Waiting for Spring and a digitizing lesson on Freestanding Lace

What a shocker! The weather when I returned home was so absolutely fantastic that I truly believed Spring had arrived. The Redbud trees were in full bloom and the jonquils and daffodils and grape hyacinths along with the tulips were indeed showing splashes of color in my yard. But….came a cold wind and the temps went way down to the twenties…what a horror. Dh cut several branches of the lilacs to bring inside as they would surely freeze and my kitchen and dining room smell divine with their glorious smell. As I sat down to finish off my gift to all my friends around the world for Spring, I had to think….where is spring?? Perhaps I can bottle a bit of it in my little gift and spread it around the world.

It was while I was finishing off the design that I thought of the various friends that have time and again asked me to write a blog regarding digitizing of Freestanding laces. Seems this is the most coveted technique by many digitizers and one that can be created in so many different ways. I’m by no means the last word on creating fsl but the technique that I have created is similar to hand created laces where threads are worked together.

Several months ago, I had received an email from a friend who had downloaded some of my fsl samples. She was confused looking at the sew simulation of the design in her software. It showed no grid layout which would hold up the design at top. Rather confused myself I had to sit and understand and then it made sense. Laces are made in so many different ways that there is no one true and correct method. Any method that would hold the threads together is fine. I encouraged her to stitch out the motif and see if indeed it held together after washing out the wss. She was surprised and pleased and requested that if I ever teach the method that I employ, she would love to be there as a student.

One of the most used method by digitizers is to create a mesh like underlay upon which all the other stitches are then placed to give the look of a design. This is nothing more than straight stitching lines placed horizontally, vertically and then diagonally. This lets the thread become intertwined together and thus lays down the base for the stitches that would be placed on top. As the thread is going in all directions, it becomes sort of like a fabric and definitely has a bias to it. Because of that bias, sometimes, the top stitches do not sit well and therefore there are gaps and or problems in stitching out the design. I do want to point out to digitizers here that I am by no means criticizing the method, rather trying to educate about the concept of thread.

As thread has a width…about 1mm (40wt embroidery thread), then it stands to reason that the closer the stitches placed to create the mesh, the harder the piece would become. The farther apart the stitches making up the grid…the looser and finer the fsl piece and more problematic as the threads can break and therefore loose the base. A trick was introduced here by digitizers to double up the stitching process….therefore two runs of the stitches vertically, two runs of the stitches horizontally and then two runs of the stitches diagonally…both ways…one left to right diagonally and the other right to left diagonally. Definitely the threads will hold together and create a lovely piece of thread lace especially if stitched out using rayon threads and if all the wss is washed out. If one pulls it holding one edge…you will notice that like fabric, the piece has a bias stretch…therefore stretch lace. I found this out when I was creating the Christmas gift 2004 and could not understand why the panel at the bottom had a pull to it.

After creating the mesh, usually a satin stitch design is placed on top and the whole piece encased within at least two layers of satin stitch edgings which keep the shape. Everything is fine until the wss is washed out and that is when one side tends to be a bit awry than the other side….and the reason being of the bias pull on the base threads. The method is one way of creating fsl but it has many drawbacks and is most definitely not a sturdier lace for times to come. The only way one can use the lace created in this manner is to not wash out all the wss (water soluble stabilizer) rather keep it stiff so the lace piece does not lose its shape.

When I started creating the Kanta Laces, my goal was to create Brussels type lace which is a heavier weight lace. It is almost impossible to lose shape on the lace and the best manner to use it is to wash out all the wss as that then showcases its beauty properly. Laces are meant to drape and to be fine to the touch…not hard and stiff. To showcase the example of methods that I use to create laces, I have used the Spring 2007 Gift design as my sample. The design is a simple design but one that I have been working on since Christmas 2006 and was finally able to finish test sewing and finalizing after my return home on Monday.

Satin stitches are the most loved type of stitches, simply because they really show the shine of the thread and also have a most delightful effect that makes one reach out to touch. In creating fsl, however, satin stitches can be the most dangerous stitches as they tend to pull in the design and can distort it considerably. But there are ways to tame the satin stitches so they would showcase all their beauty. And the way to do this is to create a well stable base which will not move at all. The only way to do this is to manually punch all the base. A rather difficult and most tedious method but one that is sure to produce absolutely wonderful freestanding laces. Looking at the image of the Spring gift design, one can see that it has a flower in the center which is surrounded by leaves and small candlewicks (my signature). The whole is then encased within an oval which holds the shape of the design. To start off….I had to really think how I could maintain the oval shape. As the shape can distort due to the laying of threads, it was the first piece that had to be stabilized. Just as any digitized design stitches well when the outer areas are defined first by stitches, the center stitches then maintain their shape and the outlines do not move away. The center of the design was the focal point and where I intended to use the satin stitches. All the elements had to be joined together so the base would be ready to accept the final top stitches. As this is done in layers, each of the layers then has to have the density allocated in such a manner that no one place is harder than the other, rather the whole piece has the same weight throughout. A rather tedious job and one that requires constant stitching out of samples.

There were two areas of concern in this motif…one being the outer edge maintaining its shape and the other in the center holding together the surrounding motifs so none would overlap or be distorted.  After stabilizing the outer edge I decided the center would hold all the surrounding elements best if it was well placed by stitches that could not move…hence a grid, similar to the mesh as I talked about but one without the diagonal stitches. Diagonal stitches create the bias whereas the horizontal and vertical do not. As the base had to hold all the top elements, each of the elements had to have a base and connected…this part of the design used about 186 objects or elements. The center flower had two colors or shadings, the area could not be too dense rather an open mesh defining the edges and the circumference was created deliberately leaving the petal areas open to allow the top stitches to fill up the space. The second layering was of the leaves which could be connected by using the oval outer edge as the travelling area to join the stitches. There are many types of satin stitches…the most loved being a satin. Other types can cut into the satin creating penetration points which actually give off an interesting appearance. Not just that but also the penetration points avoid the satin stitches from pulling or distorting the shape of the object (in this case the leaves).

The next step was to create the branches and finishing the outer edge of the oval. Meanwhile, look closely, every object is somehow overlapping the other. As freestanding laces are stitched upon the wss, the wss holds the shape until it is removed. With the objects overlapping upon each other, that tiny bit of overlapping comes in handy in showcasing the object upon removal of the wss. If the overlapping is not there, upon removal of the wss, the objects tend to be limping in space so to speak and the open areas tend to droop. This further prevents the whole motif from being of one weight throughout which is a definite need. As the outer edge is what will be handled the most, it requires a bit of attention in making sure that the stitches would not unravel. Doubling up is what I call it where layers are created but overlapping one another by barely a bit and that is what is done to maintain not just the final shape but also the long term maintenance. Not only that but if you look closely at the software generated image and then the image of the actual stitchout, you will see that in the software generated image, it almost looks as if the candlewicks have disappeared underneath the final oval whereas in actual stitchout that is not the case. Remember I talked earlier about overlapping….when the wss is there, everything holds together fine but the real test happens when the wss is gone.

The final object is the flower in the center which must overlap all the objects surrounding it by quite a bit. Not only that but as the petals area is quite open, it required manual punched outlines mimicing the satin stitch look. A word  here about outlines. Outlines are the basis for all types of stitches. When softwares were not available and the digitizer had to punch each stitch by hand, it was the lenght and width of the outlines that made the types of stitches like satin, fills, motifs etc. As I wanted to have a shaded effect to the flower, I had to make sure that I didn’t create any stitches in the areas where the darker shade of thread was to lay. This allowed for breathing space of all the stitches yet at the same time blending and joining. The outer edge of the flower was then encased within satin edges which not only held the inner stitches within a certain boundary but also lend beauty to the design. Final stitches of candlewick in the center made up for covering the center as well as the connectors of the petal threads.

The motif can now be twisted, pulled, etc and will not tear apart nor will it lose its shape when the wss is removed. Not an easy task with hundreds of objects to create a design which is no more than 2.5″ high but a beauty indeed for years to come. It has taken me six years to achieve the process and I’m still learning every day. To all newcomers in the digitizing field and to those wishing to create freestanding laces, my first and foremost advice….learn about the thread and the relation of thread to fabric and to itself. Then alone will you be able to understand the whys of freestanding laces. Meanwhile….compare the software image to the stitched out image without the wss. Notice how there are more open areas than what shows up in the software generated images.

Hope this has lend some insight into creating freestanding laces. There are more than one type. Another type of fsl that I relish in creating are the Tambour or crochet type laces which are the total opposite of what I discussed here today. But that is for another day. Meanwhile, Happy Spring to all and hope the warm weather moves your way…I’m hoping for it myself.