Lace curtain draught

 

This is the pattern, or draught, for a lace curtain made on the Nottingham lace curtain machine and it contains all the information required to make one pattern repeat of the curtain. This one has a stamp on it indicating that it was made by Edwards and Richardson, designers and draughtsmen, of 7 Carlton Street Nottingham.

Designing and draughting are just two of the stages required in the process of making a lace curtain. First, the designer has to design the lace, then a draughtsman converts the design into a draught. The draught would then have been passed to another company where a card puncher would have followed the instructions it contained to make the jacquard cards that programme the lace machine. Those cards would then have been used in a lace factory to make the lace. Some large lace factories had in-house designers, draughtsmen and card punchers but many smaller companies relied on outside companies for their designing and draughting work.

The draught is made up of hand-painted rectangles indicating different operations for the lace machine. There is no standardised colour code, but in general red indicates back spool ties, green indicates Swiss ties and blue represents combination ties. The draught also has hand written instructions around the side describing the type of lace (filet combination in this case), the width of the repeat and the fineness of the lace. Unfortunately there is no date on the draught but the design has a 1930s feel to it so it may be from that time.

Needlelace stitches

 

I’m always amazed at what beautiful lace can be made with just a some thread and a sewing needle. This lace mat is a simple design of leaves and flowers worked on a large scale and clearly shows the variety of needlelace stitches that can be used to provide different textures and densities. The lacemaker would have begun with an outline of the main parts of the design couched onto a backing fabric and would then have worked filling stitches into the open areas. After that she would have made the bars that link all the parts of the design together. And finally she would have worked blanket stitch around all the outlines, possibly over a couched thread to raise the outlines slightly, to add definition to the design. The finished lace would then have been detached from the backing fabric.

The filling stitches are all variations of blanket stitch, which can be worked across the area to be filled, either close together to form a dense area or wide apart to form an open one. A line of thread can be taken across the area and the stitches worked over that to add density. The blanket stitches can also be worked in pairs or groups to give a more brick-like appearance and these can also be worked over a line of thread as a variation. The image above shows two types of double net stitch (where two blanket stitches are worked in pairs across the area to be filled) and one example of double net stitch worked over a line of thread, showing a few of the possible variations.

This photo shows a small sample of double net stitch, showing how it is worked across the area to be filled by making blanket stitches into the loop left between the stitches of the previous row. If a line of thread is taken across the work it is incorporated into the line of stitching. As you can imagine any number of stitches can be grouped together to vary the density and appearance of the lace – the possibilities are endless.

Fashionable veiling for hats in the early 20th century

 

Veiling for hats was fashionable in the early 20th century according to the February 1918 issue of The lace and embroidery review, an American magazine for lace buyers. Reporting on the items that were selling well in department stores, the magazine notes that veiling material was selling better than ready made veils, suggesting that women were buying netting by the yard and making up their own veils. The advertisements in the magazine suggest that there were two main styles of veiling, either a fairly long veil with a border design or shorter veils with embellishment across the face. The model in the main image above wears a hat with a deep, loose veil of hexagonal mesh with chenille dots in various sizes. The model in the image below shows the alternative style with a short hexagonal veil closely fitted around her face, embellished with a floral, scrolling design.

The article records that filet or square mesh was becoming popular but hexagon, diamond and fancy weaves were still selling well. It suggests that filet is better as a ground for angular designs, such as butterflies and leaves, while floral patterns are more effective on hexagonal meshes. It notes that all-over scrolls and chenille dots are fashionable, which is borne out by the illustrations. However, although velvet circles along the border of a veil are also popular, they do not wear well, because instead of being worked in chain stitch into the net they are cut out and stuck on to the veil and can come loose and fall off. I assumed all these veils and nets would be black but the article reports that purple, taupe and reddish brown shades were also selling well.

The artfulness of filet lace curtains

I’m always impressed by the beautiful designs that can be worked in filet lace. Working on a square grid would seem to be very limiting but in skilled hands quite naturalistic images can be formed, as you can see with the cherubs and flowers in this image.

To work filet lace the lacemaker first has to make the net background. This is generally done by starting at a corner of the work, which is secured to a fixed point. The net is then made by looping thread round a spacer (rather like a lolly stick) to ensure the squares of the net are the same size and securing them to the stitch above with a knot. The lacemaker continues making a line of net stitches, gradually increasing stitches on each side of the work, until the required size is reached. It sounds complicated and is difficult to start with, until you get into a rhythm and learn how to manipulate the various loops of the thread as well as the netting needle and the spacer. In her book The technique of filet lace, Pauline Knight includes some images of how to make the net, which are helpful if you are learning netting. However, today you can cheat and use readymade machine net for filet work if you find that easier.

Once the net is made, or bought, the design has to be darned into it. Again this is not as simple as just filling the area with solid stitching. The threads are worked over and under each other in a regular pattern, so that, for linen stitch, two horizontal and two vertical threads pass through each open square. Therefore the lacemaker has to work out the thread paths before starting work. Margaret Swain in her book The needlework of Mary Queen of Scots notes that Mary and her companions were keen needlewomen and particularly enjoyed puzzling out how to work filet lace designs ‘in an age that enjoyed mazes, anagrams and emblems’. So not only are these lace curtains beautiful they are also works of art and artfulness. 

Nottingham lace bedspreads

 The main product of the Nottingham lace curtain machine is obviously curtains but the same machines can also be used to produce other large lace furnishings such as tablecloths and bedspreads. The bedspread in the image above was advertised in the 1933 edition of the Lace Furnishings catalogue and the dimensions are given as 70 by 90 inches which suggests that it was designed to be laid on the top of the bed and not hang down the sides. Unfortunately no price is given.

This bedspread was advertised in a Samuel Peach catalogue of 1904 as being 82 inches wide and 108 inches long and the price is given as 7 shillings and 6 pence (7/6). The Peach catalogue also has some smaller bedspreads, approximately 80 by 90 inches and these are all lined with satinette. This extends their size and presumably makes them more hard wearing. These lined bedspreads cost from 8/6 up to 14/9 and if the customer wants a 10 inch frilled edge added, they have to pay 7/6 extra. The catalogue notes that when lined these bedspreads give an exceedingly pretty effect to any room.

Honiton lace bobbins

 

The characteristics of Honiton lace – its fine thread and the need for sewings – determine the type of lace bobbins required for the work. Honiton lace is a pieced lace, which means that the lacemaker makes individual motifs that are later combined with others to form the finished design and are generally applied to net. The work is fine so the bobbins do not need to be very heavy to maintain tension in the threads. Also, because Honiton lace is not a continuous straight lace but is made up of separate areas of work, the lacemaker is continually joining parts of the lace to other parts. For example, in the lace in the image, the zigzag lines are added once the two semicircles have been made, so the threads have to be joined to each side of the work in turn. They are joined with a ‘sewing’, which involves looping one thread from the worker pair through a loop in the edge of the main piece of lace and then passing the other bobbin and thread through the loop, then pulling them up tight to form a join. Therefore the bobbins have to be thin and pointed to make sewings easier. Because the thread is fine they don’t require a spangle of beads at the end to provide added weight like East Midlands English bobbins and the beads would also be a hindrance when making sewings. The simplicity of Honiton bobbins also extends to their head, which does not have to be the bulbous shape of the East Midlands bobbins because the Honiton thread is finer. In general, Honiton bobbins are not decorated in the same way as spangled bobbins either with names, dates and mottoes although some of them are decorated with nautical images, but we’ll look at those in another blog.

Raised work in Bedfordshire bobbin lace

 

There are several methods of producing raised work in lace, but here I’m just looking at those used in Bedfordshire bobbin lace. This type of lace is made face upwards (unlike Honiton lace which is made face downwards) so any raised areas have to be worked above the main pattern rather than worked underneath and then covered by the main design. The first step in making the solid, thin, raised leaves that lie above the open, wider, half-stitch leaf in the image above is to lift two pairs from the main half-stitch area and set them aside. The half-stitch leaf is then continued until the length required for the stalk for the raised motif has been reached. The stalk is then worked by plaiting above the main lace and the bobbins used to make it then rejoin the main work. In the next row, four pairs of bobbins are put aside to work the pair of leaves. The half-stitch base is continued and the leaves are made and then the bobbins rejoin the main work, and so on, until the motif is complete. The stalks and leaves will be loose above the main work, but attached at both ends so they are secured.

Another method of producing raised areas is by working raised tallies, which are the 'blobs' seen on the leaf in the image above. Tallies are woven areas that are usually square in shape (tallies pointed at both ends are known as leaves). To make a raised tally, the two pairs needed for the work are lifted from the main design and are then woven to make a long tally. This strip is then looped over a horizontal pin to keep it raised and the bobbins returned to work the underlying cloth stitch. A pin is often used in the middle of the work to keep the tally tightly looped until enough rows have been worked beneath it to keep it in place.

A different way of introducing raised work into Bedfordshire bobbin lace is to make a completely separate area of lace and attach it to the main work later. In this image you can see that the four petals on the top right hand flower are raised like a flap over the flower beneath. They were worked separately using the pricking for the larger piece of lace and then sewn in place once the main piece of lace had been completed.

The raised areas can be any part of the pattern, worked separately, and later sewn in place. While those raised areas made as the work progresses can be leaves, tallies or simple plaiting worked over cloth or half stitch. Why do lacemakers raise areas of the work anyway? Probably because it gives the lace a slightly three dimensional appearance and depth that is not seen with flat pieces, and just adds a bit of interesting detail.

Crochet lace

 

There are many types of crochet lace, including Irish crochet lace and hairpin crochet, but today I’m looking at the type of crochet lace patterns that were popular homemade crafts in the 19th and 20th centuries. The instructions for many of these designs were easily available in women’s magazines, needlework books and craft leaflets, many of them produced by the thread manufacturers. The equipment was a simple hook and thread and the work was portable and easy to pick up and put down if the housewife had a few moments of leisure between household tasks. The majority of these crochet items were made at home for use in the home.

Mats and doilies, like the one in the main image, were popular, but crochet was also used to make lace trimmings for clothing and household linen, such as this example from Therese de Dilmont’s encyclopaedia of needlework, which mimics needlemade reticella lace.

Another reason why crochet was such a versatile craft for the homemaker is that items could be made from a collection of smaller squares or medallions, which were easier to work than one large piece of lace, and could be assembled to form the finished larger item once enough squares had been made. An example is this chair back, which is also illustrated with instructions in de Dilmont’s encyclopaedia.

It is no longer fashionable to incorporate so much lace in interior design, but many families have heirloom pieces of crochet lace made by their forebears and although we do not use them in our daily lives we should acknowledge their beauty and not dismiss the level of skill involved in their construction.

Plauen lace collars

 

These lovely lace collars are advertised in a 1904 catalogue from the Peach lace company and are both labelled as Plauen lace, a town in Saxony known for its embroidered lace. The lace was embroidered in a type of lock stitch, using a Schiffli embroidery machine, onto a net background or other backing material which was then removed leaving only the stitched lace behind. Between 1881 and 1905 various patents were taken out describing types of backing fabrics and methods for removing them. In Britain the general term for lace produced in this way was chemical lace and most was imported from Switzerland and Saxony.

The lace was popular at the end of the nineteenth and into the twentieth century. It produced a good imitation of handmade lace and was reasonably priced for middle-class customers. The collar at the top was 8.5 inches deep and cost 3/9 while the lower collar was 7.75 inches deep and cost 2/9. It was also hard wearing and easy to launder so would have been easy to keep clean, and was therefore a practical as well as a beautiful lace.

Nottingham lace curtains

 

I’m delighted that my article on ‘Early twentieth century Nottingham lace curtains: an ideal window furnishing’ has just been published online by Textile History. It started with some research into three collections of machine lace curtains from the archive of Nottingham City Museums and Galleries and I used them as the basis for further research into the types of curtains that were for sale in the early twentieth century, both in the UK market and for export. I also looked at sales catalogues, retail advertising and advice manuals to see how different curtains were promoted to different social groups. This was done by suggesting certain curtains for different rooms in the house and for different budgets. The years after the first world war brought great cultural changes to life and homes in many countries and these were reflected in curtain designs and sales. The paper also includes information on the workings of the Nottingham lace curtain machine and the training of lace curtain designers. As you can see, the article covers many aspects of the lace curtain trade as well as some social history so I hope you will find it interesting. If you are interested in reading it, the publishers have kindly provided 50 free copies on a first come first served basis via this link https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/UGGP82D3BMHQFZBMGTHS/full?target=10.1080/00404969.2024.2318661

 

 

Lace songs and chants

 

Singing songs, or chanting, while making lace seems to have been a common occurrence and Shakespeare even refers to it in Twelfth Night. It was particularly encouraged in the lace schools of the English East Midlands where songs were sung to keep the children focused on their work and encourage them to work more quickly. Many of the songs, or tells, are linked to counting rhymes, so the children could count the number of pins they put up in a certain time or count the number of pins they had worked along the edge, or footside, of the work. Thomas Wright recounts how charming it was to hear 30 or so children singing while they worked at their pillows. As well as encouraging a good work rate the lacemakers also reported that singing cheered them up in dull weather and some tells are designed to keep the children alert, rather than acting as counting aids, for example, in one tell, each child calls out the name of someone in their village until everyone has been named. Interestingly, John Yallop has found no record of lacemakers singing lace tells in Honiton or elsewhere in Devon. This may be because of the different types of lace made in the two areas. In Devon separate motifs are made while in the East Midlands the lace is generally made in continuous strips which lends itself to counting rows and pins more easily. Many of the tells involved repetitive and complicated stories of lacemakers and their lives and different counties also had different styles of tell. Those in Bedfordshire and Northampton tended to be romantic tales while the tells of Buckinghamshire often involved gruesome murders with appropriate cries and dramatic effects designed to keep the children alert.

Attitudes to bobbin lacemaking in the nineteenth century

 

I spent an interesting day at Luton Museum last week researching the decline and revival of the handmade lace industry in the nineteenth century. I was interested to read about Catherine Channer’s interviews with lacemakers at the end of that century and the differing attitudes they had to making Bucks point lace. She found that the older women, aged over seventy, had fond memories of making lace. Many of them told her how they loved making lace and would happily sit all day at their pillows. They told her it was nice, clean work and reasonably paid. One old lady told her she loved her pillow and said “When I was a girl I spent all my pocket money on my pillow; I loved to have it nice. I had some beautiful bobbins, bone ones with beads on them and names, and my pins had different coloured heads”. However talking to middle-aged women Miss Channer got a completely different response. Many of them said they hated lacemaking because it was badly paid and they wouldn’t want their children to do it. One reported that she hated it so much she burned all her bobbins. Another said “It’s an awful trade lacemaking” which is confirmed by another woman saying “If you go lacemaking you’ll never have salt to your porridge”. Why was there such a difference in attitudes? Mainly because the older women had been working at a time when handmade lace was valued and the patterns had been beautiful to work. The middle-aged ones only remembered an industry in decline, when they had poor patterns and thread and had to work hours under pressure for little reward. Today we are fortunate that lacemaking is a leisure or artistic activity, and we are not working with cheap materials under time pressure for a few pence, so like the older lacemakers we can enjoy our pillows and lacemaking.

‘Modern’ point lace

 

My 1882 edition of the Dictionary of needlework describes how to work this type of needlelace which was a popular pastime in the late nineteenth century. It describes point lace as any needlelace, except cut and drawn work, which is worked in buttonhole stitches on a parchment pattern. It goes on to explain that this modern type of point lace has been made since 1855, particularly in France where it is known as dentelle renaissance. The materials required are tracing cloth on which to draw the design, Toile Cire (which seems to be oil cloth) ‘to give firmness to the lace while in progress’ so I assume it is used as a backing cloth for the work, needles, linen braids and linen thread. A variety of linen braids were obviously available at the time but the book notes you could also make your own in bobbin lace if you preferred. It recommends using a fine thread such as Haythorne’s linen thread (I assume this is a brand name).

The first step is to draw the outline of the lace onto the tracing cloth and this is the suggested starting pattern. Then tack the braid loosely to the cloth. After that overcast all the edges of the braid, drawing up the thread at the inner edges of the curves so they sit flat. Then join the separate parts of the design with bars as shown by passing a thread across a space three times, buttonholing over the threads to the centre of the bar, where a picot is formed, and then continuing by buttonholing the other half of the bar. The centre of the braid shapes can then be filled with needlelace filling stitches. For beginners they suggest using point de Bruxelles as the filling stitch, which is a series of interlocked rows of loose buttonhole stitches. This seems quite a difficult stitch for beginners, as it is hard to maintain a good tension, but of course Victorian women all knew how to stitch and most were quite adept at something as well-known as buttonhole stitch.

A series of draughts for the Nottingham lace curtain machine

 

This set of four lace machine draughts are all variations on a theme of roses. They all have the same heading and a similar pattern along the base, while the main parts of the design are all variations on a series of roses, four-petalled flowers and leaves. I have previously seen a variety of designs produced this way and thought they were variations produced by the designer for the manufacturer to choose which one they preferred. I didn’t realise that manufacturers produced a variety of fairly similar designs for sale and therefore the designers were probably producing a suite of designs that complemented each other to make a range for that season.

These draughts were painted by hand by a draughtsman based on the designers original drawing. They are basically instructions converting the design into a pattern that can be made on the Nottingham lace curtain machine. Each draught contains the information for one pattern repeat and the places where the repeat begins and ends are marked. The red and green rectangles indicate different operations for the lace machine – generally red indicates back spool ties and green means Swiss ties. The draughts also provide other information such as the fineness or point size of the lace, its width and depth and whether the edging is overlocked or a picot edging. Following this stage, the draughts would have been sent to the card puncher who would have converted the information into a set of punched Jacquard cards which would have been ‘read’ by the machine to make the lace. A stamp on the draughts says ‘Lace textile designers draughtsmen 40 Upper Parliament Street, Nottingham’ which suggests that the people making these draughts were a specialist company of designer draughtsmen and not part of a larger manufacturing company, as was often the case. They probably produced a range of designs for several lace manufacturers.

Lacemaking at the Great Exhibition 1851

Bucks point lace made from this draught won a gold medal at the Great Exhibition in 1851. According to Thomas Wright, Miss Elizabeth Clayson from Olney demonstrated lacemaking at the exhibition and was working on this pattern when Queen Victoria visited the show. The Queen asked the usual question ‘Are the different coloured bobbins a guide to which thread you turn over?’ and was told this was not the case. Whether she highlighted its similarity to tatting is not recorded! (These are the two observations everyone makes at lace demonstrations!)

The pattern was designed by John Millward from Olney, a well-known Buckinghamshire lace-making town, for the lace manufacturers Messrs. Copestake and Co. The Jury report of the exhibition suggests that the medal was awarded to the company, not the designer or lacemaker, and was for their complete range including Bucks point, Honiton and tambour lace as well as embroidered muslin. Particular mention is made of ‘very wide Buckinghamshire lace of fine quality’ which presumably refers to this pattern. The lace was made in three widths and we are not told which one Miss Clayson was working on when she met the Queen, I do hope it was a smaller, more manageable, version and not the very wide one.

Spring bobbin lace panels

It’s spring in the UK and the lovely colours in the garden have inspired me to produce a group of small lace panels. I’ve made some frames out of stiffened fabric, the sort used for interfacing when you’re making garments. I’ve already coloured them and am now filling the central openings with random bobbin lace in colours to complement the frames. As you can see I’ve finished one and am just about to begin on the second. I’m not quite sure how to mount them. I want to maintain the see-through quality of the lace but they are so small they would be overlooked hanging on a wall. Therefore I’m going to mount them on a white backing, so they are slightly raised from it and don’t lie flat. My dilemma is whether to mount them inside a box-type frame with glass in front of them or to have them on a block-type frame that stands out from the wall. They would be safer behind the glass but would probably make more interesting shadows if they stood out from the frame. I think I will have to experiment once they are all made and see what works best.

Honiton lace and Flemish refugees

 

There is a tradition, repeated in Mrs Bury Palliser’s authoritative History of lace, that Honiton lace was introduced to Devon by Flemish refugees escaping persecution from the Duke of Alva in 1570. However, there is no primary evidence for such an influx of lacemakers and Palliser based her assertions on the appearance of Flemish sounding surnames in parish registers. H J Yallop in his doctoral thesis on the History of the Honiton lace industry questions whether these surnames actually had Flemish origins. He also notes that they were first introduced into England centuries before the invention of lacemaking and most are first found in Honiton registers in the seventeenth century. Yallop found no evidence for an influx of Flemish refugees in the late sixteenth century.

He also argues that the obvious place for Flemish refugees to land in England would have been London, Essex and East Kent, and there is evidence of refugees settling in these areas. To travel along the English south coast as far as Devon, passing several ports on the way, to land on an open beach in Devon seems complete folly. Interestingly, Yallop notes that the first mention of refugee lacemakers arriving in Honiton to start the lace industry in the sixteenth century dates from a book on Devonshire history published in 1822, based on some confused information received from a local Honiton lace manufacturer. In fact, by the sixteenth century the Devon cloth industry was well established and the area was home to many weavers, fullers, tuckers and dyers as well as pointmakers. The latter made points, which were narrow braids or laces used for tying parts of garments together, using a technique similar to bobbin lace making. It therefore seems much more likely that the Honiton lace industry was a natural development from the local weaving industry.

Bobbin lace lappets

This beautiful bobbin lace lappet was made in Belgium in the eighteenth century. I found the image in an interesting old book entitled Old handmade lace by Mrs F Nevill Jackson, which was published in 1900. Lappets were long strips of lace or embroidery that were attached to women’s caps, hats or bonnets and then allowed to fall onto the shoulders, although there was a period when it was fashionable to pin the lappets to the top of the cap and another when they were tied under the chin. They were fashionable during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries but despite that I could find few images of women wearing them.

The cap and lappets on the model above were displayed in the V&A Museum in London. They show round ended lappets attached to the sides of a fine fabric cap falling down the back. Alternatively side lappets could fall either side of the face or lappets could be attached to the back of the headwear and hang down the back of the gown. They varied in width, length and type of lace but always came in pairs. Both the lappets in the images have round ends but square ended lappets were also made. There are also examples of caps and lappets made entirely of lace (see an image in my blog post of 5 October 2022). Many lappets survive in museums and lace collections, probably because they were made to be closely examined and admired and are therefore exquisitely worked and so the owners found them too beautiful to dispose of. Also, once they were no longer fashionable, they were easy to detach from the headwear and small enough to keep in a drawer.

Celebrating mothers on lace bobbins

 

As it’s Mothers’ day in the UK on Sunday I thought I’d write about lace bobbins celebrating mothers this week. The bobbin with the blue spangle is inscribed Dear mother and the other one says Sarah Ions my D mother. It looks as if the bobbin maker was running out of space so he just squeezed D on at the end of the line to represent dear. Or perhaps Sarah’s daughter forgot to ask him to include dear and wanted him to fit it in later. Both bobbins were made by the person called the Blunt end man by the Springetts in their research on bobbin makers and their techniques. He seems to have links to Bedford and was definitely making bobbins between 1860 and 1874, so these two bobbins are about 150 years old. The Blunt end man used simple lettering in straight lines, rather than the spiral inscriptions other bobbin makers favoured. He produced a large quantity of bobbins including many personal ones like Sarah’s but also had a good stock of simple inscriptions such as Dear mother, as well as those for other relations such as father, sister, brother, aunt and uncle. What a lovely gift it would have been to receive one of these lovely bobbins on Mothers’ day.

Prickings

Prickings are the patterns of dotted holes that lacemakers follow to make bobbin lace. Technically the pricking shown in the image is only half complete as I am pricking the holes for the pins as I work the lace. Traditionally, the pattern would have been pricked in its entirety before the actual lacemaking began. Most prickings were made from an existing pricking or a copy of the pricking. Copies were made by placing a piece of thin paper over the reverse side of the pricking then rubbing over it with something like heel ball to leave an impression of the dotted pattern on the paper; in the same way as brass rubbings are produced. The reverse of the pricking was used because pushing pins through card or vellum leaves the top feeling smooth but causes a rough surface on the underside where the pins have displaced the card.

Copies were made by placing the original pricking (or the rubbing) over a new piece of card on a cork base, then pushing a pin through the existing holes of the pattern or the marks on the copy to produce a new pricking underneath the original. This was done using a pin permanently fixed into a holder, like a bobbin shaft, or using a pin vice (shown here) which holds the pin firmly in place. Using a pin on its own would be extremely fiddly and probably hurt your fingers as pricking lace patterns requires firm, precise, pressure. This image also shows how a pricking for a length of lace can be cut so the two pieces interlock and a continuous length of lace can therefore be made by alternating them.

Sadly the phrase “By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes” has nothing to do with lace prickings. It is said by one of the witches in Macbeth and is used to describe an ominous premonition, so it’s a creepy feeling rather than an overuse of lacemaking equipment!

Bungalow lace curtains

 

I discovered these ‘bungalow’ lace curtains in a Lace furnishings catalogue for 1933-34. What unique features they have that makes them suitable for bungalow windows I do not know, but the period between the two world wars was a peak time for bungalow construction in the UK, which would correspond with the publication of this catalogue, so perhaps the manufacturers were just trying to tap into a new market.

There are six designs and they are all floral, with side borders that tend to take up about a quarter of the curtain each, and a bottom border of the same width. They range in size from 35 inches wide to 40 inches and are all 2.5 yards long and are sold as a pair. However, four of them are also available as fabric bought by the yard, presumably so the homeowner could make up curtains to their own specifications. The other designs in the catalogue seem very similar but they tend to be wider and longer than the bungalow curtains. Unfortunately no prices are given for any of the curtains.

Miss Channer’s lace mat

 

Catherine Channer was actively involved in the revival of the East Midlands handmade lace industry in Britain in the early twentieth century. She was a lacemaker, teacher and researcher and I’ve written about some of her work in this blog before. Today I’m looking at Miss Channer’s mat which she designed in the early 1920s using the technique for pricking the ground that she had developed following research into old lace patterns and their origins (see this blog of 24 October 2023). An image of the mat was published in her book Practical lacemaking published in 1928 which was one of the few textbooks for students and gave instructions and patterns for Bucks point lace. 

The mat in the book had been worked by Mrs Dixon of Clapham, Bedfordshire in about 1926 and is now in the collection of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery in Bedford. The mat became famous as a challenge for skilled lacemakers in 1991 when Ruth Bean published Anne Buck’s book about Miss Channer entitled In the cause of English lace. A supplement was published at the same time comprising an image of the mat and a full sized pricking of it, which had been adapted by Patricia Bury from an earlier version in her collection. Since then many lacemakers have worked it and their handiwork can be seen by searching for ‘Miss Channers mat’ on the internet. No instructions were given for the original mat or for the version published in 1991 so it is also interesting to see how it has been worked by different lacemakers and the varying number of pairs of bobbins they used to complete it. I have never made Miss Channer’s mat but I do admire the skill and patience of those who have.

Admiral Nelson inscribed lace bobbin

This lace bobbin is inscribed 'Nelson' in a spiral reading from the base to the top and is a patriotic inscription celebrating the famous admiral. Nelson was born in 1758 and died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. He commanded the British fleet against the French during the Napoleonic wars and after winning several victories, including the Battle of Trafalgar, he was shot by a French sniper and died on his flagship HMS Victory. His body was returned to England and he was given a state funeral and buried in St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Several years later it was suggested that a memorial to him, funded by public subscription, should be erected in Trafalgar Square in central London. The competition for the monument was won by Willian Railton and work on his column and the statue of Nelson (made by E H Baily) began in 1840. The column was completed and the statue raised on to it in 1843.

I think this lace bobbin was made by James Compton because the style of lettering is unmistakably his and the dark red and blue colours are also typical of his work. I assumed that the bobbin had been made to commemorate the death of Nelson, but James Compton lived from 1824 to 1889 so he could not have been making bobbins in 1805. Having done some research into the redevelopment of Trafalgar Square and the competition to produce a memorial to Nelson I now think that the bobbin was probably made during the early 1840s when Nelson’s column was installed. This would have been of national interest and there would have been images of it in newspapers and magazines. Also, at that time, James Compton would have been in his late teens and well established, helping his father as a bobbin maker.

Renaissance lace on Elizabethan dress

 

This lovely lace on the edge of a ruff is depicted on the Rainbow portrait of Queen Elizabeth, which was painted in about 1600, probably by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger although there is a possibility that the painter may have been Isaac Oliver; it can be seen at Hatfield House.

Early needle lace developed from cutwork, in which fabric was cut away from a background, leaving a pattern of threads that were then oversewn. Eventually the background fabric was dispensed with and the pattern was laid out in threads which were then joined by stitching. The lace on the edge of her ruff shows a combination of these two types of needle lace, with cutwork on the lower part of the lace and a free edging around the outer part of the lace where the stitches were worked on free loops of thread. Early bobbin lace developed from the plaiting of cords, using thread wound on bobbins, to become a more open design and the figure of eight edging round the bodice may be a plaited cord. Patterns for both types of lace were available in pattern books that circulated widely in western Europe.

This pattern comes from Frederic Vinciolo’s pattern book for needle made laces, first published in France in 1587 and dedicated to his patroness, the Dowager Queen of France, Catherine de Medici, who had brought her knowledge of lace from her native Italy. It is similar to the edging on the Queen Elizabeth’s ruff with two layers of lace patterning and a more freely worked picot edging. This type of work was also known as ‘punto in aria’ (stitches in air) and as the book does not include instructions we must admire the lacemaker who could conjure such wonderful lace seemingly out of the air.  

Filet lace dress decoration

 

Filet lace was popular for dress decoration at the beginning of the twentieth century, as these images show, and many were made by the home dressmaker. A special issue of the magazine Needlecraft, dedicated to filet lace, notes that stock collars (high neck collars as shown in these illustrations) ‘give an air of distinction to the simplest dress’. The magazine gives detailed instructions for making these collars, including the types of thread required, how to make the foundation net, and a variety of patterns, from the simple to the intricate.

As well as stock collars, both of the blouses shown here also have a filet trim running from the neck to the waist. One is based on an antique border pattern and the other is composed of square animal motifs. The magazine suggests that longer matching lengths of filet lace could also be made to trim a ‘dainty skirt’. It estimates that about 3 or 4 yards of lace would be required and should be placed 8 inches above the hem. If that doesn’t sound enough work, it also suggests that tucks above and below the lace would form a neat frame for the lace and that the material behind the lace should be cut away so the filet lace ‘shows transparent’. It does not suggest this cutting away of fabric for the lace on the blouse – in fact it explains that the animal motifs are worked in white thread and backed by pale pink material. It also advises that the animal motifs are separated by floral or geometric patterns because ‘too many quaint animal patterns together have a tendency towards the comic, which is most undesirable’.  

Needle-run lace

 

Needle-run lace is essentially embroidery on net, which combines the beauty of stitching with the lightness of lace. It can be used to make quite large pieces of lace far more quickly than can be done using traditional handmade bobbin and needle-lace techniques. Needle-run lace was very popular in the early nineteenth century when lace machines could only produce net, but not patterned lace, so lace ‘runners’ were employed to embroider the net to make veils, stoles and collars.

To work needle-run lace the net background has to be stretched in a frame to keep the work taught. The pattern can be drawn in water-soluble ink on to the net or drawn on paper and tacked underneath it.

The design is then worked using a blunt-tipped needle and thread, first by outlining the design in a running stitch and then adding decorative stitches to produce shading. I enjoy making needle-run lace because it allows me to produce quite large pieces of lace with bold designs fairly quickly. For example, I used this technique in the series of mats that make up the body of work in Marriage bond, my research into Amy Atkin, the first female Nottingham machine lace designer who had to give up work on marriage; and you can see an image of one of the mats at the head of this blog.