Lately, garments embellished with rick rack are showing up on store racks, so these crocheted rick rack edgings should fit right in. A few ideas for uses would be as a trim for the cuffs of jeans, added to the pocket flap of a girl's backpack, sewn to a hat or added to the hems of garments.

This illustrates the parts of the rick rack referred to in the patterns as the base of the scallop and the top of the scallop.

The following photos make it easier to understand where the stitches are to be worked in the rick rack.

This shows 4 dc worked in the top of a scallop and the hook inserted in the base of a scallop, ready to work a dc there. You can see by the two double crochet stitches worked in the base of the scallop before that, the areas in the scallop base where those two dc's should be worked.

Here's a look at where the second double crochet worked in a base of a scallop is done.

This is a lace insertion, which would usually be used as a trim with fabric sewn to both edges of it. On clothing, it would work well inserted into sleeves or near the bottom of a crop top or other pullover top. You could look through a clothing catalog for ideas. You could use the lace insertion along with the matching edging to add a truly special look to a garment.

Sewing the Lace Insertion to Clothing:
1. You could sew it over a contrasting color fabric and let the fabric show through the holes in the crocheted portion or ...
2. To have no fabric behind the crocheted lace insertion: cut the fabric at the point where you wish to insert the rick rack lace. Measure to cut away the width of fabric that will match the width you are replacing in the rick rack lace (if you plan to turn the fabric edge under to hem it before adding the rick rack lace, adjust the amount you are cutting away to accommodate for that). You could also serge the edges of the fabric (instead of folding the fabric under for a hem). I recommend pinning the insertion in place before sewing. Sew the rick rack lace in between the two fabric edges. If you opted for the serged finish, position each rick rack lace insertion edge so that it covers the serged area. Machine or hand sew the insertion in place.

Here's a matching edging that you could combine with the rick rack lace insertion on a garment or other item. This version would be used with only the top edge sewn to fabric.

Go to Page 2 - Free Pattern for Lace Insertion and Edging

This article copyright 2000 by Sandi Marshall.

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Crocheting on Rick Rack Intro and History Trivia

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