APPENDIX

With Drawings by the Directrice of the Brussels School of Design, Mme. Lucie Paulis

From the point of view of technique, all laces are divided into two groups; laces made with the needle, and laces made with bobbins.

I.—Laces Made with the Needle

All needle lace is executed in the same manner. First, the design of the whole is divided into details sufficiently small to allow of their being easily held and turned by the worker. The design of each of these details is reproduced on a special kind of black paper by means of tiny pricked holes that follow all its lines.

The lace worker sews this pattern (or piqure) to a piece of double white cloth, which gives it solidity. She is then ready to begin the tracÉ or outlining process. A strand of two or three threads is appliquÉd along all the contours of the pattern by means of a very fine needle and very fine thread, which catches the cloth below the black paper, passing and repassing through each of the holes of the pattern, thus holding the outlining strand in a sort of embrace. When all the contours of the drawing have been traced, the second part of the work begins, the execution of the points that are to fill in the spaces.

All the points or stitches of needle lace are loops, simple or twisted, formed by a needle carrying a single thread. (The worker holds the needle with the base instead of the point, forward.) The first row of loops is attached to the threads of the outlining strand. Arriving at the extremity of the space she is working, the lace-maker begins a second row of loops running in the opposite direction, attaching each loop to the corresponding loop of the first row. At the end of this row she fastens it to the outlining strand by one or two stitches and starts on the third row, repeating this operation until her space is completely covered.

The points or stitches most frequently employed are:

All the surfaces having been covered, the lace is further embellished by the confection of brodes, or firm outlining cords around the filled-in spaces, which produce a more or less striking effect of relief in needle laces. This brode (sketch i), is made of a strand of fine or heavier threads, appliquÉd as was the original strand outlining the pattern spaces, and then beautifully covered by the buttonhole stitch. When the brode is well made, the buttonhole stitches follow closely, touching side by side.

Many differing little details which help to give to needle lace its richness and brilliancy (balls, rings, etc.), are also varieties of brodes, and are made for the most part in the buttonhole stitch. The bars forming the base of Venise lace are made in this way.

The execution of the brodes is the final work in needle lace. After they are finished, the lace detail is detached from the underlying pattern by cutting the thread between the black paper and supporting cloth, the fine thread which in the beginning attached the outlining strand. There remains only to join the separate details of the pattern by a very fine stitch called the point invisible.

The varieties of needle laces are:

II.—Bobbin Lace

Bobbin laces fall under two groups: (1) Those made with cut threads, and (2) those made with continuous threads.

1. Laces made with cut threads, or of repeated details, are executed on a round cushion, which can be easily turned and they require but a limited number of bobbins (generally not more than two dozen). They may be said to be composed essentially of a braid which grows wider or narrower as it follows all the variations of the pattern, and is interrupted as often as is necessary.

The parts in process of operation are attached to those already finished by veritable running knots made with the aid of a little crochet needle, a tool absolutely indispensable to the making of this kind of lace. The design of the whole is divided into portions so small that they cover only the middle of the cushion. It is necessary to have all around the detail, space for the bobbins, each of which carries a thread about four inches long.

Each fragment is traced on a dark blue paper or patron on which the place for the pins is not indicated (sketch k.). The lace-maker pins this blue paper to the middle of her cushion, covering the whole with a piece of dark blue linen which has a hole in the middle large enough to leave free the part of the pattern actually being worked. The [288]
[289]
[290]lace already finished is thus protected. She then places a pin on the spot where she decides to begin, attaching the necessary number of bobbins and starts to weave as a weaver does, first from right to left, then from left to right, carrying the two bobbins holding the threads forming the woof (trame) successively above and below the threads forming the warp (chaine). Each time all of the threads of the warp have been [291]
[292]crossed by the threads of the woof, she places a pin, and now the two woof threads caught by this pin lead back to the opposite side. She turns her cushion according to the direction of the braid she is executing, so that the threads forming the warp always fall vertically.

The fundamental stitch in these laces and that which forms the greatest part of the braids is the point de toile, or toile (sketch 1.). Certain open stitches are also employed, the most common being the grillÉ or half-stitch (sketch m.).

The different varieties of bobbin laces made with cut threads, or in repeated pieces are:

2. Lace made with uncut or continuous threads. Laces of this group are executed on a stationary cushion. The design, before it can be used by the worker, must pass through the hands of a piqueuse, or interpreter, who prepares what is called the patron or pattern (sketch o), that is to say, determines in advance the places where the pins destined to hold the threads, must be placed (sketch of a piqure, p.). This work of the piqueuse demands great skill and infinite patience. Upon her interpretation will depend the aspect of the lace, for the worker follows her indications rigidly. This pattern is pricked on a supple and resistant cardboard (in olden times it was made on parchment) and is pinned to the cushion with the selvage of the lace at the left. The worker then attaches to a row of pins placed all across the top of the pattern, the threads which she will need, often many hundreds.

Now she commences her work, braiding, twisting, intercrossing the threads in diverse ways, and placing a pin each time the threads must be held in a position which they can not retain without the aid of a fixt support. When she arrives at the bottom of her pattern, with great care she takes out all the pins, and lifts her work to the top of the pattern, replacing the pins so that the lace will be kept absolutely regular. She then recommences her work of braiding or weaving, [294]
[295]repeating the same operation till the length of lace she must make is finished. The patterns are usually about a foot long.

The bobbin laces made with continuous thread comprise:

a. Cluny and

b. Laces with a mesh base:

1. Valenciennes,
   
2. Binche,
   
3. Malines,
   
4. Point de Paris,
   
5. Point de Lille,
   
6. Chantilly.

The varieties in Group b may truly be called woven lace, because they contain a veritable tissue in which, tho the threads are combined in such a way as to produce more or less open effects, the opaque parts are woven regularly, that is as linen is woven. The pattern of the mesh of each of these laces is different.

• Valenciennes (sketch q.).
  
• Binche (sketch r and s.).
  
• Malines (sketch t.).
  
• Point de Paris (sketch u.).
  
• Point de Lille (sketch v.).
  

Further, Malines, Chantilly, Point de Lille, and Point de Paris are characterized by the presence of the bourdon, or heavy thread, slightly twisted, outlining all the details of the design.

Grammont, or Chantilly lace, is usually made of black silk thread. The mesh is the same as that of Point de Lille. In it the toile is replaced by the grillÉ, which adds greatly to the lightness of the effect.

N. B.—To be understood technically, all these laces made with continuous thread should be considered from the point of view of the place they occupy on the cushion of the worker: They are held vertically with the selvage at the left.

It is necessary to mention with these laces, Torchon, the most common of all, which has little artistic value, and has entered more and more into the domain of the machine. Torchon base (sketch w.).

Group A.—Cluny laces demand great ingenuity in execution. The most simple are made entirely by braiding in such a way as to produce an effect of interlacing (sketch y.). The braids are formed of four threads; when the interlacing is more important they become more complicated. At times the braids group themselves to form the flat surface or toile which later will resolve again into braids. They unite and part, sometimes dividing into strands (brides) of two threads according to the lines of the design. This design should be [303]
[304]absolutely precise. And since in it the future employment of each thread must be constantly foreseen, it is quite impossible to compose a Cluny lace pattern without a knowledge of the technique of that lace (sketch y).

Sometimes the general name guipure is given to Cluny, as well as to all laces made with continuous thread which have not a mesh base.

---