Just cut it. If it is cotton or linen it won't unravel any more than bought cotton lace. I assume if you are cutting it you are putting it into seams. If you are really worried, machine across the lace just inside the seam allowance where the stitches will be hidden.
Don't forget that lace can/will shrink so it's a good idea to preshrink fabrics by washing them, and also shrink the lace by either washing and mangling (see the archives for details), or at the very least steam pressing. This will also help to 'set' the threads (just like Jello Malvary - private joke). Don't use fray check or similar as they go stiff and can discolour. If you are putting a ring of lace around the bottom or top of something and you are cutting it from yardage, as distinct from making it exactly the right size and doing sewings into the start, then you can sew a normal seam across before trimming one seam allowance a little smaller and tucking the ends of the longer allowance over it before catching the fold down flat on the wrong side (Google run and fell seam to get the equivalent in fabric). Or you can overlap the ends wrong side of one to the right side of the other, matching the pattern exactly, before oversewing either side of a pattern row and cutting the surplus from front and back in a similar way to the traditional Flanders or Binche join. If you look in some old needlework books it shows this sort of approach. A very high proportion of old lace was made and cut off the pillow, without disturbing the work in progress. Why would you want to waste time keep setting up the lace? Jacquie in the UK - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
