREE DESIGNS

How to make free standing lace (FSL)

1 ) Materials

We typically use:

• Water soluble non-woven fabric, f.e. Avalon Plus (Madeira), usually taking it double
• Thinnest embroidery-needle (We like the Titanium needles from Schmetz, size 75)
• Thin thread (We use cheapest possible polyester thread, e.g. from Moon or Tiger)
• Under-thread of same thread

2) Stitching

• Do not scale the design too much.
  In particular, do not make it smaller, as this makes it denser and our designs have rather small stich-stepsize already. If you are using thick thread or your machine is not capable of small stitch-stepsize, you might want to try scaling the designs a bit bigger. However, the designs on our homepage are optimized for our machine. (Bernina Artista 185)
• Remove loose starting-thread after a couple of stitches.
• Decrease stitching speed of the machine, if necessary.
  Very regular designs like the our crochet-type can be stitched faster at 100% speed.

3) Dissolving fabric & drying

• Cut out the water soluble fabric and place it on a sieve.
  (A holey backing plate does the job very well.)
• Slowly rinse the fabric away with warm (~35C) water.
  Do not wash out completely, as the dissolved fabric acts as starch to give stability.
• Carefully remove excess-water with some paper kitchen towel.
• Let the lace dry completely.
• Place lace between some sheets of paper kitchen towel and iron it with a bit of steam.