My Lacemaking Journey

Whenever people ask me how I learned to sew the answer is generally begins with: "I went to a Lace making Class..."

I can't remember a time when I didn't want to know how to sew, or craft or do something arty. My Mum had tried to teach me the basic stitches (I still have the unfinished doll blanket that was, technically my first ever sewing attempt). However she really doesn't like sewing so the lessons tended to be few and far between (She was much happier teaching me how to make Plum Tortes and Apple Crumbles).

The (as yet still unfinished) doll blanket

When I was about eight my mum took me to look around a craft fair that was being held in my village's Community Centre. We wandered around the main hall and then, in the side room, I found some of the girls that I knew from school who were there with their Lace Making Class. They were all sat around a table with their cushions and folders of work to show to the visitors. I remember my mum talking to Mrs. Ives, who was the teacher, and then pointing to some of the work and asking me if I would be interested in learning, the rest as they say is history...


  The next weekend I attended my first Lace making Class in the Village Church Rooms. I was given a pillow and some bobbins and was taught how to wind the thread. My first ever piece of lace was this sample strip of  whole and half stitch, I'm still really proud of it.

My first ever piece of Lace

detail of the whole stitch section

After that I made a snake bookmark which I still use to this day, one of the teachers completed the section up to the eyes and then I was let loose, I still remember that I had completed so much of it over the course of the week that I had to take back a section the next Saturday in order to add in the twists.

The Snake Bookmark

detail showing the twists

Following the snake there were a couple of Christmas cards and a Loch Ness Monster, which I think may be the only time I've used beads in my lacework (I really should remedy that).

The First Christmas Card (It's a bit fragile as my youngest
brother got hold of it when he was a baby and the lace had to be stuck back onto the card

detail of the first card

The second card

Nessie!

Detail of Nessie

At some point over those years We also did some beading projects, making a small beaded box and a beaded bauble (which I will try to get a photo of over Christmas) I also created my first cross stitch sampler and began to get interested in knitting. All of us at the lace class made roses using an edging strip of lace that was gathered and mounted on felt (mine was a very botanically correct lilac, because it was my favourite colour at the time).

I also made this very nice pink bookmark (which I believe was the first time I had used variegated threads, and also introduced me to spiders.

detail, showing the spiders in the centre diamonds

I think I attended the Lace Class for around two years, I remember that we broke up for the summer holidays expecting to be back in September. Unfortunately during the summer Mrs. Ives had a hip replacement that went wrong and decided she wouldn't be able to teach anymore so the class folded.

I can still remember sitting, crying at the top of the stairs when my mum told me, I had found something I was good at and it had been taken away from me. 

My mum is amazing. She went to the local (mobile, only there one afternoon a week) library, borrowed all three books on Lace making in the entire county and presented them to me one day after school. Mrs. Ives had given us all permission to keep our equipment and so I was able to keep going.

These attempts were far from exemplary. I remember using grease-proof paper to trace off the patterns in the books and then, without any sort of card base, pinning it straight onto my pillow. The paper tore, the pencil marks rubbed off onto the lace and the thread I was using was far from ideal. The couple of pieces I made during this time have been kept as more of a personal reminder of how stubborn I can be than anything else.

A very misshapen bookmark

A Taurus The Bull from '100 New Bobbin Lace Patterns' by Yusai Fukuyama,
 minus the filling stitches because I didn't know how to do them yet

Because I live in a small village word eventually, thankfully, got round and one day my mum got a phone call from a lady she had never met before,

"You don't know me" the lady said "but Isabel does, I used to help out at Mrs. Ives' Lace Classes" 

The lady's name was Jane Daniels and she was offering to come round and teach me Lace!

That first Saturday that Jane visited I had a piece of tape lace on my pillow. I remember her helping me to slide pieces of card under the tracing paper in order to stabilise it and helping me with the joining in. 

The Lace Doily I was working on during the first lessons with Jane

Jane kept coming round to teach me for ten years. During that time I learned Blackwork embroidery, Stumpwork and made several rag dolls as well as making Lace. She encouraged me to join the local lace society which held meetings several times a year.

another bookmark (and more spiders)

The colours remind me of rhubarb and custard

My first piece of stumpwork, created during a
workshop at the East Yorkshire Lace Society

A fan incorporating metallic thread

detail of the fan

My first ever piece of Blackwork
 (I did attempt to iron out the creases before taking this photo)

A Torchon Lace handkerchief edging

detail of the handkerchief edging

Even when I went to University I still continued lace making, incorporating it into several costumes. I even making a jabot for the local town crier as part of my work experience (which I unfortunately don't have any photos of).

 During first year I added a lace trim to the front of my Regency Stays (as it's white on white it's quite difficult to see).

Add caption

In second year I used the same pattern as the Torchon handkerchief edging to make the trim for the sleeve of my 1890's costume, I believe there was around 3 meters of it.

For third year I made a trim to go around the neckline of my 1770's shift using a pattern taken from some 18th century lace.

A month or so after graduating my mum and I went on a day out to a Lace exhibition at Mount Grace Priory. Jane, her friend Judy and Pauline who was my next door neighbour growing up, and who had given me my first sewing basket, came with us.

It was a really enjoyable day. We got to look around the ruins of the Priory, a reconstructed monk's cell (the size of a small house with it's own herb garden) and wander around the Manor House to see the lace.

Detail of 'Shades of Sandstone' by Norma Johnson
One of my favourite pieces at the exhibition

Around a year later I had moved out of my parents house and had started my job in the Local Theatre's Wardrobe department when I got an unexpected visit from my mum to tell me that Jane had died. She had had cancer, and being a very private person, had decided to only let a very few people know that she was ill. 

Jane's sister who had contacted my mum had also let her know that Jane had made the decision to leave me a number of the Lace Making Books that she had collected over her life. I also have a pair of her many 'stork scissors'(She used to have a pair for every lace pillow, and she had a lot of pillows!). 

These days I am using several of the books to help me learn Buckinghamshire lace (or Bucks Point). To date I have worked several bobbin samples and am currently working on a handkerchief edging. I  had also started collecting antique bobbins (including a few bone ones), but I think I have as many as I need for now. 

A sample of Bucks Point ground with a fan edging, a traditional pattern

The above sample on my Roller Pillow

A sample of traditional Bucks Point, called 'Little Pea'

 

My current Bucks Point Project, a handkerchief edging

In the future I plan to have a go at some seventeenth century bone lace and, as I am quite enjoying the Bucks Point I might have a go at some Tønder lace as well.