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Bobbin Lace Tools

© Lori Howe

Before you can make lace you will need some basic tools. Lace is made in several ways but this article will concentrate on Bobbin Lace and the tools needed to create it. The bobbins of course are one of the most important tools and the type of bobbins generally depends on the type of lace. Torchon, Bedfordshire and Bucks Point laces for instance work the whole width of the lace back and forth and require few if any sewings (connecting two sections of lace together by sewing through loops made by the bobbins) and can thus have decorative weight at the bottom of the bobbins. These are usually glass beads, and when several of them are strung together in a loop they form spangles. Non-continuous bobbin lace on the other hand, like Bruges, Duchess and Flemish Laces, have many "sewings" and use a different type of bobbin with a thicker end for the weight needed to hold the thread taught.

Each country has it's own style of bobbin depending on the style of lace, and thickness of thread used. The heavier bobbins tend to work best with the heavier threads and lighter bobbins with finer thread, the smallest being the Honiton bobbin. For more information on bobbins and their history visit Bobrian's Bobbin Website at http://homepages.infoseek.com/~bobbinbri...

Another important tool in bobbin Lacemaking is the pillow. This is a form that is usually firmly packed with hay or straw and covered with fabric in order to hold pins upright. The threads are then wrapped around the pins to form the appropriate lace design. These pillows take on different shapes as well, depending on the country of origin and type of lace made. A "mushroom" or "cookie" pillow is a good pillow for making motifs and doilies while a "roller" or "bolster" pillow is best for making lengths of lace trim. There are old and new variations of each of these styles and even many ways of holding or supporting them up. Some pillows are held in the lap and others on tables or stands. Some are held in baskets while others are propped between lap and table. There are nearly as many pillow types as there are bobbin types.

I mentioned pins previously but here is a little more about them. They are usually the flat head types, as they allow the largest visibility of the lace and pattern beneath. They come in different sizes which vary also depending on the type of lace being made. The pattern is made from a piece of card weight paper. On it is drawn a dot where each pin is to be located. Many patterns only have these dots while others show lines between the dots where threads are to be intertwined. Before the pattern is pinned to the pillow it is usually "pricked", in other words the hole is made where each pin will go. It is much easier to get the pins in the lace while it is being made, if the hole is made beforehand. These patterns are then called prickings. They are frequently printed on blue card or covered with blue film to make the usually white lace easier to see. In the early days of lacemaking the white paper patterns with white lace above, made it very hard to see and contributed to lacemaker blindness.

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