Two-Color Lace Mask

Looking for a way to add a little color to your season? Introducing multi-color lace! Our new Dia de Los Muertos mask has black and red lace on it, and it’s just a few extra steps to get the two-color effect.

Follow along with me, and I’ll show you how to stitch multi-color lace and make a truly rad decorated mask for your spooky celebrations!

So, let's start with the lace. As you know from perhaps stitching regular one-color lace, you need an empty bobbin to wind with your thread color so the lace is the same color front and back. For multi-color lace, you’ll need as many bobbins as you have colors.

For our two-color mask, I have black and red thread, and two empty bobbins waiting to be wound.

Wind up one of each color ahead of time so you don’t have to mess with your bobbin winder later.

The first color that stitches on this mask is black, so put your black bobbin into your machine. Set the red one aside for later.

Hoop up a piece of water-soluble stabilizer and put it under your machine. Your wound bobbin should be in the machine at this point.

A note here, since you’ll be taking your hoop on and off to replace bobbins, take extra care to make sure it’s on straight at all times, or your stitching won’t line up properly.

Start your machine stitching! The first half of the lace mask will stitch out.

I’m actually stitching out the small size lace mask here because my machine is pretty tiny, but I’ll be decorating the large size mask later.

Once your machine has finished stitching the first color, very carefully remove your hoop from the machine.

Take out the previous bobbin and replace it with the next color.

Very carefully place your hoop back on the machine, taking extra care to make sure it’s on straight and tight. Every time you remove your hoop, you risk misaligning the design, so be careful with it!

Set your machine to start stitching once again. Watch where the next line stitches. It should be pretty close to the previous edge, or your hoop may not be aligned properly. In the first few seconds of stitching, you still have time to make adjustments if needed.

Once your final color has stitched, carefully remove the design from the machine and un-hoop it!

Soak your stabilizer according to the directions on the package, in order to remove it, and let your lace dry.

Your finished multi-color lace! Easy peasy. Now lets make our lace mask pretty!

So, one way of wearing your lace mask is of course just to tie ribbons to the side and tie it around your head. If you don’t want to wear a mask all night, or want something more decorative, I have another way!

Start by laying your mask flat and spraying it with starch. We’re going to attach it to a stick, so we need it to be straight and sturdy.Set this aside after you've sprayed it and let it dry. It can take a little while.

While we’re waiting for our mask to dry, we can make the rest! Grab the wooden dowel you’ll be using as a mask stick.

Grab your paints and paint the dowel to match the rest of your decorations. Some of it will be covered with ribbon later, but it’s best if the raw wood color isn’t peeking through. 

Cover your dowel in a nice coat of black paint and set it aside to dry.

Once your mask and dowel are dry, we can attach them to each other!

Heat up your hot glue gun and when it’s ready, draw a line of glue down the side of your dowel, near the top.

Place your stiff lace mask over the glue, securing it in place. Let it dry for a second and check that it’s securely glued on.

Now, to dress the boring stick up a little, I glued on some tall black decorative flowers and one faux rose to match the mask.

To cover up the stem of the fake flowers and make my mask a bit prettier, I’m going to wrap the base in ribbon.

Add a small dot of hot glue where you’d like to start your ribbon and wrap one end around the dowel.

Once the top is dry and holds tight, start wrapping the length of the ribbon down the dowel and around the flower stem, covering them both.

When you get to the end, add another bead of glue, glue the end in place and snip off the excess.

To hide some of the bulk near the top and dress it up, I also snipped a length of ribbon and tied it in a bow near the top.

Finally, to add that extra pizzaz, (and hide the top of the dowel) add a dab of glue at the top and glue on some feathers.

Your mask is ready for a party! In fact, your new two-color lace mask looks so spiffy jazzed up, it would also make a neat wall hanging just as it is!

Lace and flowers and classy elegance are perfect for the spooky season, and you can have all the glamour of a mask without having it tied to your head all night.

Two-color lace is simple to sew and looks even better dressed up!

Wear your new handmade mask for Halloween, Day of the Dead or any fancy masquerade. You’ll be the craftiest belle of the ball!