Featured Lace "Merry Christmas" handkerchief?

UMMMmmm ... I was just kidding Linda , just felt like doing a little poem !!! I remember the absolute joy when my first grandbaby arrived .. that was 26yrs ago, then it became 4 grandbaby's ... I LOVE them SO much , I understand the great excitement you are feeling .. enjoy it, soon you will hold that tiny baby in your arms and your heart will melt all over again, as it did when your son was born .. ... Joy.

 

If it's Valenciennes, it's very fine linen thread. If.

 

How is this?

 

I would like to email some of your pics to one of my Lace Heroes. I don't know if she would respond, but with your permission, I will give it a shot.

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I hadn't stopped studying your piece over the past several days and, since the beginning, I've been bothered by the lack of a picot edge and the presence of the little "tufts" outlining this piece.

It's why I was looking for a machine made piece to compare to, but since the other piece had the gimp, I, momentarily, thought we were home free, but then it started bothering me again.

This page http://www.gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/lace/collection/picot.htm has some really good photos of machine made vs hand made bobbin lace edges.

I think your piece best matches the first picture under machine made.




On the latest closeup... I've seen occasional single thread loops (between the green lines below) in lace identified as Valenciennes, but that's a whole lot of single loops, plus, they're over a single thread and it troubles me.

I can't 100% see what's going on in the mesh, but I do not like the parts I've circled in purple... does not look braided to me.

All of which brings me request to send pics to my lace hero. This piece is, in my experience, an odd subject for Valenciennes (even machine made) and that makes it interesting to me. Don't know if it will be interesting to a Lace Hero, but I'd like to ask.

 

You absolutely may send my photos to your Lace Hero. I am fascinated that there is so much to discover in this little wisp of fabric! I am waiting with bated breath to hear what you find out!

Linda

 

@Jivvy Did you ever hear anything from your lace hero? I just came across the lace in my workroom again, thought I would see if anything new has come up.

Linda

 

I had totally forgotten about this!

I did not hear back, but I do recall that we were having internet problems at the time (because rural) and that I was concerned about whether it actually sent and decided I would resend later.

Then I did other stuff and forgot.

Will do that here shortly.

 

Thank you muchly!

 

Beautiful

 

Hi everyone,
Sorry I'm late to the party... but it is certainly a machine made lace.

With machine made lace it is very hard to pin a specific name like "Valenciennes" to the piece, as machine made lace designers didn't have to stick to any style in particular to create the lace. Although specific lace characteristics are sometimes found in a piece (perhaps a certain Honiton style flower) it is also possible to find a completely different lace characteristic (like perhaps a Chantilly style leaf) in the same piece. Hence: difficult to really pin down a form. Quite often; machine made lace is just labelled by the machine which made it - ie: Leavers.

Your sweet piece is made to look like a bobbin lace and probably manufactured circa 1900-1910. As you might be able to note on the 3rd original photo of the piece; the side edges are "cut" (perhaps the top and bottom too - hard to tell); this indicates that it was made in a long strip and each panel would have been cut off. Very cute piece!

Handmade Valenciennes lace is "very fine" - gossamer. Made with very fine threads. Although it was produced in wider pieces occasionally; it seems most handmade Val lace is quite narrow and was often a edging or insertion rather than a wide "flounce".

I hope that clarifies some things.
Leslie at the Northern Lights Lodge