How to Make Needlepoint Lace

Once the basics of needle pointing are understood, one can make anything a masterpiece with their very own needlepoint design.

Needle pointing is rapidly becoming more and more popular. When needle pointing, you can design and create patterns which are then placed onto other items as a decorative embellishment. Things that can be enhanced with needlepoint lace are pillows, clothing, and many other decorative accessories. You can create your own template for a needlepoint lace pattern or find a template from a different source. Templates can be found in magazines, the internet, or books specifically written for needle pointing.

Things You'll Need

• Needlepoint pattern
• Card stock
• Tape
• Couching thread
• Sewing thread
• Sewing needles
• Scissors

Instructions

1. Place your needlepoint pattern over a piece of card stock. Next, secure the pattern to the card stock with tape. Make sure the tape is not covering the lines on the pattern. Holes should then be poked using where the pattern indicates.

2. Cover the borders of your pattern with couching thread. The couching thread should be covering the outside border and the thicker borders that are in between the different figures of your pattern. The couching thread should be laid on areas that are firm enough to support the shape of the lace.

3. Secure the couching thread along your pattern by using sewing thread. With a threaded sewing needle, push it up one of the holes made in the beginning of the process. The sewing thread should then be wrapped around the couching thread and moved through the same hole that the needle was just pushed through. Keep moving through the holes until your couching thread is secured.

4. Cover all of the couching thread on your borders with a buttonhole stitch. The stitches should be close together and any unwanted threads can be hidden underneath the buttonhole stitch. Be sure that all borders are covered.

5. Work with the rest of the lines on your pattern. After laying couching thread over them, use an overcast stitch to cover the single thread. If there are spaces, make sure they are filled in so that they look solid. Starting at the widest space, sew rows of buttonhole stitches until the whole space is filled.

6. Flip the base of the needle lace over after it is complete. Remove the sewing threads that are securing the lace on your card stock by cutting them off with scissors.

References

• Textile Dreamer: Needlepoint Lace Tutorial
• Free Craft Patterns: How to Make Battenberg and Point Lace