Here at the Embroidery Legacy, we have a special relationship with free standing lace because it’s how our company began back in the 1950s. During that period in my great-grandparents’ embroidery factory, our free standing lace designs were manually crafted one stitch at a time by European Schiffli Masters.
Originally crafted for the wedding and bridal industry, our free standing lace designs are both elegant and soft to the touch. Today, we are one of the only companies that offers authentic vintage free standing lace designs that’ll run on your modern embroidery machine. They’re truly a piece of embroidery history
Our free standing lace designs used to create a wedding dress by one of our amazing fans
How our lace was crafted in the 1950s
Our 1950s Vintage Free Standing Lace Embroidery Designs
Our lace & heirloom designs were initially saved on paper drafts and stored deep in the walls of our family’s embroidery factories for almost 50 years. When commercial embroidery moved overseas in the early 1990s, we shut down our industrial factories and stumbled upon the original paper drafts. What a blessing!
We later re-digitized and converted these paper drafts into modern-day embroidery design formats to allow them to run on your home embroidery machine.
Click here to view our entire collection of free standing lace designs now.
Our Most Popular Free Standing Lace Embroidery Designs
We have 500 authentic vintage free standing lace designs, and unfortunately, we’re not making more of them. If you do want access to our entire collection of authentic free standing lace designs, plus close to 30,000 other embroidery designs, be sure to check out our Embroidery Legacy Design Club today.
Our Top Tips when Embroidering Free Standing Lace Designs
- Use a pre-wound bobbin to match the color of the thread you’re using.
- Slow your machine speed down.
- For a noticeably softer feel, be sure to use rayon embroidery thread as it is not a synthetic thread like polyester. Keep in mind, if the lace design was not digitized properly, this may cause numerous thread breaks as rayon is not as strong of a thread as polyester.
- When running the lace through warm water to dissolve away the stabilizer, use a tiny bit of hair conditioner & gently massage it into the lace. The hair conditioner will give it an even softer feel.
- If you’d like to learn how to embroider continuous free standing lace, click here.
What is Free Standing Lace for Machine Embroidery?
If you’re new to machine embroidery, you may have heard the term free standing lace (sometimes cut down to “FSL” on social media).
Compared to regular lace, which must be sewn directly onto a garment or a piece of fabric, free standing lace is sewn on water-activated dissolve away stabilizer which you’ll later run under warm water & the stabilizer will vanish! Leaving nothing but a self-supported lace design made up & held together only by embroidery threads!
What Can I Use Free Standing Lace Embroidery Patterns For?
Historically speaking, free standing lace always carried a certain degree of sophistication with it. Due to its delicate nature, it has always been a perfect fit to complement the female figure on clothing. One of lace’s most famous uses, of course, is being sewn onto a wedding dress. However, lace doesn’t always have to appear in such a formal fashion. It also looks great on t-shirts, jeans, jackets, and tons of other wearable items.
Free standing lace patterns are also a great way to add some elegance to your home. Whether it be a tablecloth, clothes hanger, or even a pillow, free standing lace can add a touch of class to almost anything:
Within the past decade or so, “In-the-hoop projects” have become very popular. Because of this, lace designs today (although not always free standing) are used to create a variety of items such as free standing lace earrings, Christmas ornaments, 3D angels, and more. Click here to browse our library of in-the-hoop project designs.
Tutorial on How to Embroider Free Standing Lace Designs for Best Results
Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you enjoyed that video for tons of other great embroidery how-to videos. Now if you prefer written instructions, we have those as well here for you:
1. Hoop a piece of water-soluble backing (i.e dissolve-away / wash-away stabilizer)
2. Embroider the free standing lace pattern onto the backing.
3. Remove from hoop & cut as closely to lace as possible without cutting into stitching.
4. Hold lace under warm water. The water stream should be gentle, rinse until all residue is removed.
5. Lay lace on a towel and gently pat dry. Let air dry or hasten the process by using a hairdryer on low setting.
That’s it. Congratulations, you’ve just embroidered your first piece of free standing lace!
How Can I Create My Own Free Standing Lace Embroidery Designs?
Although digitizing lace seems like a challenge, it can be done with the right education and teacher!
You can experience an old-school digitizing lesson from one of the last Schiffli Masters, John Deer! John will take you by the hand and teach you how to manually digitize your own beautiful free standing lace patterns. This is the ultimate mapping exercise that will replicate the tools and thought process of how true free standing lace was mechanically digitized decades ago.
Conclusion: Start Embroidering Free Standing Lace to Add Some Elegance to Your Projects
You now know what free-standing lace is, where to use it, how to embroider it, and where to find some of the best free-standing designs in the world (keep in mind, I may be a bit biased).
If you’ve never tried our free-standing lace before, gain access and download one for free with our free Embroidery Legacy Design Kit. Plus, if you haven’t already, be sure to checkout out Embroidery Legacy Design Club as well. It gives you access to our giant database of over 30,000 embroidery designs (including our lace), custom project idea tutorials, new weekly releases, and more.
Happy stitching!
I started making FSL earrings and they curl up on the edges a little bit. Is there a way to flatten them so they don’t curl?
Thanks
Jan
Hi Jan,
To stop your FSL earrings from curling I’d use a double layer of wet-and-gone stabilizer (the one that looks like stabilizer, not the clear product) When finishing them, I just put them in water quickly so most of the residue remains within the stitches. Then I’d press them and let them dry flat, the residue is very starchy and they will harden keeping a flat shape.
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your sites really
nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site
to come back down the road. Many thanks
Glad you’re enjoying it Brooch 🙂
I am using Aqua Lace clear and my designs keep pulling away the film and leaving bunched up threads and no designs
Hi Marilyn,
Hard to say exactly why this is happening without more information but my best guess is this may be due to the lace designs you’re using and who digitized them. There are undoubtedly other companies out there who create beautiful lace, however be careful who you purchase from. If a digitizer didn’t know what they were doing when creating the design file the lace may not join together as it should and hence fall apart when the stabilizer is dissolved.
– Jesse
Major thankies for the blog post.Thanks Again. Really Cool.
My pleasure, glad you enjoyed it!
I am new to machine embroidery
My 2nd only piece done on my brand new machine was your free download of FSL
I am absolutely delighted with it.
I make Bridal wear and will definitely be buying my lace designs from you.
Thank you so so much xxx
Thank you so much for your kind words Angela!
I’ve never made any FSL I will definitely give it a go now thank you.
Our pleasure Dave, happy stitching!
Your free standing lace designs are BEAUTIFUL!! I don’t purchase lace designs from anywhere else because I know when I upload your designs to my machine, I don”t worry about the stitch out, and I use them on historical clothing. Thank you for your designs!
Thank you for the kind words Barbara! So happy you’re making good use out of my Grandparent’s vintage lace 🙂
I have a question. Where may I purchase pre-wound bobbins to match the color of the thread I am using?
I have the Brother – Multi Entrepeneur Pro. I asked around and look in the web but I can not find pre-wound color for the multi. I have not figured out how to pre-wound in the multi. Some people said that you can not.
Hi Maria, I’ve purchased white and black pre-wound bobbins online, for different colors bobbins I wind my own with a bobbin winder and metal bobbin cases which can be purchased online 🙂
I usually pin my free standing lace onto a piece of polystyrene and let it dry if I am wanting a stiff emb eg ornaments jewelry. love your vintage designs purchased from Adorable years ago they are top notch
Thanks for sharing Val! We appreciate the kind words
I made the design I purchased which is a napkin corner. I love the results. Is there a way to sew designs directly onto the fabric like that? Do you have other designs to purchase that are sewn on the fabric in the process? I am very new to this but the result was fantastic!
Hi Patricia, thanks for your kind words!
You can sew the lace designs directly onto fabric. Or if you’re looking for more cutwork designs, you can do the same technique as the lace corner napkin by hooping a piece of wash away stabilizer, sew part of the design onto the fabric, and wash away the part that is freestanding not on the fabric.. it can be done with any of our free standing lace also.
Here’s a link for our freestanding lace designs https://www.developdigitizingmadeeasycom.bigscoots-staging.com//product-category/embroidery-designs/freestanding-lace/
Here’s a link for our cutwork designs https://www.developdigitizingmadeeasycom.bigscoots-staging.com//product-category/embroidery-designs/cutwork/
I stumbled on your site through a tutorial. And I am in love with the FSL. I can’t wait to get some and try them out.
Thanks Lisa! There really is nothing else like our true vintage FSL 🙂
I feel that for some of the designs of lace I am wasting alot of stabilizer. Is there any way to use those irregular pieces from the cut? I’m using a 7×5 and design is in middle so even if I cut close to the design I have these pieces. Thank you
Hi Denise, I personally wouldn’t patch stabilizer together, especially for FSL. Any movement in the stabilizer will effect the designs integrity.
I have a lot of the vintage lace designs, absolutely beautiful. I am known at Heirlooom Creations my embroidery supplier
As the Queen of FSL Lace.
Thank you
Not a bad nickname to have Doris 🙂 thanks for sharing
Will the designs you have come in Pes and work in a 4×4 hoop. I have order designs from others says 4×4 and under 30.000stitches, the brother machine makes the design dark and says it is too big for the hoop. How do i fix this or can it be fixed.
I enjoyed your video with Baby’s Booty. Love your designs but FRAID TO ORDER AS THEY MAY NOT WORK.
Thank You
Dot I.
Hi Dot, we list sizes with each of our designs to ensure you purchase designs that will only fit within your required hoop. Our designs also come in .PES format, you can also check this format with the design you desire as well.
The designs look great but haven’t had time to stitch any out yet
Let us know once you do Elaine 🙂
I bought some of your FSL around March 21, but have only just purchased my embroidery machine to be able to do them. I’m using design AISLE052 from the Vault 7 Design 11 Zig Zag. I would like to make it a continuous lace to fit my 7.9 x 11″ hoop. Do I just overlap them on the sides where the 2 bars meet, or do these bars only overlap on the last bar? Also If I reduce the size by 2 points I can fit 2 rows of 5 long ways. Do you think that is a good thing to do, or should I just do one row in the middle of the hoop? Thank you so much for some beautiful FSL. I am very keen to do these on my new machine.
Hi Fiona! Great question, I would highly suggestion taking a read of our “How to machine embroider continuous freestanding lace” here https://www.developdigitizingmadeeasycom.bigscoots-staging.com/how-to-embroider-continuous-freestanding-lace/
Hello,
I have a Brother PE535 machine. I don’t have the ability to slow down the stitches. Is it necessary to slow down the stitches? Would this be a problem?
Hi Nancy, I think you’d be fine with your PE535 as it does not run as fast as a multi-needle commercial machine which draws more tension.
I think John said to use rayon for FSL, but I can’t find it in a large spool. Do you know of a place that sells it?
Also I wish your design pages had a search function. While I love looking at all of the designs, I sometimes need to see if you have what I need so I can get back to work. Looking for a 3″ Tree of Life Design.
Hi Heather, it has been along time since I’ve purchased a large rayon spool. I suggest looking for RA Rayon online to see if there is a supplier.
So you do not have any FSL Designs to download. A real disappointment!
Hi Beverly, I think you might have missed our FSL designs, we have lots 🙂 you can find them here https://www.developdigitizingmadeeasycom.bigscoots-staging.com/product-category/embroidery-designs/freestanding-lace/
Hello. Just watched you FSL video.. Can you tell me or is there a video on how to attach it to a garment. eg. tablecloth or other garmets. Do you stich it by hand or machine.
Love your video.
Hello, depending on the file, it can either be stitched in place or edited like a Cutwork file and have placement and cutting stitches added to the original design. This will require editing the files within digitizing software.
Hi i jusr joined the group , bought fun embroidery course I hsve a singled needle machine I have never changed setting but you say to slow down speed for free standing lace , I not sure where to find this on my brother innovis machines , Can you advise me of speed settings and how much to slow it down please ,
suzanne Ti
Hi Suzanne, we suggest returning to your machine dealer and asking them for a quick lesson 🙂