Flowery machine lace edging

This is a good imitation of bobbin lace, but various parts are made in a different way, which shows that is is machine lace.

Scroll to bottom of page for further explanation (or click here).

This lace came from my aunt Margaret Packe (nee Drake). She said that the older pieces came from her grandmother, Ellen Buchanan (nee Barwise) born 1868.

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Large scale

Reasons why this is machine lace

The difference between the two sides is not so obvious as in some examples, but it is there if you look for it (left and centre are different sides).This example also starts and ends the gimp in the same way, with a small overlap and cut ends (centre and right). In bobbin lace the gimp would be started very neatly, and would end with a bigger overlap.

While the worker and passive threads in the cloth stitch are the same thickness, they aren't evenly balanced. There are more worker rows than passive columns.

This is the headside. The single picots do not matter, as bobbin lace picots are often single. However, the 'cloth stitch' is a mess. There is no weaving effect at all, as there should be.

The picots are also made of thicker threads than the rest, and they are not made by the worker threads from the cloth stitch - they stay at the edge.

In this 'tally' in machine ground, the worker thread is a much thicker thread which is introduced just for the tally, and cut off at the end of it.

This footside has a single thread at the edge, with a thinner thread wound round it. There are a pair of threads as passives, worked in cloth stitch. Bobbin lace always has more than one pair of threads as cloth stitch passives.

Although there is more than one thickness of thread here, the tension is better than some laces, so the lace does not look coggled. The narrowness of the cloth stich passives is the best clue at first glance.