Lace insertion

zippered bag 071Isn’t this sewing technique pretty? You can take a regular piece of fabric and a piece of lace and turn it into this. You’ll need lace that’s the same on both sides (not straight on one edge and scalloped on the other). It’s best if the lace is actually straight on the edges, but the lace shown here has a tiny scallop and worked OK.

This lace is so cute. I got it at an estate sale. I felt sort of bad rifling through an old woman’s things — precious things she’d saved for years. I bought some lace but never get to use it. My husband would get mad if I made lacy things for our son to wear. So please gaze at it and appreciate the old woman’s lace. It may be hanging around until I’m an old woman and there’s an estate sale for me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Process

zippered bag 054

I’m just doing a sample, so here is my piece of fabric that I’ll add the lace to.

zippered bag 055

Lay your piece of lace on top of the fabric. You might like to use a removable fabric marker to mark where it goes. Pin in place.

zippered bag 057

Sew down the right side of the lace, close to the edge, using a straight stitch in a matching thread.

zippered bag 058

Sew down the other side of the lace. To avoid making the fabric warp, sew from the same direction you did on the other side. This may feel a bit awkward since you’re used to sewing on the right side of things.

zippered bag 059

Turn it to the back and carefully cut down the center of the fabric (don’t cut through the lace!!!) between the rows of stitches.

zippered bag 061

Press the fabric to either side.

zippered bag 062

Flip it back to the right side and set a really narrow zigzag stitch. Right now you can see through it and see that the fabric that is pressed back on either side, but we’ll do something about that in a minute.

zippered bag 063

Stitch with your little zigzag down either side on the very edge of the lace.

zippered bag 064

Here it is shown from the back. Just the side to the left is done.

zippered bag 065

Here I’ve shown it from the right side with only the right-hand side stitched. Remember how I mentioned that a straight edge is better? Well, you can see that it altered the scalloped edge just a little bit when you compare it to the left side.

zippered bag 066

From the back, carefully cut as close to the stitching as you can to remove the excess fabric. If you don’t have a toddler pulling on your arm, you can probably do a better job of this than I did.

zippered bag 069

Pretty lace inserted! This isn’t a very sturdy seam, so use care where you place it.