Crocheting on Fabric

Crocheting lace onto fabric is a great way to add decorative elegance to everyday items in your home. The basic steps for creating this technique are simple and easy to do.
The first thing you need to do is prepare the fabric by washing and pressing it. This pre-shrinks the fabric and avoids any warping of the finished crochet work.
Next, hem any raw edges by folding them under once or twice and tacking in place with a basting stitch. For curved edges, cut notches (see illustration) to remove fullness when folding the edge under. The more delicate the fabric, the narrower the hem should be (about 1/4 inch for medium-weight cottons, about 1/8 inch for lightweight cottons and a narrow, rolled 1/16 inch for sheers). Purchased items will usually have finished edges, eliminating this step.

To minimize the size of the hole made when working stitches into the fabric, the end of the crochet hook used should be small enough to easily go through the fabric and still catch the thread as you work.
For the foundation stitches, which are usually single crochet stitches, place a slip knot onto hook, hold thread over edge of fabric, insert hook through front of fabric at base of hem (do not catch folded edge of hem), yarn over and draw a loop up to outer edge of hemmed fabric, yarn over and draw through both loops on hook. Continue working stitches, spacing them an even distance apart.
One method of spacing is to calculate the number of stitches per inch needed for the desired pattern. Mark the edge of fabric with pins at one-inch intervals, and space the stitches per inch between the pins. Remove the pins when finished with the foundation stitches.
When working a specific number of stitches onto the edge of square fabric, divide the total number by four and space that number across each quarter of the fabric edge. For round or oval edges, fold the fabric into quarters and place pins at each quarter point and space stitches between pins.

Try these tips with your favorite lace patterns. You can create an almost endless variety of beautiful projects by adding the beauty of crochet to fabric pieces, like this lovely Violets & Forget-Me-Nots Linen Doily. With its lacy round motifs worked on small linen circles, it's a great project to practice the techniques discussed in this article (and you'll have a beautiful floral piece to dress up your home!).