[two months off]

That's interesting, though it sounds very time consuming.

[SomethingElse]

A dying art, making lace. I think it is unfortunate that the making of such a handmade fabric is increasingly industrialized. People aren't learning so many amazing hand craft techniques any longer. I think I have only met women in Greece, Italy and France who make lace now - never in the US. There is a huge lace making industry in China, thank goodness!

Hmmm, I wonder if anyone on tFS actually makes lace.

In my family, the last woman to make her own lace was my great, great grandmother. I have lovely lace bureau scarves that she made, with lace and delicate embroidery. Although I never knew her, I do think of her and it brings me joy and an odd kind of power. I am proud of the beautiful things she made, and I hope a little bit of her sense of aesthetics runs through my veins.

I knit and crochet, needlepoint and petit point - but I've never tried to make lace myself. I think I'll trot off and see what I can find out about making lace. It occurs to me that there are about a gzillion lace veils from women who have married over the past six hundred years that might be very, very interesting to research.

[SomethingElse]

Oh Gius! Pleeeeeeeeeeeease post some of your lace creations! I would love to see what you make! I spent about an hour looking at all the stunning tools and techniques of lace making, the bobbins with beads from the Victorian era are stunning. Because I 'whittle' constantantly, making little sculptures and decorations, I can tell that many of the 'antique' tools are handmade and decorated in very unusual ways. I also found marvelous sets of bone, ivory and wood tools in little velvet cases that are works of art in and of themselves.

I'd prefer to make lace than play video games...

[gius]

Well... this area's only for trendspotting, but the link to the lace making thread in the DIY section is here
http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums...ht=making+lace
I think you're referring to bobbin lace since you're talking about tools. I don't really use any special tools... I've done a bit of Irish crochet and I only used a hook for that; and it takes some time--I'd love to be able to design with crochet. Anyway, I mostly do needle lace these days It's very flexible with the design

You might like to see some posts in the fabric jewellery thread too
http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums...bric+jewellery

[lets_dance]

From Style.com


I'm making this white lace dress as my Prom dress.

[titania]

lets_dance, please, please, please post some pics when you're done and (if you can) post some tips and pointers on how you went about making it too...

Quote:

Originally Posted by SomethingElse I'd prefer to make lace than play video games...

[DJCNOR]

I've made lace. Bobbin lace, needle weaving, and tatted lace. lace has the reputation of being fragile, but here's the thing. Machine -made lace is fragile. Handmade lace is anything but fragile. After all it's more or less a construction of organized knots. Why do you think museums have samples of lace that are 500 years old? Fragile? A good number of people still do it here in England as a hobby type activity or as an artwork. i do my tatted lace with beads and metallic thread, and make jewelry.

[gius]

^how is machine one weaker? i thought the technique in making it would be the same.

Sorry this took a while It was being marked and I just got it back.
Here is a sampler I created. It's my experimental chaotic lace...The technique is pulled thread embroidery. It's made of thick wool... I made the mesh-like fabric first and then added the lace after. Titania, you might want to try this... It's quick and easy when the threads aren't too many and so fine.

[gius]

Okay, here is a tutorial for needle lace, as Titania was curious about it

For the outline... you can use many things, like braid or lace tape or shaped wire or hoops, etc. Here i am using yarn. It's called the 'cordonnet' method. To make needlelace, what you need is an outline of the design (the contours) and then you use the lace stitches to fill the spaces inside.

1. put fabric through embroidery hoop (to act as a base)
2. create an outline with the yarn/thread. Make sure to 'double' the outline... You will see that in the photo #3
(*when you make your outline, make sure the ends of the yarn aren't at a corner...like for example, don't have the end of the yarn at the corner of a square--it will make your outline uneven in the end when you finish it)
4. Stitch the outline on to the base fabric. Keep the outline thread taut and make the stitches a bit close together, so that the yarn doesn't have the chance to float around loosely.
5. Finished outline. (You can create an outline of a heart, of stars, etc.)


I hope my instructions are clear... It's past 2 am already now, so I am off to bed, but I will scan pages for lace stitches in the morning! Till then mes enfants!

[titania]

gius!

It sort of makes sense... I'm gonna write this down and really read it. I almost missed that little link to your pics underneath step 5! They help a lot. And your pulled thread embroidery is so beautiful! I'll try that over my break...

Thank you so much!

[gius]

Ok I'm back... So, to begin to fill the outlines in with needlelace, you take your new thread and knot it on to the outline thread. Basically the lace stitches are all loops ("buttonhole" stitches)....

1st photo - shows the kinds of stitches you can make and their names
(it also has instructions on how to use lace tape as outlines)

2nd photo - basic loop stitches
You can vary the design of the lace just by the spacing of the stitches or how many times you loop around previous stitches.

3rd photo - cloth stitch... This stitch creates a more dense fabric

4th photo - bars and picots

all pictures from Reader's Digest--Complete Guide to Needlework

[SomethingElse]

Oh thank you, Gius! I've been reading about lace from various regions, and the designs are indicative of origin in many, many cases. One design that I like in particular is the Maltese cross:



lacefairy.com

[gius]

^you're welcome. ooh the design look sso complicated, SomethingElse I think it looks like needleweaving, the things besides the florals. Are you going to try to make it?

Last part of making needle lace...
When you start to fill your outline with lace stitches, take your new thread and tie a knot at the outline thread. Make sure not to pierce the background fabric, so...you could try using a tapestry needle for this part since they are blunt.
In this picture, you can see I am starting from in between the doubled outline threads.


Here is the finished stitching...

the stitch I used is a "wheel filling"

Next part: Now you have to finish the outline thread with buttonhole stitches (see buttonholed bar post #26 for the stitch). This is so your stitches stay in place... You can see there are a lot of hanging threads in the photo. You can keep them till you finish the outline and weave it in...then cut the excess.

And the finished piece!
(steam + iron to flatten the lace)


Sorry if my instructions seem scatter-brained...Feel free to ask any questions!

[5AvenueMarceau]

I feel such a sham now, I've made lace but an incredibly easy way that makes me feel lazy now now I've seen gius beautiful work. We used a plastic sheet that disintegrated in water, put it in a special embroidery loop (I think it was plastic too for non-slip) and then set up the machine for embroidery and that was that! I have no photos unfortunately, but I made a snowflake type pattern with silver and cream thread.

[gius]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 5AvenueMarceau I feel such a sham now, I've made lace but an incredibly easy way that makes me feel lazy now now I've seen gius beautiful work. We used a plastic sheet that disintegrated in water, put it in a special embroidery loop (I think it was plastic too for non-slip) and then set up the machine for embroidery and that was that! I have no photos unfortunately, but I made a snowflake type pattern with silver and cream thread.

Haha I like making lace that way too It's not lazy at all. You can make some interesting things quickly and use it to combine fabrics... Did your piece end up drying hard? I think if you wash it completely, it will fall apart since the 'glue' is what holds it together
I heard there are so many different kinds of these sheets though
The one I used is called 'solvy' and you have to make sure you have enough layers of thread so it keeps its form