Stitch for warm weather with bright and colorful daffodil blooms! Individual lace pieces combine to create the stunning three-dimensional flower.
Supplies & Materials:
- Hand sewing needle or glue
- Wire cutter
- Needle nose pliers
- Pre-wrapped floral wire
The designs used in this tutorial include:
Finished Sizes: Large: 5" x 2 1/2" Small: 4" x 2"
Special Notes: Shape the lace petals with your hands to look like real daffodil petals. Simply bend and shape the lace petals while they are damp, and they will hold their shape when they dry. Once the flower is finished you can spray it with a water spray bottle to make it damp.
Freestanding lace designs have been specially digitized for watersoluble stabilizer. After the stabilizer is removed, beautiful lace remains behind. When you download the design, you will find a total of 2 files. The file labeled with the letter "a" is the petal piece, and the file labeled with a "b" is the flower center. To make a full daffodil, embroider two of the file "a", and one of file "b".
There are a couple of different kinds of water-soluble stabilizer. One is clear and plastic, and that brand is Sulky Ultra Solvy. The other is soft and fibrous, called Vilene. Both will work very well. Vilene is used in this demonstration. Use a size 11 or 75/11 sharp sewing needle. A sharp sewing needle has a smaller, finer point than an embroidery needle. That means it will make smaller holes in the stabilizer.
Freestanding lace is seen from both sides, so wind a bobbin with the same thread that you're using in the needle.
Hoop the stabilizer firmly. Make sure it is nice and tight with no wrinkles.
Attach the hoop to the machine and load file "a". In this example, 40 weight rayon thread was used. You can also use 30 weight cotton or metallic thread for most freestanding lace designs. Embroider the design.
After embroidering, trim away the excess stabilizer.
The stabilizer's packaging should give instructions for removing the excess. For Vilene, soak the lace pieces for a few moments.
Allow the lace to air dry, then press with a pressing cloth on top.
Repeat the steps above to embroider the rest of the lace pieces.
Take the lace center piece (piece "b"), and fold it along one of the two triangle darts with the wrong sides of the lace together. Using a hand sewing needle and the same thread as used in the embroidery, stitch the dart closed. Repeat to sew the second dart
Once the darts are completed, line up the two side edges of the lace center piece, and hand sew it together to make a cone with a small hold at the bottom point. Make sure the right side of the lace is on the outside.
Cut the wire to 10" long, and curl the end with a needle nose pliers.
Slide the sewn center piece onto the wire, so that the curled end of the wire ends up inside the cone of the center piece. Hot glue the wire in place inside of the cone.
Slide the two petal pieces (piece "a") onto the wire so that the right side of the lace is facing the lace cone. Off-set them, and sew them together with a hand sewing needle to keep them from spinning. Then hand stitch them to the center cone of the flower to keep them from falling off the wire.
