Graceful Richelieu

The Graceful Richelieu Collection

Discovering the beauty and intricacies of this type of embroidery has been a fascinating journey for me. The richelieu bars are really little pieces of free standing lace. I spent a great deal of time perfecting the outline stitches which are trimmed for the cutwork. As I embroider with silk dupion a lot, these had to hold the fabric and prevent it fraying. You will find them easy to trim around. Use two layers of Heat N Gone stabilizer for fabrics like silk dupion which cannot be washed. Most, if not all that stabilizer can be carefully torn away for prefect results every time. Support the richelieu bars when you do this and pull away from the robust satin surrounds rather than from the bars which are quite delicate.