If you've got a stash of lace sitting in a drawer — gathered lace, sheer lace, wide lace, the odd little offcut you couldn't bring yourself to throw away — this tutorial is for you. I show you how to turn almost any kind of lace into flowers using a simple running stitch, and by the end of the video I've got well over a hundred of them spread across my craft table. They're the kind of project you can pick up in front of the television and put down again whenever you need to.
What we cover
How to make lace flowers in three sizes — small, medium, and large — using different widths of gathered lace, a needle, and thread. I also go through the options for finishing the centers: buttons, brads, rhinestone bling, flat-back pearls, and layering flowers together when you want something richer. The video covers what goes wrong, what to do about it, and how much lace you actually need for each size.
What you'll learn
How to make a gathered lace flower with a running stitch, including flowers at three different scales:
- Large flower using lace approximately 2¼ inches wide (about 10 inches of lace)
- Medium flower using lace approximately 1½ inches wide (about 8 inches of lace)
- Small flower using lace approximately ¾ inch wide (about 5 inches of lace)
Why you tie a knot at the very start of the lace before stitching — without it, the thread pulls straight through when you gather, and you lose all your work.
How to join the two ends of the gathered lace to close the flower — including whether to go through the first or second raised loop when joining, and why the overlap matters for a clean, round shape rather than a flower that gaps open.
How to finish the thread cleanly — pulling tight, making a few knots on the underside, and cutting so the knot stays secure without cutting too close.
How to choose and attach flower centers, including:
- Buttons — glued with a hot glue gun, with the glue applied around and inside the raised center so the button is anchored to the inside of the gathered lace
- Brads pushed through the center from behind — useful when you want to attach the flower directly to a journal page or tag
- Rhinestone bling and flat-back pearls — glued with hot glue, with the center hole pre-filled if the embellishment is too small for a clean hold
- String or yarn tied through button holes instead of gluing naked buttons (hot glue through button holes seeps through and doesn't look clean)
How to layer flowers for a richer look — keeping some flowers without any center so you can stack a large flower, a medium, and a small on top of each other for a full, layered effect.
How to rescue scrunched or uneven flowers after the fact — ironing them flat with a hair straightener once the center is glued on. I was nervous the first time but it works beautifully on standard lace. One caveat: avoid this on elastic lace, which will melt.
Tips & gotchas
Use a little more lace than you think you need. When I've used too little, the edges of the flower pull tight instead of folding into soft pleats, and the result is a flower that looks strained rather than full. I show the comparison directly in the video — perfect round pleats versus tight-edged ones — and once you've seen it you'll know what to aim for. That said, don't go too far the other way: too much lace and the center becomes very bulky.
Don't pre-cut your lace before you start stitching. The amount you need depends entirely on the width of your particular lace, and there's no way to know in advance. Just stitch, check the gather as you go, and cut after you've decided you have enough.
Tie a knot at the very beginning of the lace — before your first stitch. I mean right at the start of the hemline, before you've pulled the thread through even once. Without it, when you gather the lace tight, the thread just pulls straight through and everything unravels.
When you finish and cut the thread, leave a little bit after the knot rather than cutting flush. I always err on the side of leaving a small tail.
If your center embellishment is smaller than the hole in the middle of the flower, fill the inside of the hole with a little hot glue first. This gives the bling or button something solid to adhere to, and it's not going anywhere once it sets.
For flat buttons with holes, tie a bit of string or yarn through the holes and glue that on rather than pressing the button down into hot glue directly. Glue seeps through button holes and it just doesn't look clean.
If your finished flower comes out scrunched and uneven rather than lying flat — especially if you're working with lace that has a lot of texture or if you've been handling it a lot — iron it out with a hair straightener after gluing the center. It makes a real difference. Just skip this step entirely if your lace has any elastic in it.
Finally: leave some flowers without a center on purpose. It's not an unfinished look — it gives you the option to layer them later, and layered flowers look genuinely beautiful.
Once you've made a few dozen and started mixing widths and centers, the combinations become almost endless — and because each one takes only a few minutes of stitching, a quiet hour can produce more flowers than you know what to do with. That's a good problem to have.
