What is bobbin lace? I know it is not made by cutting threads out of a fabric and then filling in the open places. It isn’t crocheted or knitted. Bobbin lace is made by twisting threads (wound on bobbins) around pins. There seems to be a fair amount of magic involved. Here’s a PICTURE of bobbin lace in process. (thanks, Wikipedia)

 

I tackled the embroidery part of the jacket project first before launching into the lace production because the embroidery will take a lot longer and because the lace isn’t strictly absolutely necessary. We could make a creditable recreation of a Stuart jacket without it. I felt I had to get the embroidery piece not only up and running but well and truly underway before I leaped into an area I know even less about. But over the last few weeks, I’ve opened up the lace discussion.

 

Let me ‘fess up right off the bat: I’ve never tried making bobbin lace. I’ve found that some fiber arts or needlework techniques “call” to me, and some don’t. Bobbin lace never has. (Lace has remained politely silent as opposed to card weaving which positively thumbs its nose at me. But I digress.) I love to see lace, to own it and use it, I enjoy watching others making lace, but I just don’t have the desire to do some myself.

 

I’ve been learning a lot, though. I learned that the bobbins (with the thread wound on them) usually travel in pairs. The members of each pair can interact with each other or interact as one with another pair. Interactions are like over or under or twists or more complicated than that. I learned that while in some lace traditions the foot (flat edge, the edge you’d sew to the hem of your slip, say) is on the left, other lacers always place the foot on the right. It matters, though, because there’s a right side and a wrong side to lace. The right side is usually the side facing down, away from the lacer as worked, and if you’ve got the foot on the wrong side your lace will be backwards. Good to know.

 

I also learned that there are different ways to accomplish certain maneuvers, and if you’re going to want several different people to make lace for one big project you’d best make sure everyone’s using the same methods. Also good to know.

 

Over the next few days I’ll delve into the decisions we have to make in order to create appropriate lace for the jacket, and how we’ll make them. For today I’ll end with a story. This is a true story but it happened a long time ago. I can very clearly remember some details, but some are hazy, like what city it was and whether I was at a museum or a senior center or somewhere else. Fortunately the lost details are immaterial.

 

Once upon a time, in a city in Brussels my traveling companion and I heard an odd noise as we walked across a square. The noise was like thousands of fingernails tapping, not in time but in irregular rhythms. There were so many taps or clicks that you couldn’t hear individual ones, only a sort of hum. We went in an open door and up a set of stairs – other people were going in, too – and the noise got louder and louder. We came into a room with maybe a dozen older ladies (I was really young then, maybe they were only as old as I am now but they seemed grandmotherly to me) making bobbin lace. The noise was the sound of the bobbins clicking against each other as they threw them back and forth. Each of their pillows had dozens and dozens of bobbins. I was mesmerized by the speed of their hands, that clicking hum, and the way the lace grew. They barely paused to move pins, and were so skilled that they could glance up and look around the room while they worked. That was the first time I saw anybody making bobbin lace and I’ve always remembered that sound, and the awe and admiration I felt for the years and years of experience that enabled them to work so fast and so beautifully.

I’m sorry I neglected to mention that a sample arrived from Kathleen S last week.

 

So. Bobbin Lace. For the next week I think the blog will be bobbin lace central. First up is an examination of the lace on the Laton jacket. I’ve been in contact with the Victoria & Albert museum, owner of the Laton jacket, about linking to their pictures. Linking, unfortunately, is not allowed. (I’m really glad I asked first!) It may be possible to put some pictures in the blog, but there will be a fee & I’m looking into that and the conditions.

 

In the mean time, I will give you a map. They are easy to find.

Search V&A; if you Google V&A you can hit the “lucky” button and it will go right there. It takes a while for the page to load fully, they have lots of tricks & treats on there. On the top bar, click “collections.”

 

Wait for that page to load and then click the left hand box, “search the collections.”  

In the box marked “all fields” enter “Laton jacket”. Then click “search.” TA-DA!

You may want to bookmark this page; I bet we’ll be referring to a couple of these images often this week.

 

For now, go back to the Laton jacket images and click on the one that shows a detail of the back hem of the jacket, with a very good view of the lace.

 

This same image is reproduced, larger than life, on page 17 of the book Fashion in Detail From the 17^th and 18^th centuries by Avril Hart and Susan North.

 

Remember this is the Laton jacket, and while we’re using this garment pattern we’re not using the embroidery pattern. The embroidery pattern is from another of the V&A’s embroidered jackets, 1359-1900 (this one doesn’t have a name, only a number, but I’m getting very fond of it and may have to name it soon).

 

Page 149 of Fashion in Detail shows details of the Laton jacket and 1359-1900 along with descriptions of the two jackets. The top image, of 1359-1900, shows the wonderful detail of the three-dimensional peapods, with the top pod folded back to reveal the metal-thread peas underneath. Also the sparkle thread is plainly to be seen in the strawberry at the top of the image, the red worm to the left, and the pomegranate at the lower right. Very cool.

 

Whoops. Sidetracked. Back to the lace on page 17, or on the V&A website. Fashion in Detail has another image of the lace, on page 75. This is a shot of the back neck, with the turned-down collar edged with lace. According to the notes in Fashion in Detail, the lace is made of “silver and silver-gilt”; according to Janet Arnold in Patterns of Fashion: the cut and construction of clothes for men & women 1560-1620, the lace is 1 ¼” wide.

 

The other day I tried to put in a link to the full picture of the jacket back (bigger than Bloggie can do) and had a brain freeze and forgot how to do it. So much for my glee from a couple of weeks ago. Rich to the rescue, and HERE IT IS.

 

There’s lots to consider about bobbin lace, we’ll be back to it tomorrow.