Broken lace bobbins

Lace bobbins are prone to wear and tear because they are used so often and sometimes they break, especially at the top. The head of the bobbin is the thinnest part and also receives the most tension, as this is where the thread is wound round and looped to keep it in place. A common breakage occurs at the very top of the head, like the bobbin on the right in the image here. The bobbin can still be used as the thread can be looped just below the bulb but the bobbin won’t hang quite straight and there is more wear on the thread. Also the break may leave a rough edge on which the thread can catch and it is interesting that the top of this bobbin has been covered with a dot of sealing wax to smooth it off so the lacemaker can continue to use it.

The second bobbin on the right here has also lost its head and the lacemaker has decided not to repair it but to repurpose it. She has removed the head completely and ground the remaining neck down into a point and removed the spangle of beads from the tail of the bobbin. In its new form as a stiletto. It can now be used for broderie anglaise lacework. To do this it would be pushed through fabric to make a hole which the lacemaker would then sew round in blanket stitch, similar to the embroidery in the image above although that is not handmade and has been worked with a machine. It is impossible to know how the wooden bobbin was broken, but I think it originally had channels of lead or pewter as decorations and these either fell out completely or were beginning to fall out, making the surface rough and difficult to work with. More metal has been used to cover the surface and make the bobbin smooth again.

The bobbin on the far left has been very skilfully repaired. The neck must have broken and the top of a wooden bobbin has been cut to splice the two together to make it useable again. Pinned in place with a metal rivet this bobbin feels just a secure as the day it was first made. I have seen other bobbins repaired in this way so I think this was done professionally and was probably a service that bobbin makers offered their customers. What I like most about these repaired bobbins is the fact that they were so well loved that even when they broke their owners still wanted to use them and so repaired or repurposed them.