The proper background gives needed strength

Maintaining transparency while adding strength is the goal.
By SUSAN KHALJE
SCRIPPS HOWARD
A former student was making a lace jacket -- until she came to the point where she decided she needed to strengthen the lace while maintaining its transparency.
There she stopped, e-mailing me asking for suggestions. I had a couple of thoughts for her and then decided it might be a good thing to share the thoughts with you.
Most laces, while somewhat firm, aren't strong enough to function on their own. The exception is Guipure lace. That's the type where there's no net background; the firm motifs are joined with thread bars. Guipure lace is generally dense enough to exist on its own -- shaping is achieved by overlapping (rather than stitching) the motifs, then trimming away the excess underlayers. It's time-consuming, but the result can be spectacular -- a beautifully shaped garment with no visible seams.
More common, though, are Chantilly and Alencon lace, both of which need an underlying fabric of some kind to bring them up to the level of strength required.
What to do
In order to maintain the transparent nature of the lace (which is really where its beauty lies, I feel), a similarly transparent underlayer needs to be used and silk organza is usually my first choice. I dye it with tea, coffee or a commercial dye to match the color of the wearer's skin if I'm working with white or off-white lace; if the lace is black, quite different effects are achieved with flesh-colored organza and black organza (the latter is very alluring).
I created a beautiful lace jacket recently as part of a client's wedding ensemble, and although white silk organza worked fine in the body of the jacket I needed something else for the sleeves. I dyed silk organza and put it under the sleeve lace. I was less than thrilled, however, when the client tried it on; it looked as if she had support hose on her arms. Not the look I was after!
Time to shop
So I went to B & amp;J Fabrics in New York and asked if they had any suggestions. Fortunately, they did -- and a very helpful salesperson brought out something called Swiss illusion. It's a lightweight knit, flesh-colored and lighter than air. It reminded me of the textured stockings we used to wear in high school; there was very subtle diamond pattern woven into it, which completely disappeared when the lace was layered over it. It had a one-way stretch, which I used horizontally, wanting to keep the vertical line strong. It worked perfectly.
Regardless of what I'm using as an underlayer, however, I like to tack the lace to it. It doesn't have to be tacked everywhere, only often enough to keep the layers from separating. It's particularly noticeable in sleeves, where the underlayer can sag against the arm while the lace remains some distance away. And some laces, if heavily ornamented, get very heavy and will sag over time and distort if not securely anchored to the underlying fabric.