One of my correspondents asked me about this. I have never done it myself. In fact, when making small Christmas decorations, I have found that a wire strengthener isn't needed, as lace is very light, and surprisingly robust, especially if you do several twists at the edge or footside. However, large designs, or more complicated designs, or designs without many stitches, might need a wire strengthener. Here are some of my thoughts on the subject.
The wire is usually near or at the edge. It is possible to sew (using a needle) the lace to the wire. If you use the same thread as the lace, it won't be visible. However, you will need to make sure that the length of the wire and the pattern exactly match, or the lace might get pulled out of shape.
If the wire is not continuous, but has a start and an end, it should be possible to thread the wire through the lace. Lace, by its nature, has holes in! Again, make sure that the length of the wire and the pattern fit each other.
However, it should be possible to work the lace round the wire, while you are making the rest of the lace. There are several ways of doing this. The easiest, perhaps, is when the wire is at the edge of the lace. Whenever a pair reaches the edge, you take the pair over the wire, then under it. I think a few twists would stop the pair separating. The pair then rejoins the rest of the lace as usual. Since lace uses pins, if you tighten the threads as usual, they will be in the correct position relative to the wire even when you have finished the lace.
If the wire is not quite at the edge, then you could treat the wire rather like a gimp. Take one thread of a pair over the wire, and the other under it, twisting the pair afterwards to anchor the threads.
The third technique would be to do a sewing. Use a crochet hook to slide under the wire, and hook out a thread into a loop. Then poke that thread's bobbin through the loop, and pull tight. The thread is now attached to the wire.
The first two techniques (taking a pair over and under, or a single thread) would be neater, but I can imagine that it might get tricky if you were working sone lace inside a continuous wire circle, going round in a circle, so the end is at the same place as the start. As you reached the end, you would be trying to get the thread/s (and bobbin/s) through a smaller and smaller hole! You can avoid this by doing the sewing technique instead.
I advise that if you are poking bobbins through gaps or loops, you use unspangled bobbins. Beads and spangling wire tends to get caught on things!
© Jo Edkins 2023 - return to lace index