Umbrella Girl and Battenburg lace -- a marriage made in heaven! We've taken Umbrella Girl, a beloved embroidery icon for many decades, and dressed her up in a little lace.
While Umbrella Girl cuts a stylish figure in her bloomers, she looks positively dashing in a pretty patterned Battenburg lace skirt.
Read on for instructions for adding a little lace, and a lot of interest, to Umbrella Girl!
Supplies & Materials:
Supplies Needed
**Cotton embroidery or sewing thread for embroidering the lace
**Water soluble stabilizer
**Paper towels
**Small piece of organza (optional)
The designs used in this tutorial include:
- X9429, A Light and Lacy Umbrella Girl (Battenburg Lace) Design Pack
Special Project Notes:
Battenburg lace requires the use of cotton thread. Rayon or polyester thread will not work in Battenburg lace, as it won't hold up the delicate stitches.
I use Coats and Clark 30 and 35 weight cotton thread. It's labeled as Mercerized ELS Cotton for Machine Quilting & Crafts; Machine Quilting; or All Purpose. I've also used Madeira Cotona, which is a 30 weight cotton thread.
I use the 30 - 35 weight cotton thread both in the bobbin (I wind my own bobbins) and in the top (needle).
For an even more delicate, and somewhat softer effect, you can use regular bobbin thread in the bobbin (which is usually 70 weight), and 30 - 35 weight cotton thread in the top/needle. Bobbin thread, however, only comes in white and black, so if you choose to use regular bobbin thread for your lace, you'll be limited to using white or black in the needle (as to make the piece good-looking from both sides).
A note about water-soluble stabilizers and needles:
There are many, many different brands of water-soluble stabilizer available. Some are thin and light, some are fibrous, and some are thick and heavy. It can be confusing to pick the right one for your lace project.
We've digitized and stitched thousands of freestanding lace designs, and have consistently excellent results with Sulky Ultra Solvy (the heavy weight water-soluble stabilizer by Sulky) and Vilene, a fibrous water-soluble stabilizer.
Use a sharp needle (as opposed to an embroidery needle) when embroidering onto water-soluble stabilizer - especially if using the "plastic-looking" kind (such as Sulky Ultra Solvy). An embroidery needle has a larger point, which makes larger holes in the water-soluble stabilizer, leading to tearing and misalignment.
Gather Materials:
First, embroider the Umbrella Girl design. Since the design is stitch filled and the fabric will need support to hold up the stitches, I backed the fabric with medium weight cutaway stabilizer that was sprayed with a bit of temporary adhesive.
Start Embroidering:
Next, embroider the lace skirt design. For further information, see our project instructions on how to embroider Battenburg lace .
After the lace is dry and pressed, you can add a layer of sheer fabric to the skirt to give it added shimmer! Lay the lace on top of the fabric (I chose organza) with the right side facing up. Pin in place.
Then, using the same color thread as the main part of the lace in the top thread and the bobbin, sew a seam about 1/4" in from the outer edge of the lace around the entire outer edge of the lace.
Trim away the fabric on the backside of the lace (to the outside of the seam) leaving about 1/8" excess.
Pin the skirt in place on the embroidered Umbrella Girl design with the top edge of the skirt aligned with the bottom edge of her corset and pin in place.
If you would like the skirt to flow freely, again using the same color thread as the main part of the lace, sew a 1/4" seam along just the top edge of the skirt.
Or, if you want the entire skirt to lie flat, sew a 1/4" seam along the entire outer edge of the lace. And your Battenburg lace skirt is complete!
