Embroidery: this will have subtle details and the finest of hand embroidered doilies are usually of average quality.
Drawnwork: with dated pieces that go back in time about one hundred years or so, this has showed us that the styles and workmanship have changed very little. The quality of the fabric is very important. This is because the threads are exposed to wear, so the base fabric must be woven very tightly with good quality thread.
Crochet: the most common technique and the earliest examples found in the middle of the nineteenth century.
Needle Lace: the smallest and simplest thread is worked, and with this the lace makers can paint a picture stitch by stitch.
Normandy Lace: a simple patchwork of different laces all sewn together, known as Normandy. This was popular around the turn of the last century. These were all machine laces with values depending on the attractiveness of the actual patchwork and the neatness of the stitching.
Bobbin Lace: an off-loom weaving with only three basic thread manipulations. Each country in Europe with each generation of these countries, have devised their very own style of weaving bobbin lace for hundreds of years.
Filet: this is considered a very easy technique, which is the darning over a hand-knotted net. Animals and mythological figures such as cupids and angels have the most value.
Machine Lace: by the end of the nineteenth century, the machines copied filet laces, needle laces, crochet and many styles of bobbin lace. Chemical lace is formed by machine, embrodiering a design over a substrate that later is chemially dissolved away, leaving the lock-stitched embroidery as a piece of lace.
Tape Lace (Battenberg): almost all tape lace doilies were homemade, crafted from patterns offered in Sears Roebuck's catalog or any of the craft magazines and pattern books available to the late nineteenth and early twentieth century homemaker. Tape lace originated as a shortcut version of needle weaving stitches, chances are its value is purely as a short-term use and enjoyed decoration.
Cutwork: silhouetting a design by cutting away the background is a simple technique and one that has been done for centuries nearly everywhere in the world. Identifying the origins of cutwork is difficult, unless the style and technique both are distinctive. Look for precise hand stitching, especially buttonhole stitches, surrounding cut holes, and a firm tightly woven fabric that can hold the stitches and resists raveling.
Go To Page: 1 2
