Lessons in Bobbin Lacemaking

To

Pat Harris and Pauline Downs

Copyright © 1977, 1992 by Doris Southard.

All rights reserved.

This Dover edition, first published in 1992, is a republication of Bobbin Lacemaking, first published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, 1977. Slight corrections have been made to this edition and the Suppliers list has been updated.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Southard, Doris.

[Bobbin lacemaking]

Lessons in bobbin lacemaking / Doris Southard.

p. cm.

Originally published: Bobbin lacemaking. New York: Scribner, c1977.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9780486139555

1. Bobbin lace. I. Title.

[TT805.B63S68 1992]

746.2’22—dc20

91-45332

CIP

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

27122607

www.doverpublications.com

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Copyright Page

Introduction

History of Bobbin Lace

Getting Started: The Pillow

Bobbins, Old and New

LESSON 1 - A Simple Braid

LESSON 2 - An Edging

LESSON 3 - The Sewing Edge

LESSON 4 - Fans

LESSON 5 - Spiders

LESSON 6 - Rose Ground

LESSON 7 - Turning a Corner

LESSON 8 - How to Begin Without Directions

LESSON 9 - Laces with Gimp

LESSON 10 - Squares, Petals, and Picots

LESSON 11 - Laces Made on a Flat Pillow

LESSON 12 - Other Kinds of Laces

Things to Make

Washing Bobbin Lace

Bobbin Lace Designs

Bibliography

Suppliers

Organizations

INDEX

Introduction

This is the book I wish ad been available when I was learning bobbin lacemaking. For years my only teachers were books, most of them old and outdated, but I was fortunate to have them, since by the time I was looking for bobbin lace information they were becoming scarce and hard to find. By gleaning here a little, there a little, and by much experimentation, I pieced together the know-how needed to acquire skill in lacemaking.

Almost as soon as I knew how myself, I began sharing this new-old craft with others, teaching classes and writing lessons for a correspondence course, besides occasionally exhibiting and demonstrating. Remembering my own frustrations and my search for answers to questions, I have found it easy to write in a way that I think will anticipate the problems of beginners and be a help to students at all levels.

My approach has remained traditional even though I admire and appreciate the exciting works of contemporary artists who use bobbin lace techniques and a wide variety of fibers for their constructions. Through the lessons in this book you can master the techniques of bobbin lacemaking and then apply them in any way —traditional or contemporary—that satisfies your creative instincts.

Bobbin lacemaking has enthralled me for ten years. I hope that you will enjoy it half as much as I do!

Without the help and encouragement, not to say gentle prodding, of many lacemakers this book could not have been written.

Sincere appreciation to all my fellow lace enthusiasts, who so generously loaned me their work to be photographed or who had things photographed for me.

My deepest gratitude to Trenna Ruffner for sharing ideas, working samples, proofreading, and making suggestions and encouraging me all along the way.

Special thanks to Eldon Swanson for long and patient hours at the drawing board, reproducing patterns and line drawings.

Gratitude to photographers F. Axtell Kramer, Bob Edmonson, R. J. Horsley, Dick Cole, and Alice Camber.

History of Bobbin Lace

It is State Fair time. Throngs of visitors stroll through the building that houses the Fine Arts and Crafts exhibits. Carrying souvenirs, shopping bags, balloons, and giveaways, they linger long at some displays, briefly at others. The crowd seldom thins before one booth in particular. Here sits a woman in a costume of colonial days, working at the loom of the lacemaker—a lace pillow. At the top of the pillow a small bristle of pins secures the lace as it is woven. Many threads radiate from the pins, each thread fastened to one of the bobbins spread across the pillow. The lacemaker’s fingers fly and the bobbins click like wind chimes as she flips them this way and that, twisting, crossing, braiding, pausing often to take one of the pins from the back of the cluster and set it in a new place between the stitches she has just woven.

All are enthralled with the seemingly effortless manipulation of threads and bobbins and they marvel at the crisp band of lace that is the product of all this dexterity. A display of lace includes bookmarks, dainty handkerchiefs, wall hangings, fine wool lace scarves, attesting to the versatility of the lacemaker’s skill. The process looks so very intricate and yet the worker at the lace pillow clearly does not concentrate exclusively on her task but talks with all who want to ask questions. Most often asked is How do you know which bobbins to pick up next? Over and over she hears, I’ve never even heard of bobbin lace before! or This is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone making bobbin lace. Many declare, I could never do that! Most are frankly unbelieving when told that lacemaking is not hard to learn and that almost anyone can do it.

WHERE DID BOBBIN LACE ORIGINATE?

Very few people living in the second half of the twentieth century have ever seen a bobbin lacemaker at work except in a situation like that just described. Only a few have even heard of bobbin lace, and yet it is one of the oldest crafts, dating back to the sixteenth century, at least—perhaps earlier still. Its historic origins are disputed. Some authorities assert that bobbin lacemaking began in Italy. Others are equally sure that the first bobbin lace was made in Flanders. Whatever its point of origin, the knowledge and skill of lacemaking with bobbins spread rapidly and in a relatively short time it was being made in every European country. By the end of the sixteenth century a great deal of lace was being used for the decoration of clothing. The rich and the noble, the only class that could afford such elegance in dress, loved to use lace lavishly on nearly every item of apparel. We are all familiar with the portraits of the period showing both men and women in great ruffs, sometimes edged with lace, sometimes made entirely of lace. Stiffening and underproppers were used to make the ruffs stand out and gave a sort of head-on-a-platter appearance. These finally gave way to cascading collars without the stiffening. Wide ruffles and tiers of laces were used at wrist and knee and even on the cuffs of boots. Hundreds of yards of laces might adorn a single costume. Many a nobleman, it is said, sold acres of land to buy lace. The Roman Catholic Church used the most exquisite laces in great profusion to embellish the robes of bishops and priests and altar linens.

This and the following lace portrait are from a set of eleven purchased by a New York antique dealer in 1961 from an abbey near Paris. They were probably made in the nineteenth century by nuns at the abbey. This one is from a portrait of Henry II of France. Courtesy of Carol M. Winandy. Photo by F. Axtell Kramer.

The first laces were relatively simple, of fairly coarse threads, and the designs were geometric in character. As the skill of the lacemaker developed, finer and finer threads were used and the designs grew ever more elaborate and more beautiful. The early geometric patterns and heavy threads were superseded by filmy interlacements showing floral designs, scrolls, tendrils, leaves, trees, and figures of people and animals, besides the religious motifs for the church. The figures of the design were connected with brides or bars. Later still, the flowers and figures were woven with a mesh or net background instead of the brides. During the eighteenth century bobbin lace design and execution attained the ultimate in beauty and richness. The linen threads were incredibly fine and the consummate skill of the lacemaker wove them into unmatched works of art.

Catherine de Medici. The frames of all the portraits in the set are identical. Courtesy of Carol M. Winandy. Photo by F. Axtell Kramer.

Detail of the Catherine de Medici portrait. Photo by F. Axtell Kramer.

Each country or district developed a characteristic style of pattern and manner of working, so that it is possible to identify old lace pieces with some certainty as having originated in a particular lacemaking area. Brussels, Binche, and Mechlin are Belgian cities whose names identify some of the finest laces produced in that country. Another Belgian lace is Duchesse, considered one of the loveliest of all pillow laces. Chantilly is a lace of France and Spain. Arras and Lille are two of the better-known French lace centers, but the most famous lace of France is probably Valenciennes. The best of the old English laces is Honiton; it is still being made in relatively simple form and in small quantities. Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire laces also are made in England, many of the lovely old patterns once again coming into use. Each European country produces laces of its own, many of them of fine quality although generally not so well known as those already mentioned. Some excellent books on the history of lacemaking and the identification of laces are listed in the bibliography at the back of this book. Both subjects are fascinating studies and can lead one on a wide-ranging journey of exploration.

Most of these fragile and beautiful laces were woven by the poor women of the countryside and towns, and lacemaking grew to be a cottage industry of vast proportions. Pillow and bobbins were kept in readiness for those moments when the most pressing of chores in house and field were done and the worker could spend a few hours making lace. Other lacemakers spent every waking hour at the lace pillow. Nuns plied the bobbins in the seclusion of their convents, producing exquisite laces for the church, or making laces to sell for money to carry on the work of orphanages and other charities. A few men also worked full time at the lace pillow and others turned to making lace during slack seasons in their usual employment. Some of the great ladies of the time, queens included, were lacemakers, and they encouraged and patronized the home industry. Many thousands of lace workers were engaged in the industry at its height during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It would not be unusual for twenty thousand women in a single city to be making lace for sale. It was an occupation that brought in little money for the worker, but these were desperate times and that little was sometimes all that staved off starvation.

Belgian Duchesse bobbin lace found in a New York thrift shop. The inset medallions are of point de gaze, a needle-made lace. Photo by F. Axtell Kramer.

Even the most proficient and industrious worker could produce only a tiny bit of lace in the course of a fifteen-hour day and for this might receive the equivalent of five cents. The only people who profited greatly from the lace industry were the lace merchants. Buyers came to the villages, purchased laces from the workers, sold them to a middleman who might sell them to still another dealer before they came into the hands of the eventual owner.

The thread used was the finest of linen, sometimes of such gossamer spin that it could not be felt between thumb and forefinger. Since dry air would cause the fragile linen threads to become brittle and snap at a touch, both spinning and lacemaking were often carried on in the damp atmosphere of a cellar. A single candle provided illumination for a number of workers—usually three or four. The candle stood in the center of a candle stand. Around it were placed globes of water, sometimes called flashes, positioned so that the light shining through one of them was magnified and projected onto the spot where a lacemaker was working. Sometimes there would be a second ring of workers around a candle stand, and incredibly, even a third! Under such conditions and for mere pennies a day, laces of a beauty and delicacy unmatched in any age were woven. In order to see their detailing one needs a magnifying glass, if not a microscope! The world will never see its like again. We can only marvel at it and treasure the bits and pieces of old lace we find in antique shops, realizing that all the lace of this quality that there will ever