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Battenburg Lace
| Lace designs have always been popular here at Urban Threads, and we’re excited to introduce a new kind of lace called Battenburg. Battenburg lace is digitized differently than our traditional lace designs, and it uses cotton thread instead of synthetic thread to create its structure. The cotton thread gives this lace a much softer, more flexible feel. Being us, of course, we couldn’t help but mix up the traditional formula a bit, and combined it with some cool satin textures to really make some lace that pops as a super cool bookmark. We’ll show you just what you need to stitch this new kind of lace. |
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To make your new lace bookmark, you’ll
need:
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| First, let’s
talk thread. Battenburg lace must always be stitched
with cotton thread in order to hold its special
structure. 40 weight rayon or polyester thread will NOT
hold up those delicate Battenburg stitches. You want
either 50 weight 100% cotton sewing thread or 30 weight
cotton thread. You can also use it with thread labeled
“cotton embroidery thread.”
Why aren’t we using
the “embroidery” thread? Just a matter of preference.
Both the heavier 30 weight or the embroidery thread will
both create slightly thicker designs. They’ll still work
just fine though, so feel free to experiment and see
which one you like best.
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So, start by hooping up a piece of water
soluble stabilizer.
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Because this is lace, we’ll want
matching wound bobbins. For this design, I strongly
recommend winding matching cotton bobbins, but as a rule
battenburg can be stitched with traditional bobbin
thread for an even lighter feel. This just means that
unless the lace you use is the color of the bobbin
thread, you won’t want to show the back.
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Once your stabilizer it hooped up and
your
bookmark design is loaded, set you machine stitching.
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As this is a two-color lace design, when
your machine gets to a stop, remember to not only change
the top color but also give it a new, matching cotton
bobbin.
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Once you’ve changed your bobbin to match
your next color, set your machine sewing again until all
the details are done. You can see this is a bit of a mix
of traditional and Batternburg techniques, as we added a
thicker, more dimensional raven and text as part of the
design.
Mostly because we can’t seem to do
anything without bending a few rules.
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When your design is finished, un-hoop it
and carefully trim away most of the excess stabilizer
around your bookmark, but don’t get too close to your
lace! It would be a shame to chop it up after all that
stitching.
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Soak your lace according to your
stabilizer package directions until all the stabilizer
is dissolved.
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Pat it dry with a few paper towels, and
try to keep it flat as it dries out.
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And now you have yourself a gorgeous and
slightly gothic new lace bookmark, celebrating one of
our favorite authors.
That and we just adore ravens.
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The lightweight Battenburg lace means
your bookmark is much softer and lighter than
traditional lace, and will sit between your pages with
ease.
Battenburg is a fun twist on machine
embroidered lace, you can bet we’re going to use this to
create all kinds of new, softer lace goodies.
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| Loving the lace? Urban Threads has lots more
enchanting
freestanding lace designs to try, like this
adorable
jointed lace bunny. If you're new to lace,
you might find it handy to check out our basic
lace instructions. A few quick tips for
success: use a heavy water-soluble stabilizer
(we use Sulky Ultra Solvy, which feels like a
thick sheet plastic), hoop the stabilizer
tightly so it's taut like a drum but not
stretched, and only stitch one piece of lace per
hooping. For more tips, check out
this article from Embroidery Library, which
compares different water-soluble stabilizers and
shares some hooping tips. Happy lacemaking! |
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Suggested designs for this tutorial:
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