Check out the Information Page for details on copyright, formats, ordering etc

Paypal - Notification of Payment emails - are not always arriving in my inbox for some unknown reason, sometimes delayed, sometimes not at all. This is beyond my control. If you’ve not received your designs within a few hours, please forward on the details for me to verify against my Paypal account to sue4tdesigns@btinternet.com and then I can send out your designs. Thanks for understanding.

Mock Machine Embroidery Filet Crochet

Useful hints and tips for stitching out and sewing together your blocks 

There is no definitive right or wrong way to do things but below are the findings put together by myself and my testers whilst stitching out these designs. My testers used a variety of threads, machines and stabilisers.  Please read through all the sections.

I personally mainly stitched my examples out on my Brother Innovis 4000D, using rayon thread and vilene style water soluble stabiliser although I did experiment with other types of thread and stabilisers and also used my Janome 300e.  I also found I was generally able to gently smooth out the finished pieces back into shape after rinsing out the stabiliser and leave to dry on a towel with pretty good results. 

Tip: When stitching corner pieces or non-symmetrical designs, you may find it useful to flip the design horizontally either in your software or on the machine before stitching so that you can get different effects. This means the piece will stitch from bottom right instead of bottom left. It works better if you flip before stitching rather than turning the pieces once stitched.

Thread

Use the same thread in the bobbin as your top thread.

You can use Polyester, Rayon or Cotton thread.  In testing we tended to use 40wt Rayon/Polyester or Cotton thread.  The type of thread you use and how you’ve set your tension can alter the size of your finished square despite them all appearing to be the same size when stitched out and still in the stabiliser. 

With Rayon thread the design appears to shrink heightwise when the water soluble stabiliser is washed out – this can be remedied by a number of methods including gently stroking and stretching the design whilst it’s drying to smooth it out.  I think also the temperature of the water does have an effect on the temporary shrink value of the thread i.e. hot = more shrink.

With Polyester thread there was less shrink factor but there was more of a tendancy for the edge of the design to curl.  Again this can be remedied by the way you leave the piece to dry.  You can try turning it upside down on a towel whilst smoothing it out. 

With Cotton thread, it tends to hold its shape well but there is a certain degree of curl factor which can be remedied.

Water Soluble Stabiliser

The designs are not particularly stitch intensive unlike many free standing lace designs so there should be less problems with your stabiliser tearing.  Most of my samples were done on the Vilene style stabiliser although I did use the plastic type too.

Washing out your stabiliser and drying

Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to remove the stabiliser.  I would recommend that you stitch together your pieces before washing out the stabiliser as it will be easier to sew them together and match up the pieces. 

Take your time with your wet piece of work and carefully smooth it into shape whilst it is drying. You can pull gently to bring it back to shape but don’t pull too hard! 

Suggested methods you can use include pining/blocking it out on towelling or polystyrene using pins to hold in place, layering between towels and using a heavy book on top.

Another suggestion is to place the unrinsed pieces between 2 layers of plastic canvas (which you can somehow clip together to hold firmly together) and then immerse the whole thing in water and leave to dry still sandwiched between the canvas.

Pieces can of course be ironed/steamed flat and into shape if your thread allows. 

Sewing together your pieces

As above, I recommend you sew before you rinse.

There are various methods for sewing together your pieces which can also depend on the stabiliser you’ve used. 

If you’ve used the plastic type and can tear it away easily without damaging your work, then you can simply do that and stitch the pieces together carefully matching up the gridlines in the mock filet crochet.

If you’ve used the Vilene style stabiliser or the plastic type, then there are various other ways. 

For example, you can cut a border of about ½” around each piece.  Take two adjoining pieces and fold the stabiliser back along one edge and so that you can line it up on top of the other.  Or instead of folding you can cut it back as close as you can to the stitching without actually cutting the stitching.  You can then optionally use pins to hold in place whilst you stitch or something I tried successfully was to use a damp (not dripping!) finger and run it along the excess stabiliser.  This was just enough for the other piece to stick to it. 

Which joining stitch should you use

Again no hard and fast rule as it’s a matter of opinion and also depends on what stitches are available to you. 

To get the perfect result you can’t beat carefully hand sewing the pieces together using some sort of flat stitching. 

But most of us will probably use our sewing machines.  You can use an ordinary zigzag stitch which you may need to make narrower than the default (this will vary from machine to machine) but the default length of the stitch is probably about ok as you don’t want to use something resembling dense satin stitch! 

Look at the stitches programmed into your machine and you may find something that is more suitable such as some sort of bridging stitch.