Hints & Tips

Reader Myrna sent a photo of the Daffodil Altar Lace she made for her church’s altar, and it was used at their Easter Mass.

You finish up a big doily and discover an area of slight grime that just won’t disappear. Don’t you just hate it when that happens? The real problem is that by the time you notice anything wrong, the stain has had weeks or months to set itself into the cotton.

The colors, the quality, and the resulting fabric of your masterpiece are the choices you’ll have to make before you start your lace project. Today, there are numerous types of crochet thread. The permutations are endless, and each type brings new and interesting variations.

When your lace is finished, it will be all wrinkled and floppy, and look nothing like the photo. Now it’s time for you to make your lace pop. Edgings and insertions, and shawls and large items like tablecloths just need to be damp before blocking.

Here’s another simple way to attach edging to fabric without working dirctly onto the fabric, this time for more delicate fabrics like those used for garments and handkerchiefs.

What happens when you get a bit obsessed with your filet crochet project and work on it as much as possible? Your hands cramp up and you get a deep groove in your thread-carrying finger!

I first got addicted to making doilies because I could pick a pattern and just get started with any thread I had on hand. I never had to worry about gauge again or whether the item was the right size. Cool! (Insert wrong buzzer sound here…)

Have you ever come across a pattern with several sizes of doilies in the same design, and wondered which size you should make? Actually, the designer intended for you to make all of them, and at least six of each!

Pages