How to make a nice collage with lace?
By Hildegard Braatz

1) This project can be made with old or new lace.
Observe the lace designs very carefully and select the interesting parts to cut. Try to find various sizes, this will be more effective.

How to start 
 

2) Now you need background fabric with a good contrast. Choose one in your favourite colour. It can be silk, cotton, felt, as you like. If you choose silk or a similar material, use an embroidery frame.

3) Arrange a first layer of your lace cuttings, leaving a certain distance between each piece. Choose the larger ones. If you are happy with the outer borders, fix the pieces to the background with tiny stitches. If you are not yet sure, you can start also with appliqué needles, or fix the material with just one rough stitch that you will remove later.

filling the empty spaces
 

4) Repeat step 3, but now begin to fill the empty spaces with interesting material such as silk ribbons, buttons and embellishing threads. Fix them as above.

5) Repeat again step 3, but now you can play around with the smaller cuttings, as well as with decorative embroideries and beads, until you are completely satisfied.

6) For the final touch, I normally do a lot of quilting around all the pieces, but this depends on you.
You can do just one unique collage, or you can do many to insert them in a quilt. This project can also be done
with coloured lace - and now:

Final Result